Debunking 9/11 myths: why conspiracy theories can't stand up to the facts (Popular Mechanics book)

Popular Mechanics website ^ | August 4th, 2006 | David Dunbar & Brad Reagan

[ajolympian2004]

(New book from Popular Mechanics just released August 15, 2006)

Introduction

The first conspiracy theories about 9/11 began to emerge while the wreckage was still smoldering. As evidence accumulated that conclusively linked the hijackings to Al Qaeda, some self-proclaimed skeptics searched for alternative explanations. Many seemed driven to find a way to blame the United States for somehow abetting, or even orchestrating, the tragedy.

In the years since the attacks, these assertions have grown progressively more lurid and pervasive. If you search the phrase “9/11 conspiracy” on the Internet, you will discover more than 800,000 Web pages. A few skeptics make a responsible effort to sift through the mountain of available information, but a vast majority ignore all but a few stray details they think support their theories. In fact, many conspiracy advocates demonstrate a double standard. They distrust the mainstream media coverage and government sponsored investigations of 9/11, yet they cherry-pick from those same sources to promote their extreme notions: that the hijacked planes weren’t commercial jets, but military aircraft, cruise missiles, or remote-control drones; that the World Trade Center buildings were professionally demolished; that American air defenses were deliberately shut down; and more.

Increasingly, such beliefs are migrating from the fringes and into the mainstream. French author Thierry Meyssan’s The Big Lie, which argues that the U.S. military used one of its own guided missiles to attack the Pentagon, was a bestseller in France, and his claims have been widely repeated in European and Middle Eastern media. When Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to President George W. Bush in May 2006, his rambling missive included broad hints that the American government was involved in organizing the attacks. Allegations of American complicity in 9/11 have become standard fare on talk radio, and among both radical left- and radical right-wing groups. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat from Georgia, has held a Capitol Hill hearing on the topic. Celebrities have gotten into the act as well. “Why did Bush knock down the towers?” rapper Jadakiss asked in his 2004 hit “Why?” And, in an interview with conspiracy-oriented talk-show host Alex Jones, actor Charlie Sheen embraced a variety of popular conspiracy theories.

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion,” Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York was fond of saying. “He is not entitled to his own facts.” Sooner or later, even the wildest 9/11 theories rely on factual claims. And facts can be checked.

Popular Mechanics became involved in investigating 9/11 conspiracy theories in the fall of 2004, after an advertisement ran in the New York Times for the book Painful Questions by Eric Hufschmid, demanding that the 9/11 investigation be reopened. Hufschmid’s book includes a number of tangible claims regarding 9/11. It states, for example, that because jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel, the fires in the World Trade Center towers could not have caused their collapse. And it claims ample evidence exists to show that demolition-style explosives were prepositioned in the buildings.

As editors of a magazine devoted to science and technology, we saw these claims as significant. Was there hard evidence to support them? And, if so, what would be the implications for our understanding of 9/11? At the very least, we thought, someone should look into these allegations. If there were even a hint of truth to these or similar claims, then the conspiracy theorists had a point: There should be a deeper investigation.

Parts 2, 3 and 4 here -
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/3491861.html?page=1&c=y

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Book blog site - (summary, book excerpts, etc.)
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blog/911mythsblog

Forward by John McCain -
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/3491861.html?page=3&c=y

At Amazon -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158816635X/sr=8-1/qid=1155720312

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Famous Daniel Moynihan quote (former Senator from New York) -
"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. He is not entitled to his own facts."

[angkor]

"I couldn't find the site where I read this, but I remember that they printed witness statements of the Pentagon attack."

You might have read it here on FR, I've posted this information previously.

I believe this is the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/sep01/attack.html

[ocr1]

Did your friend question that conspiracy garbage she watched after your talk?

[steve8714]

just another administration shill, bought and paid for by Halliburton money, blah blah> sarcasm off

[Ueriah]

She had questions that I wasn't able to address beyond the "What these people are saying makes ABSOLUTELY no sense!" standpoint. IE she had mirrored some BS data about the tempature of steel melting, etc, etc. I told her, "Listen, I should never be able to poke you, because when I move my finger to poke you, it's always half the distance closer, and since it's always half the distance it never actually touches, yet.... *poke poke*".

Curious to see her reaction to the scientific data from PM.

[mvpel]

I heard it said that what the 9/11 conspiracy belief comes right down to, in many cases, is a nearly religious belief on the part of many people that the government is powerful and competent.

It's the same kind of belief that motivated the Red Army to overthrow the Russian monarchy and impose Communism across a vast swath of the world - this blind faith that if only the RIGHT people were in charge, if only the SMART people were in charge (namely, THEM), the force of government could be turned to noble ends and capably and efficiently solve all of society's problems.

We see this same impulse behind HillaryCare, the TSA, and so on.

They believe that the government was responsible for 9/11 because if they accepted reality that government is a stupid, blind giant, blundering along and smashing whatever it comes across, then their dreams of a government-imposed utopia fall to ashes.

They are forced to believe that the government was smart enough, and capable enough, to pull of a 9/11 conspiracy, because otherwise how in the world could they expect their dream of nationalized health care to work?

[knews_hound]

I often point sceptics to this PM article and it is very effective.

BTTT

Cheers,

knewshound

Latest article; Flooding the Zone; The coming war against Israel

[BlueDragon]

WaPo eyewitness report placemarker

[Rate_Determining_Step]

I just bought that book. It's well done. Living in Seattle, there are more than a couple of moonbats that subscribe to these sick theories that the government had a role in the tragedies.

[american spirit]

After hearing the NORAD tapes, I find it astounding that despite the untold $ we spend on defense (as well as training)our E.coast was so unprotected that day as well as the fact that the personnel seemed so clueless on how to react when it was established the planes had been hijacked.

[pepsionice]

The amusing thing here is that Popular Mechanics is written by a bunch of guy who sit on a sofa in their garage and discuss world events, with a mechanical view of events...either it works or it doesn't. As for this article...they took apart most of the myths surrounding 9-11. The idiots who keep these myths alive don't have much to support their ideas and its more of a Elvis thing now.

[GeorgiaYankee]

She probably saw "Loose Change", an incredibly inept example of quote-mining and cherry-picking. You can see it on Google Video, if you must.


Here's a humorous response:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=911_morons

and another funny site mocking Loose Change

http://loosetrains911.blogspot.com/

and here are some more serious sites that debunk the conspiracy nuts

http://www.911myths.com/index.html

http://www.debunking911.com/index.html

http://911conspiracysmasher.blogspot.com/

http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/

Perhaps the most damning words against these guys comes from their own statements.
Watch "9/11 Deniers Speak" on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uFNBpjZCI4

[ladyinred]

Yes, there were witnesses who saw the plane going into the Pentagon. But it doesn't play into the lefts power grab at any cost, so they debunk it. I have seen the wildest theories on the net about the government kidnapping the people on the plane, loading them into buses and taking them to God knows where. There are those who want to believe the worst about the President after 6 years of hatred from the left bombarding the world's airwaves. They are stomping on the blood of those who died that day.

[mandingo republican]

Well, we can debunk all we want - with well thought of explanations to what happened, using science and engineering fact - but there will still be those wack jobs that hate Bush so much that in turn will say that the Popular Mechanic's study was authored by the CIA and the Bush administration to further dupe the masses. Like finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - the wacks will say that they were planted their by Halliburton or the the Illuminati or the Easter Bunny when he works on the side for the CIA.

Then there is the conspiracy of the thousands of Jews told on 9/11 not to come to work.

"Come in, come all Jews, this is central Mossad headquarters, do not, I repeat do not go into work if you work in the World Trade on 9/11!"

LOL - but there are folks - especially in the Middle East that believe this.

[sono]

Penn and Teller concluded that the 9-11 conspiracy theories are just

[Elyse]

She probably saw "Loose Change", an incredibly inept example of quote-mining and cherry-picking. You can see it on Google Video, if you must.

This is a video that debunks the Loose Change video. It's excellent and rather than waste your time watching the Loose Change video you should just watch this one because it follows the video along and pauses to debunk each point the video makes. It's a little long, but excellent viewing.

Click on Videos in the left hand corner to watch the 3 part video

http://www.lolloosechange.co.nr/

[GeorgiaYankee]

http://www.lolloosechange.co.nr/

I just watched the whole thing. I'd seen parts of it before on youtube.com called "9/11 Deniers Speak" by MarkyX (Mark Iridian) Her does a great job of using their own words to prove what a bunch of liars or idiots they are (or both).
They say they respect the victims and their families, but when they're doing interviews w friendly Moonbat hosts, they MOCK the victims and their families.

These guys are sick.

[GeorgiaYankee]

there are folks - especially in the Middle East that believe this.

________________________

unfortunately there are a lot of people who are starting to believe this crap here in the US-- mostly young guys in their 20's.

They're beyond Bush-hating. They believe Clinton was in on it too. One of the producers believes the Apollo moon landings were faked and Pearl Harbor was an inside job.

[Ueriah]

Thank you for this - forwarded to my liberal ex-girlfriend. I think she was a little skeptical of the 911 conspiracy theory - she was one of those rare libs with an iota of common sense - but hopefully this should help her understand the science.

I finally had a chance to look at the Loose Change video and must admit that I am really beyond appalled. I'm pissed, I'm angry. These people are making things up to try to be relevent.

[GeorgiaYankee]

A paper by a demolitions expert blows away the "controlled demolition" theory.

http://www.implosionworld.com/WTC%20COLLAPSE%20STUDY%20BBlanchard%208-8-06.pdf

found here:

http://911conspiracysmasher.blogspot.com/2006/08/implosion-world-more-facts-for.html

He says that since the buildings failed at the planes' point of impact, the demo charges would have to have been planted there.

If they were planted there ahead of time, the planes' impact would have:
1. dislodged them or even ejected them from the building
2. burned them or the remote detonators up
3. caused them to explode prematurely

Unless you believe that guys were runnning around AFTER the planes hit planting demolition charges in burning buildings! (in less than an hour for tower 2)

Because of this, some of these nuts say NO PLANES hit the WTC at all! (The NO PLANES THEORY)
The planes were special effects inserted live on all the TV networks at the same time, or they we holograms projected by secret govt technology!
Cue the Twilight Zone theme music!

[Elyse]

http://www.lolloosechange.co.nr/

**They say they respect the victims and their families, but when they're doing interviews w friendly Moonbat hosts, they MOCK the victims and their families.**

One of the things that made me sickest was that they just throw out moonbat crap likes it's a fact and they have no real facts to back it up! They NEVER talk to an expert on any subject! They just talk to raving moonbats like themselves who aren't even qualified to give an expert opinion on the subject. These are the people who think they have superior intellect and they can't even properly research a subject and present a factual documentary.