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AN_INCONTINENT_TRUTH


                                             October 4, 2006

This weekend I realized that
a friend of mine took the
"9/11 Truth Movement" guys        (You know the Truthies, right?
somewhat seriously...             They're into ideas like:
                                  planted-explosives must have
                                  taken out the World Trade
                                  Center, a few plane crashes
I was a little suprised by        alone *couldn't* have done it).
that, because I'd heard the
"Loose Change" guys debated by
the "Popular Mechanics"
people, and while the Pop            (On "Democracy Now!".)
Mechanics guys did not come
off as very scintillating, the
"Loose Change" folks seemed
like classic nutjobs...

These are the guys who like to
coldly repeat Facts like "jet
fuel doesn't burn hot enough
to melt steel".

You don't have to look into
this much to turn up the
counter-arguments to that one:

   (1) it doesn't have to *melt*
       it, just weaken it

   (2) there *are* reasons that
       they require thermal                (And the quality of the
       insulation on steel supports.       thermal insulation used
                                           on the WTC is an open
But anyway, since I met someone            question, I would say...)
who seemed to think that there
was something significant about
the Building 7 collapse I spent
a good chunk of the time the
other day reading up on the            Not such an easy task, really.
Truthies and digging around for        Every published criticism of
rebuttals                              the "Movement" produces a
                                       firestorm of indignant whining
   What I found:                       from the entire crew, and they
                                       are absolute *masters* of the
   Building 7 went down                "google bomb": their own
   after burning for many              rebuttals always get top billing.
   hours... It had debri
   rained down on from the
   other collapses.  Why
   does this seem so weird?

   Even if you argue it should've
   been able to take it, why
   postulate thermite charges when      Much is made of the
   you can easily explain it by,        remark "I guess we'll     Could it
   for example, sub-standard            have to pull it",         be he meant
   thermal insulation on a corrupt      which is supposed to      "pull out"
   government construction job?         be demolition expert      and misspoke
                                        lingo...                  (or was
                                                                  misheard)?
                                         This would seem          Naaahh...
                                         more significant
                                         if anyone
                                         speaking were
                                         demolition experts.

                                              It's hard to get
                                              the scenario to make
                                              sense as any sort of
                                              conspiracy...  why
                                              was it necessary to
   I note that there are some                 order it "pulled" if
   schisms in "The Truth                      that was the nefarious
   Movement", in particular                   scheme all along?
   there are complaints about                 Why would you talk about
   so many of the critics                     it in public?  Why not
   focusing on the "not hot                   use code?
   enough to melt" factoid.
                                                 SKEPTIC_MOLE
   It is evidently not fair to
   regard this particular
   argument as representative            It's not clear to me what
   of The Movement...                    is supposed to be a
                                         representative argument.

And at least one                            There was some short-selling
fellow insists                              of airline stock before hand,
that the "Loose                             but the counter-claim is that
Change" guys are                            this is traceable back to a
part of a                                   single investment newsletter.
conspiracy to      I couldn't
make the "Truth    make one up                            (June 21, 2007)
Movement" look     better than              More recently, I've come
bad.               that.                    across the argument that
                                            there were multiple war
                                            game exercises scheduled
                                            for that day that tangled
                                            things up enough to prevent
                                            interception of the
                                            hijacked planes.

                                                Even if this is all
                                                correct, it's difficult
                                                to see why you would
                                                assume it was planned
    But any way, here's                         that way...
    another item for the
    "grimly amusing" file:                      I've heard the factoid
                                                hyped that there wasn't
    This entire debate takes                    just *one*, but *many*
    place on the grounds of                     training exercises
    technical plausibility.                     scheduled at the same
                                                time... but so?
    No one ever seems to say:    
    "It is absurd to think                      Even if that's a weird
    that our fine, upstanding                   state of affairs --
    leaders would be willing                    and I have no idea if
    to kill innocent                            it is, or even if the
    civilians for political                     claim is accurate --
    reasons".                                   "providing cover for
                                                the bad guys" would
                                                only be *one* possible
                                                explanation.

                                                     You want another?
                                                     Maybe the various
                                                     warnings of possible
                                                     terrorist attack were
                                                     starting to filter into
                                                     the institutional brain
                                                     of the military, so
                                                     they were stepping up
                                                     their readiness
   "On August 6, 2001, the CIA delivered             exercises and thereby
   its daily briefing to President Bush at           shot themselves in the
   his ranch in Crawford, Texas, with the            foot.
   headline 'Bin Laden determined to           
   strike in U.S.,' ..." -- Chalmers                     (Far-fetched, eh?)
   Johnson, "Dimantling the Empire" (2010)     
                                               
                                              


   
                                          
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