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Reply to Tony Lee "9/11: Fact or Fiction?"
December 3, 2013
Category: Society > Government and Politics
Tony Lee is proselytizing for a conspiracy theory that 9/11 was in fact carried out by some unnamed US organization and that the collapse of Building 7 and the two World Trade Center buildings was the result of controlled demolition and not the plane strikes. There is an abundance of fact-based evidence, validated by respected professionals, that indicates this is simply not true.
Tom Clancy laid out the scenario of using a plane as a bomb in his book Debt of Honor, written in the mid-1990’s, describing just how much damage such an impact and subsequent jet-fuel fire could cause. While Clancy claimed that no one in the FBI or the Pentagon would pay any attention to this idea at the time, someone on Bin Laden’s staff did. Actually, there was substantial strengthening of the external walls of the Pentagon that started in the 1990’s, so I would infer that, contrary to Clancy’s claim, someone at the Pentagon did indeed pay attention.
The architect of the World Trade Center buildings was interviewed immediately after 9/11. He said that he knew at once that the towers would collapse, as the external ribs were essential to structural integrity and the intense heat of the burning jet fuel would weaken the internal steel structure to the point of failure. Multiple articles in the days that followed went into technical detail as to why and how the collapse happened. This was not controversial.
Regarding the Pentagon strike, rather than Google “no plane at the Pentagon Jamie Mcintyre,” instead Google “no plane at the Pentagon on 9/11” and read the first article on Snopes.com which demolishes that part of the conspiracy theory. And the final plane, headed for a White House strike, crashed in Pennsylvania as passengers fought the hijackers for control of the plane. That was well documented through cell phone conversations. While the identity of one of those hijackers is in doubt, as Tony’s reference points out, there is no doubt that those on the plane are not “alive and well”.
Building 7 seems to be less straightforward, with the delayed collapse caused by sprinkler systems out of commission and extended office fires, and this is the one substantive part of the 9/11 conspiracy theory. The Building Research group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), who have great expertise in analyzing structural failures, studied that building collapse in detail and announced that no explosives were involved. I believe the conclusions of the NIST scientists have greater validity than the conclusions of the conspiracy theorists.
The conspiracy theory about 9/11 started in the Middle East: Israel did it to get the US to invade and destroy Arab countries, and the reason so few were killed was that the Jews had been warned to stay away from work that day. That was immediately ‘Gospel’ on the Arab Street according to Friedman and others. A book by Meyssan in France blamed it instead on the US Government rather than Israel. Then the “9/11 Truth” video pops up, expanding on that theme. I believe this is all fiction, created by various groups which have their own agendas, particularly those blaming the US Government for creating an excuse to attack and invade Afghanistan and Iraq.
Conspiracy theories are like religions: if you believe, they are true; if you do not believe, they are not true. I am a non-believer. I also am sure we landed on the moon and I don’t think there are any aliens hidden in Area 51 and I don’t believe the Trilateral Commission secretly runs the world governments and I don’t believe that the Castro had Kennedy killed, but there are those who, like Tony, have signed up for these theories and believe they are absolute truth.