Screw Loose Change

Hasta la Vista Infowars

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 16:59:00 +0000

I know we don't post much anymore, so the blog is pretty much defunct, but we did outlast Alex Jones and Infowars!

The Onion wins Alex Jones' Infowars in bankruptcy auction
The satirical news company plans to shutter Jones’ Infowars and rebuild the website featuring well-known internet humor writers and content creators, according to a person with knowledge of the sale.

Korey Rowe Plus Twenty

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 18:37:00 +0000

The Washington Post has a surprisingly long and sympathetic look back at one of the Loose Change triplets, Korey Rowe, and his difficulties and challenges. Hopefully he gets his life together.

Looking back, Korey could see a fairly straight line between his wartime trauma, the distrust it elicited and the 9/11 Truth conspiracy theories he embraced. He also recalled in particular how “Fahrenheit 9/11,” the 2004 antiwar documentary by Michael Moore, shifted his thinking about the conflicts and his own role in them.

“That’s what led me to ‘Loose Change,’” he added. “People are surprised when they talk to me now and I’m not a crazy conspiracy theorist. But I’m not. I wasn’t into conspiracy theories before ‘Loose Change’ and I’m not into conspiracy theories now.”

The story Korey and his friends told through the videos — twisted with inaccuracy and fantasy as they were — felt like an act of reclamation. Helping Dylan brought a sense of control in a world that felt increasingly uncertain, not to mention a deep sense of camaraderie, Korey said. Slowly, from that crucible of conspiracy theories, he also began to aspire to make movies. Something good from something bad.

9/11 + 20 Looks Back on Loose Change

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 15:42:00 +0000

On the twentieth anniversary, a look back on former Truthers.

“Loose Change was highly influential, because video is the most effective form of indoctrination and propaganda,” Mr Kay said.
Up until then, “it was generally understood that that high-quality video propaganda was too expensive for ordinary people to create, and required too much in the way of specialized skills”, but “Loose Change showed people that an ideologically dedicated group of non-professionals now had access to desktop technology that would allow them to produce an effective propaganda film without spending a lot of money, or even creating much in the way of original footage”.

Esquire Looks Back at Loose Change

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 23:57:00 +0000

Fifteen years later (can you believe it's been that long) Esquire takes a look back at the unfortunate legacy of Loose Change. Don't say we didn't warn you.

To truly understand how we’ve arrived at this place, we need to go back 15 years and revisit Loose Change, the first time a fringe Internet conspiracy theory percolated to the highest echelons of our cultural and political institutions.

Released on April 13, 2005, by Dylan Avery, a 21-year-old amateur filmmaker, Loose Change was a “documentary” that posited a radical thesis:

Permanent Top Post--Scroll Down for Newer Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 20:39:00 +0000

(Note: The date on this post is intentional; it keeps this post pinned to the top. Thanks for asking!).

11/11/07 Update: Loose Change Final Cut has just been released and so we have not prepared a full debunking. Both James and I have many comments about the movie below and I started a thread over at JREF with some examples of mistakes in the film. Much of the rest of the information in this particular post concerns the earlier versions of Loose Change.

Because this blog is getting so much traffic from Google searches and referrals from various forums and Wikipedia, we decided to put one post up top to link to information our newest visitors are apparently looking for.

First, if you have not seen the film and want to watch it, be sure to watch the annotated version, which was named after this blog, Screw Loose Change. The creator did a terrific job on this, and we strongly recommend watching this version rather than Dylan Avery's cut.

James has put together a list of major lies in Loose Change. Here's Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.

I compiled three very easily refuted lies in the movie. I also showed three tricks and distortions that are used throughout the film.

A friend of the blog named Mark Roberts (aka Gravy at the JREF forums) compiled this amazing Viewer's Guide to Loose Change, (now HTML) which includes a complete transcript of the movie, pictures and links that refute many of the claims, and which highlights the changes between Version 1 and Version 2.

The hot new film in 9-11 Denial is called 9-11 Mysteries. One of our JREF buddies, The Doc, has put together a rebuttal video called (you guessed it!) Screw 9-11 Mysteries, and assembled a viewers' guide to 9-11 Mysteries.

Many 9-11 Deniers focus on the collapse of World Trade Center 7, which fell at 5:20 PM on September 11, almost seven hours after the North Tower. If you want a really detailed analysis of WTC 7, I recommend Mark Robert's WTC 7 and the Lies of the 9/11 Truth Movement. I also recommend the BBC's terrific video on The Third Tower.

If you'd like to discuss the ideas about 9-11 you've encountered here or elsewhere, another friend of the blog started a Screw Loose Change Forum. It's a very lively place with lots of opinion back and forth between both sides. There's also a Screw Loose Change MySpace page, with some animated commentary. Of course, we also welcome comments on our posts.

If you're looking for detailed rebuttals of other aspects of 9-11 Denial, I heartily recommend 9-11 Myths, Debunking 9-11 and Internet Detectives.

Markyx has also put together a video (note: graphic images and strong language) called 9-11 Deniers Speak. If you think Dylan Avery and Jim Fetzer have any respect for the victims of 9-11, just watch this film. There are five parts. Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V.
There's also a Google Video which is all in one part.

This should be enough to get you started debunking Loose Change to your friends. We have a lot more content below this post.

Notes on unusual terms/abbreviations: Looser (not a misspelling of Loser)=Believer in Loose Change. CT=Conspiracy Theory, Conspiracy Theorist. Truther=9-11 Conspiracy Theorist (all Loosers are Truthers, not all Truthers are Loosers). OS=Official Story. CD= Controlled Demoliton. LIHOP: Let It Happen On Purpose; theory that the government knew the 9-11 attacks were coming but allowed them to happen to further other goals of theirs. MIHOP: Made It Happen On Purpose; theory that the government planned and orchestrated the attacks. Most Truthers are MIHOP.

Update: Comments closed on this post, which is intended solely as a pointer. Because Haloscan will not let us close comments on a particular post, be forewarned: Don't leave a comment in this post or it will be deleted.

Update II: Note on comments: Because some of our commenters have chosen to act like children, we are no longer allowing comments.

The World Trade Center Memorial

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 05:08:00 +0000

After all these years I finally got the opportunity to visit the Ground Zero and the World Trade Center Memorial. Thankfully, it was completely free of Truthers. I guess they died out years ago. The memorial was rather striking, and I must confess to a few tears while gazing over the names. The museum was also well worth visiting.

Truther Dating Advice

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 21:10:00 +0000

Apparently there are Truthers still out there and they are trying to reproduce. Who knew?

Q. Conspiracy theories: My cousin recently set me up on a date with a really great guy that she knew from work. At first, I was hesitant to go on a date with him as he is 43 and I am 27, however I decided to give him a chance and I was really glad I did. He’s smart, funny, and easy to hang out with. I am also very attracted to him physically. The only bad thing, so far, is that during a text conversation, he alluded to believing that 9/11 was an inside job. At first I thought he was joking, but further questions revealed that he was not. We discussed it in person the next time we met up, and he was joking about it with me but didn’t change his stance. Is this a deal breaker? I felt bad afterward because I was basically making fun of him to his face not realizing he actually believed what he was saying.

John Oliver on Alex Jones

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 02:51:00 +0000

HBO's John Oliver does an extended piece on our old friend Alex Jones. Pretty funny, but content warning, some of it does get a little... err... anatomical. Hey, it is HBO.

Alex Jones: Narcissist?

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 04:02:00 +0000

In the continuing saga of the Alex Jones custody trial that Pat touched upon earlier, the issue of Mr. Jones's mental disorders was brought up. Now my admittedly amateur diagnosis was Bipolar Disorder, but apparently the professionals thought otherwise:

Infowars founder Alex Jones was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder in a psychiatric evaluation, the divorce case manager confirmed during his custody trial in Austin on Wednesday. Austin psychologist Alissa Sherry said that a different doctor compiled the report, part of what she said was the most time-consuming divorce case she has ever worked. People diagnosed with NPD typically show traits including a lack of empathy, arrogance, and a propensity for grandiose fantasies.

Alex Jones' Lawyers Admit He's Putting On an Act

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 19:51:00 +0000

It's admitted, as Alex would say.

He hasn't come across our radar much in quite awhile, although obviously he has been prominent in his support of Donald Trump's astonishing campaign for the presidency. But Jones was a big-time Truther back in the first decade of this century. I still remember him claiming that James and I worked in the basement of the Pentagon.

There was a video years ago of him going on a tirade, absolutely apoplectic, to the point where you thought he was going to burst into flames. And then he turned to Jason Bermas and gave him a wink.

Turns out that Jones' public persona is going to be used against him in court by his ex-wife in a custody battle. Which has his attorneys scrambling to distance him from the nutty things he says and does.

At a recent pretrial hearing, attorney Randall Wilhite told state District Judge Orlinda Naranjo that using his client Alex Jones’ on-air Infowars persona to evaluate Alex Jones as a father would be like judging Jack Nicholson in a custody dispute based on his performance as the Joker in “Batman.”

“He’s playing a character,” Wilhite said of Jones. “He is a performance artist.”

A couple years back somebody looked his house up online and found it was worth something like $450,000. I didn't use the information partly because I saw it as irrelevant, and partly because it actually seemed like a pretty modest home. Turns out Alex could afford quite a bit more:

Wilhite said the crux of Kelly Jones’ problem is that she has gone through one set of lawyers after another and some $3.5 million since her divorce settlement, much of it pursuing fruitless motion after motion that actually cost her access to her children each step of the way.

And she already receives $43,000 a month from her ex-husband.

Whew!

What's Box Boy Richard Gage Up to These Days?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 23:08:00 +0000

If you check his events page, it looks like "not much" is the answer. The most recent event shown is the 15th anniversary, where Gage shared the stage with Munchkin Barbara Honegger.

But it turns out that the founder of AE911Truth participated in the recent Nation of Islam conference. It's not like Gage to avoid publicizing such events; when he appeared there in 2012 he was certainly crowing about the opportunity to expose Louis Farrakhan's followers to 9-11 Troof.

Back then we bashed him a bit based on inside information we had stating that Boy Wonder Kevin Barrett would be appearing with him. As it turned out, our insider was wrong. Waterboy Kevin Ryan appeared instead.

And indeed, this may give us something of a clue as to why Richard Gage is not anxious to publicize his appearance at the Nation of Islam rally. This time around, not only was he appearing with Kevin "the Holocaust is a hideously destructive myth" Barrett, but also Christopher Bollyn.

Bollyn gave us quite a bit of amusement back in the early days of this blog. Once a reporter for the Holocaust-denying, white separatist rag the American Free Press, Bollyn was an early investigoogler of 9-11 nuttery, with the result that when a more respectable and scholarly-seeming man like David Ray Griffin came along, Bollyn's work was often cited. Indeed, I used to joke that Griffin seemed unable to complete a book without referring to him once or twice.

One afternoon, Bollyn was apparently drinking when he noticed a suspicious looking vehicle parked in his neighborhood. When he confronted the occupants of the vehicle, they apparently freely admitted they were local cops on a stakeout of a nearby residence that they suspected of drug-dealing.

Well, paranoid people are going to be paranoid, and Bollyn assumed that the cops were in fact spying on him. Big altercation, Bollyn assaults a cop, and he's up on charges. He was convicted and probably facing about 90 days in the big house, but he lammed instead.

So this time around, Gage shared the stage with two Holocaust deniers, one of whom may still be a fugitive from justice.

I'm sure he'd much rather we talk about his exciting new NIST whistleblower.

But it's a classic false appeal to authority. As Peter Michael Ketcham himself notes in the video, he did not work on the WTC investigation. He states that he was in the mathematical computations area, which leads me to wonder if we are in for some real deep calculations that prove inside job.

Not to worry. Ketcham's cited evidence has nothing to do with number crunching. It's the usual "symmetrical collapse into its own footprint at near free-fall acceleration." Ketcham is Charlie Sheen with less hair.

Here's Ketcham's Linked-In page. His current occupation?

Mobile application developer currently building a data visualization application for Apple iOS devices with an emphasis on accessibility for disabled users. Other interests include data science, virtual reality environments, haptic technologies, hierarchical data formats, matrix computations, and Swift numeric data types for rational numbers, complex numbers, and quaternions.

Again, if he were questioning the numbers used by NIST he might have some credibility. But he's not, he's just parroting the Truther talking points.

David Ray Griffin Comes Up With a Brilliant Way to Dupe People Into Buying His New Book

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 20:29:00 +0000

Gotta hand it to him, this is a real con artist at work:

Not make it obvious, by means of the title, the cover, or the table of contents--that this is ultimately a 9-11 truth book.

However, you can see the fly rapidly heading towards the ointment in this following sentence:

The hope is that some people, not being aware of my notoriety, read enough of the first part of the book to see that I am not an idiot.

The book sounds like a real stomach--err, page-turner, from the title: Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World. Suck 'em in with the Bush-bashing, and then switch to the 9-11 nuttery once you've got them all in a lather. BTW, I suspect that even the Bush-haters will have problems with this part:

... American and the world are headed towards ruination because of the policies of the Bush-Cheney Administration--as continued in most cases by the Obama Administration...

Gee, wonder why it's not the Obama-Biden administration? Maybe because nobody thinks of Biden as the evil genius pulling the strings of the Obama puppet?

Jill Stein Goes for the Crackpot Vote

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Sep 2016 20:42:00 +0000

With a call for a new 9-11 investigation, which contains the usual BS talking points:

The families and friends of those who were murdered on 9/11 deserve justice. They also deserve to know the truth.
Led by the families of those who died on 9/11, the American people wanted—and deserved—a comprehensive and independent inquiry into the attacks. The Bush administration initially said an inquiry was unnecessary, claiming that the perpetrators had been identified and their methods and motives were clear.
It is well known that the 9/11 Commission produced a report containing so many omissions and distortions that Harper's Magazine described it as "whitewash as public service"—a document that "defrauds the nation." The co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission wrote a book just two years after the final commission report, saying, "We were set up to fail." The 9/11 Commission was not given enough money, time, or access to relevant classified information.

The usual misreading of what Kean and Hamilton really said:

"Both of us were aware of grumbling around Washington that the 9/11 Commission was doomed--if not designed--to fail: the commission would splinter down partisan lines; lose its credibility by leaking classified information; be denied the necessary access to do its job; or alienate the 9/11 families who had fought on behalf of its creation. What we could not have anticipated were the remarkable people and circumstances that would coalesce within and around the 9/11 Commission over the coming twenty months to enable our success."

From what I have seen, the Rebunkers seem to be on Trump's side; probably because he's been friendly with Alex Jones. I suspect that this will help Stein get Jon Gold's support.

Jones & Company Beclown the Europhysics News

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 18:40:00 +0000

In terms of our usual metric, TTFLMO (time to first lie, mistake or omission) this one actually does pretty well; it is almost three paragraphs into the article. Talking about why high-rise buildings usually do not collapse due to fires, they write:

2) Most high-rises have fire suppression systems (water sprinklers), which further prevent a fire from releasing sufficient energy to heat the steel to a critical failure state;

True enough as far as it goes, but it omits one critical detail: when WTC-2 (the South Tower) collapsed, it took the water mains with it, and thus there were no sprinklers running in WTC-1 and WTC-7 to prevent the fires from spreading. As a practical matter, I suspect that the sprinklers in WTC-1 and WTC-2 were already not functioning after the plane impacts, but even if they were they would have been insufficient to put out the massive fires in those two buildings.

But after that, the errors and omissions abound. Next paragraph:

3) Structural members are protected by fireproofing materials, which are designed to prevent them from reaching failure temperatures within specified time periods; and

Ignores the obvious, which is that the impact of the plane debris stripped away a good deal of the fireproofing. This is the usual Truther nonsense of focusing solely on the fires and not considering the enormous energy released by the two 757s (correction: 767s) when they hit the two towers.

4) Steel-framed high-rises are designed to be highly redundant structural systems. Thus, if a localized failure occurs, it does not result in a disproportionate collapse of the entire structure.

Which ignores the unusual tube-in-tube design of the towers, which were not as capable of shifting the enormous loads they encountered on 9-11 as conventional skyscrapers.

The total collapse of WTC 7 at 5:20 PM on 9/11, shown in Fig. 2, is remarkable because it exemplified all the signature features of an implosion: The building dropped in absolute free fall for the first 2.25 seconds of its descent over a distance of 32 meters or eight stories [3]. Its transition from stasis to free fall was sudden, occurring in approximately one-half second. It fell symmetrically straight down. Its steel frame was almost entirely dismembered and deposited mostly inside the building’s footprint, while most of its concrete was pulverized into tiny particles. Finally, the collapse was rapid, occurring in less than seven seconds.

All the signature features of an implosion? Sorry, Dr Jones, but I have watched quite a few controlled demolition implosions of buildings before and there were several missing from WTC-7's collapse on 9-11:

1. No deafening explosions of the shaped charges which (Jones admits) are usually used in controlled demolitions.

2. No prior removal of the glass and other materials which might impede the collapse (not to mention the belongings inside the buiding.

3. No miles of detonation cord as is commonly used to ensure the simultaneous (or nearly) loss of load-bearing supports to the building.

And of course, when it comes to the towers, the usual focus on why the NIST report didn't go past the moment that collapse became inevitable:

Whereas NIST did attempt to analyze and model the collapse of WTC 7, it did not do so in the case of the Twin Towers. In NIST’s own words, “The focus of the investigation was on the sequence of events from the instant of aircraft impact to the initiation of collapse for each tower....this sequence is referred to as the ‘probable collapsesequence,’ although it includes little analysis of the structural behaviour of the tower after the conditions for collapse initiation were reached and collapse became inevitable.”[5]

Gee, I don't know, maybe it's because the collapse became, you know, inevitable? After that, there are too many variables to really measure, but it doesn't really matter.

Thus, the definitive report on the collapse of the Twin Towers contains no analysis of why the lower sections failed to arrest or even slow the descent of the upper sections—which NIST acknowledges “came down essentially in free fall” [5-6]—nor does it explain the various other phenomena observed during the collapses. When a group of petitioners filed a formal Request for Correction asking NIST to perform such analysis, NIST replied thatit was “unable to provide a full explanation of the total collapse” because “the computer models [were] not able to converge on a solution.”

If NIST really acknowledges that the Twin Towers came down "essentially in free fall" then bad on them. As for why the lower sections failed to arrest (they did slow) the descent of the upper floors, it is blindingly obvious: The floors were connected to the exterior and central columns of the building. As the weight from above collapsed on each floor, it pulled in on the connections until they snapped on the exterior. Very quickly the exterior portions of the building peeled away from the floors, leaving nothing to support them. This is why you can see, in aerial photographs of the devastation, large sections of the exterior walls virtually intact.

The references section contains four footnotes from JONES, and one from the ridiculous Bentham paper. I hope that there will be some vigorous pushback on this article from the magazine's subscribers.

Denial

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 22:59:00 +0000

Several years ago I posted on Deborah Lipstadt's books Denying the Holocaust and History on Trial, so I am rather excited to see the latter has been made into a movie staring Rachel Weisz. I will be standing in line for this one.

The Twenty Eight Pages

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 04:39:00 +0000

The 28 redacted pages of the Congressional 9/11 Report (not the 9/11 Commission as commonly misunderstood) has been under discussion for several months, now it appears it may finally be released.

Twenty-eight pages of a 2002 Congressional report on the September 11, 2001 terror attacks -- a section which contains information regarding alleged Saudi ties -- will soon be released, a Democratic source confirms to CBS News.
The Obama administration must first decide whether or not to declassify the material, according to the office of House Speaker Paul Ryan. But House and Senate leadership then decides whether or not to release the material, and -- if they do decide to do so -- when and how it will be distributed.
Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, weighed in on the possibility that the White House could declassify the previously redacted pages within the next couple of days.

My prediction. These pages will shockingly show that Islamists on the Arabian Peninsula were behind the 9/11 attacks.

Has It Only Been Ten Years?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 May 2016 11:06:00 +0000

A little more than a decade ago, I was looking for reviews of the then-current movie by Paul Greenglass, United 93. As it happened a few writers for the Huffington Post had been invited to the Tribeca premiere and they wrote glowing reviews of the film. But in the comments section I found numerous references to the internet sensation, Loose Change, which, I was assured would change my life forever.

It was late on a Friday afternoon, and so I watched Loose Change and sure enough it changed my life forever. I wrote a post about it on my main blog, Brainster's:

Let me put this as bluntly as possible. If you believe the vast conspiracy theory of Loose Change, you are a nut. Ignoring for the moment the debunking provided by Popular Mechanics, consider that you would have to believe in a conspiracy involving hundreds of people concerning the biggest news event of this century so far, and that none of these people have come forward.

As it happened, James B, a blogger whom I had cooperated with on a couple posts debunking the NY Times columnist Paul Krugman, sent me an email after my post, suggesting that we collaborate on a blog that he had already started, called Loose Change, Loose Screw. As the marketing genius that I am, I came up with a better title, Screw Loose Change, although I admit, that most people seemed to miss the "Screw Loose" part, and seemed to think that the blog title was only a middle finger to Dylan and the boys.

What came next I certainly never predicted. We ended up with 10,000 hits in our first 24 hours. It turned out that there was a huge public (and media) demand for a site that debunked the ridiculous claims of Loose Change. Within the first few months, either James or I was interviewed on at least a dozen radio programs, including the BBC's World News Today. We were cited in the 9-11 Fifth Anniversary issues of Time and US News and World Report.

In February of 2007, I collaborated with Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times to break the story that a Chandler, Arizona, conference of the 9-11 kooks was being hosted by a holocaust denier named Eric D. Williams. Stephen was kind enough to six months later get me featured on the front cover of the Phoenix New Times, and no, I still haven't lost the beer belly, damnit!

Reflections, ten years later? For starters, timing is everything. Debunking the 9-11 conspiracy theories (and blogging) was hot in 2006, and James and I hopped on top of a wave. We weren't the first (McKinney Sucks), and we weren't the best (Mark (Gravy) Roberts), but we showed up and got lucky.

Nowadays the conspiracy theories about 9-11 have been relegated to the lunatic fringe. I'd like to take credit (along with James B, Gravy and others), but realistically they could never survive any kind of hard scrutiny, and they were doomed with Obama's election in 2008.

Thanks to James B, and thanks to the many other debunkers who have done the hard work. For the most part, I admit I have been Nelson Muntz.

Et Tu, Basile?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 18:50:00 +0000

The Troofers sure seem to be alchemists in reverse; they take gold and turn it into lead. Remember Truth Burn? A metal worker created a 9-11 Truth sign which he was going to burn with thermite at Burning Man. IIRC they raised about $20,000 for that one, and what did he do? Burn some thermite in a can.

Basile seems quite reasonable by comparison. He raised $5000 and what did he do? Well, nothing, as far as I can see:

Mark Basile is no longer associated with the project.
Please do not send any more donations.

No mention of where the money went (or, for that matter, the dust samples). Also no mention of who is still "associated" with the project.

Update: Well, that got results. Now Basile's status reads:

April 26, 2016: "I am working on it. I am doing the best I can."

28 Pages Plus Saudi Lawsuit in the News

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 01:42:00 +0000

There's definitely a linkage between the two stories:

In its report on the still-censored “28 pages” implicating the Saudi government in 9/11, “60 Minutes” last weekend said the Saudi role in the attacks has been “soft-pedaled” to protect America’s delicate alliance with the oil-rich kingdom.

That’s quite an understatement.

Actually, the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.

And the 9-11 Families are hoping that the 28 pages get released because their attempted lawsuit against the Saudi government would undoubtedly get a shot in the arm:

Until now,the Obama administration has so far refused to reveal the contents of the missing pages and looks to be leaving the decision to a Congressional vote.

Speaking to the New York Times, Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband died in the World Trade Center on September 11 said: 'It's stunning to think that our government would back the Saudis over its own citizens.'

Ms. Kleinberg is part of a group of victims' family members pushing for the legislation against the Middle Eastern country, however so far all attempts to sue the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have failed.

I think the Saudi involvement is much less than billed. Osama had some credibility among wealthy Saudis after Soviet-Afghanistan war. and he was able to capitalize on that with his purported charity, the rather innocuously named "Social Services". Some wealthy Saudis, and probably even some royals donated to his group.

But, as Tom Kean pointed out years ago, the usual exhortation to follow the money in this case was useless, because the money involved was peanuts.

The 60 Minutes report is transcribed here. Note this especially annoying part:

Steve Kroft: And when we say, "The Saudis," you mean the government, the--
Bob Graham: I mean--
Steve Kroft: --rich people in the country? Charities--
Bob Graham: All of the above.

Hey, Kroft, shut up for a second after you say "You mean the government." By continuing to talk you weakened the argument being made.

Kroft interviews several of the 9-11 commissioners who are in favor of releasing the report. But, as is typical of advocacy journalism (as compared to real reporting) he omits putting on camera anybody who opposes the release, although he quite obviously paraphrases Philip Zelikow's comments:

Roemer and others who have actually read the 28 pages, describe them as a working draft similar to a grand jury or police report that includes provocative evidence -- some verified, and some not.

I remain in favor of releasing the 28 pages. But the dishonest reporting by 60 Minutes actually makes me less comfortable with that position.

Mark Basile's Study "May" Be Ready This Year

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 23:07:00 +0000

Gotta give the Troofers credit on this one; they have shown the patience of Job for Basile.

I can tell you that Mark will most likely not be giving us regular updates, in the form of little progress reports, as we had initially planned. It just seems as if keeping any kind of schedule is not really an option for Mark, presumably due to time constraints. He did say at some point a few months ago that he was planning to take a little vacation to sort out the study, but that has not happened yet, as far as I know...

It has always been extremely difficult to reach Mark but in recent months he has been even more reclusive than normal, and I suspect that a series of email/phone calling spamming from people I won´t mention is responsible for that.

We will certainly notify our readers whenever we have something...and I would love to be able to give you some sort of a promise for results within a certain time-frame but I will have to refrain given past experience..

Last autumn Mark sounded like he was about to make a big push to get things done but then some things got in the way, and again he indicated to Richard in Boston that he is about to get things done...but still no news.

Personally I am fairly optimistic that he will have results for us this year, but I am not making any promises.

Let's remember that he raised the $5000 needed for the study over 2 years ago. He's going to make NIST's report on Building 7 look rushed.

The Mathematical Improbability of Large Conspiracy Theories

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 18:33:00 +0000

One of the points we have always tried to make here is that although conspiracies certainly happen, any conspiracy more complex than a burglary or assassination involving half a dozen people inevitably becomes exposed. The Truthers on the other hand create these theories involving the ridiculously complex cooperation of thousands of people across dozens of different organizations, often for no other reason than that they need it to be so in order to fit their pet theory.

A British academic explores this fact in more scientific terms:

If you’re thinking of creating a massive conspiracy, you may be better scaling back your plans, according to an Oxford University researcher. While we can all keep a secret, a study by Dr David Robert Grimes suggests that large groups of people sharing in a conspiracy will very quickly give themselves away. The study is published online by journal PLOS ONE.

He's Baaaaa-aaaack!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 01:47:00 +0000

Dylan is out with yet another version of Loose Change:

I can't even remember how many versions there have been: 1,2,2e,Final Cut, American Coup, and I'm sure I've forgotten one or two.

I doubt I'll be reviewing this one any time soon. It's more interesting to see the physical changes in the two. Dylan actually looks like he's graying, and I would not recognize Korey if I saw him on the street.

Update: And right on cue, Box Boy Gage is back with another look at his "experiment that changed the world."

Nice paneling; I assume it's at somebody's Tahoe ski lodge. Pretty big of him to take time out from his busy day to provide amusement for us.

Jesse Ventura and Michael Shermer

noreply@blogger.com (James B.) — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 19:42:00 +0000

Only a bit on 9/11, but skeptic Michael Shermer and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire Jesse Ventura have what actually is a relatively amiable conversation.

Boston Globe Did the Unthinkable?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 14:50:00 +0000

That's Box Boy Gage's headline on a recent post at 9-11 Flogger, followed by the thrilled mention that the unthinkable was that the Globe gave them some "ink". No surprise, what Gage only hints at is that the ink was dipped in with a poison pen:

It’s hard to understand how Asner, an early 9/11 “truther” who has suggested that investors profited from 9/11, or the running gag line that is Geraldo Rivera, also featured in the video, add to the group’s credibility. “We’re not using Geraldo for our credibility,” Gage told me, “We’re using our appearance on mainstream media [Fox News] to gain credit for our cause.”

Credit/credibility; potato potahto. What Gage won't or can't admit is that his appearance on Whorealdo didn't give him any credit; it just removed any last shred of credit that Rivera had remaining after the Secrets of Al Capone's Vault.

Interview With a Survivor

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 01:32:00 +0000

Our Italian debunking buddies interview a man who was visiting the 64th floor of the South Tower when the first plane hit, and in the stairwell when the second plane hit his building. Some interesting details about the security situation:

When you go through the lobby you had to get your picture taken and they were giving you a card with your picture and the date and what floors you were supposed to be on, with that card you could go to the elevators and go to whatever floor you were designated to. They really had good security at the World Trade Center. I went up to the 64th floor of the South Tower, I talked to the receptionist and she brought me to the conference room where my meeting was meant to begin at 8 o'clock, I think we started a little bit late like 8:05.

Unlikely to convince the Troofers that security was too tight for their fanciful thermite emplacement, but then again nothing is going to sway them.