My Argument with the 9/11 Truth Movement.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-cohen/my-argument-with-the-911_b_245788.html
After publishing a piece on the absolute idiocy of the Obama Birther movement and its potential to turn nasty, I've been inundated with literally hundreds of emails decrying my comparison of the Birthers to the 9/11 Truthers.
Associating us with the Birthers right from the word go. The way the media is talking a lot about these people is comparable to the way they talk a lot about moon-landing denial. Almost makes me think this whole Obama birth debate was created by the establishment to muddy the water, distract people from more serious issues and discredit serious conspiracies.
The offending paragraph:
The 9/11 truth movement was enormously helpful to the Bush Administration as it provided a giant distraction from the colossal crimes they committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. If their energies had been directed in a positive way, there's a good chance Bush would have been impeached and Dick Cheney thrown in jail. Alas, the 9/11 truth movement dedicated its time to proving the U.S government tried to kill thousands of its own people in exchange for gold/political power.
Enormously helpful? You give us too much credit! Because of all the media smearing we didn't really have anywhere near as much of an effect as we would have liked to. At least he acknowledges the fact that they are war criminals. Now tell me - If they're willing to kill millions of innocent people overseas for their own selfish agenda, is killing 3,000 of their own citizens really any more of a stretch?
The Birther movement can be compared to the 9/11 truth movement, perhaps not in scale, but certainly in its potency.
The emails I have received have made for an entertaining read. The absolute certainty with which otherwise fairly rational people have asserted that the U.S. government planned, carried out and covered up the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon has blown me away.
Of course. That's because it's obvious to anyone capable of critical thinking.
I have been accused of complicity with the attacks, called a 'traitor to the human race,' and a terrorist. This is an example of a typical email:
You're either a complete ignoramus (see PatriotsQuestion911 -- http://www.patriotsquestion911.com, and the peer-reviewed article about nano-thermite found in WTC dust samples -- Google it)...
...or a Mockingbird sayanim flak covering up for the Mossad's involvement (Dominick Souter, Urban Moving Systems, Odigo, Zim Shipping) and an accomplice after the fact to mass murder.
Consider yourself outed.
And that was one of the more polite messages sent by the 9/11 Truth Movement foot soldiers.
I guess that was to associate us with anti-Semites - typical. At least he mentioned the thermite paper.
Another theme that has come up over and over in the emails flooding my account are the 'facts' regarding 'Building 7'. I've skimmed some of them, and they mostly revolve around the idea that rich business men had insurance policies for the building that wasn't hit directly, and that it contained gold, and secret documents held by Enron, Exxon, and other evil corporations that helped orchestrate the attacks.
Actually most of us do not speculate WHY Building 7 was demolished. There are some theories - judging by the mysterious death of Barry Jennings it was probably something to do with those bodies - but most people just stick to proving that it was demolished.
In fairness, I have also received some polite emails suggesting I do more research on the subject before offering an opinion, but the majority have come from arm chair warriors spewing language that would make a sailor blush.
I have done some research on the topic, but stopped fairly quickly into when it dawned on me that:
"Stopped Fairly Quickly"? So you admit you did little research. It shows!
1. Any alternative to the official account of what happened is so absurd it simply cannot be true.
More absurd than this?
This blog continues below the images, click to enlarge...
Really?
2. No reputable scientific journal has ever taken any of the 'science' of the conspiracy seriously.
Because most "reputable" scientific journals are controlled. Just like the mainstream media. NIST is a "reputable" scientific organisation and they denied molten metal. Controlled Demolition Inc. is a "reputable" organisation and the head of the company is on record arguing that thermite CAN'T demolish a building but ordinary officer fires CAN!
3. The evidence supporting the official story is overwhelming, whereas the 9/11 Truthers have yet to produce a shred of concrete evidence that members of the U.S. government planned the attacks in New York and Washington.
HAHA! Really!? What evidence? The security camera image of Atta with two timestamps on? Al Suqami's passport that survived a 500 mile per hour plane crash, floated around in the air for 102 minutes and was found the next day amongst a million tonnes of rubble in perfect condition? The bag Atta was gonna take on the plane with him which contained his will for some reason which he conveniently left behind? The highly convenient paper trail? Bin Laden's mistranslated "confession" video? Bin Laden's chopped and dubbed over "confession" video? The video of some guy with a black beard who was obviously not Bin Laden? The testimony of tortured prisoners?
Overwhelming evidence indeed.
A couple of years ago, I went to court to testify in a case against someone who had committed a crime against myself and three other people. I won't go into detail, but the case against the defendant was pretty air tight. All four witnesses provided independent, stunningly similar accounts of the crimes the defendant had committed, and all four witnesses had been living in separate countries for the previous decade without any contact whatsoever.
Regardless, the defendant was found not guilty and released without charge. Why? Because the defense attorney alluded to the idea that we had orchestrated a complex conspiracy against the defendant in order to destroy his life. The defense did not provide any evidence of their own, but simply picked holes in the witnesses accounts, all of whom were recalling events from over 10 years before. It was a simple, yet incredibly effective strategy, and the defendant walked free. The 12 regular folks chosen randomly to be jurors failed to see through the tactic, and believed there remained 'reasonable doubt' that he had not committed the crime.
So "innocent until proven guilty" is a bad thing now is it? If some kids were to conspire to get you arrested on molestation charges and there was some inconsistencies in their testimony, you would be thanking god for "innocent until proven guilty".
And herein lies the ultimate weapon the 9/11 Truthers wield over your average 'Myth Busters' viewer: They don't have to prove a damn thing. They just have to raise enough doubt, pick enough holes, and use enough 'science' to make you think twice about the official theory.
What's wrong with that? Like I said "innocent until proven guilty". The burden of proof has been on the government to provide evidence of their conspiracy theory since day one. And there aren't just "holes" in the official story, there are entire voids!
It's the same type of intellectually bankrupt shenanigans the Bush Administration pulled when 'proving' the case for war against Iraq. They cherry picked evidence, ignored information that disproved their theory, and used a massive disinformation campaign to persuade people the Saddam Hussein was a reincarnation of Attila the Hun and the biggest threat to America since Adolf Hitler.
Yes they did. They also did that with 9/11. Willie Rodriguez believes he heard an explosion before the first plane hit. That evidence contradicts their theory, it was ignored. Barry Jennings testified to hearing explosions and stepping over bodies in Building 7. That evidence contradicted their theory, it was ignored. Numerous first responders testified to seeing molten metal at ground zero. That evidence contradicted NIST's theory, it was ignored... I could go on.
Given enough time and resources, you could prove that Barack Obama was in fact an alien invader from the planet Krypton, sent to earth to destroy America and turn everyone into slaves. I imagine you'd start with the whole Birther Movement nonsense, then move on to the fact that he alluded to it in a speech he gave when running for president.
I agree with that. In fact that pretty much sums up my view on Pilotsfor911truth, CIT and the No-planers. Speaking of...
The fact is, no one could have ever predicted what would happened to the World Trade Center when a two Boeing 767s were flown into it, because you couldn't exactly recreate the scenario in a laboratory. Science is often limited in its ability to predict, mostly because the real world doesn't conform to standards set in a lab. There are simply too many variables, and the best scientist recognize this and understand that their methodology is intrinsically flawed. While there have been planes flown into buildings before, nothing exactly like that had happened before, and no one really had any idea what would happen if it did.
There are so many variables at play, it is easy to pick holes in the official theory and claim that in fact what we saw (two massive passenger planes flying at high speed into a building) didn't actually happen.
The obligatory No-planer association!
The problem is, by all sane accounts, it did, and the alternative is so ridiculous, you'd have to be a moron to even entertain it.
I agree. So does everyone else in the 9/11 truth movement.
The Bush Administration was far too incompetent to pull off anything as complex as the attacks on 9/11, and to think that they could have covered it up afterward is even more absurd. What they did do was carry out and monstrously f--k up two illegal invasions of sovereign nations for oil. And thanks to the 9/11 Truth Movement, a considerable amount of attention was taken away from the people trying to hold the Bush Administration accountable.
O here we go again, "Bush was incompetent, there's no way he'd be able to orchestrate something this massive without getting caught" - They didn't orchestrate it! This goes well beyond left and right. Also they did not "monstrously f--k up two illegal invasions". The illegal invasions went exactly as planned.
The 9/11 Truth movement is fighting a pointless battle for a pointless cause. They have spent enormous amounts of time and energy on the matter, taking attention away from legitimate criticisms of the debacle and the ensuing blood bath that followed. And for that, they are the traitors, not me.
A pointless cause? The justice of three thousand families is not a good enough cause? The justice for the sick and dying first responders is not a good enough cause? The exposure of the lie that is the foundation of the world today and was used by US as an excuse to fight those illegal wars and commit all those war crimes you mentioned so many times is not a good enough cause?