A third of U.S. public believes 9/11 conspiracy theory

[sabra]

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_4888448,00.html

A third of U.S. public believes 9/11 conspiracy theory

More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.

The national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they "personally are more angry" at the government than they used to be.

...

Thirty-six percent of respondents overall said it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them "because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East."

"One out of three sounds high, but that may very well be right," said Lee Hamilton, former vice chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also called the 9/11 commission.) His congressionally appointed investigation concluded that federal officials bungled their attempts to prevent, but did not participate in, the attacks by al Qaeda five years ago.

[wakeme2008]

1. more and more ppl do not believe anything from this Bush admin

and that will not be helpful for the Repugs running in 2006 :)

[Virginia Dare]

2. that is amazing...

:wow:

[Jimbo S]

3. I used to believe

that only crackpots would give any credibilty to these conpsiracy theories.

36% is quite a high figure, so it's more than crackpots who are believing it.

Maybe I'm the one who needs to do some soul searching.

[democraticinsurgent]

4. soul searching, or researching perhaps

i bought the official line until early 2003, when i started looking at 911 sites.

there is so much information out there it's staggering, but it's relatively easy to determine that the official story is bunk. Once you get that far, then it almost doesn't matter what theory you adopt, so long as you accept--and it's hard--that the government facilitated this attack.

Read 9/11 Synthetic Terror by Webster Tarpley and David Griffin's books, New Pearl Harbor and 9/11 Omissions and Distortions. Then do your soul search and see where you come out.

From one who has been there...

[bdamomma]

42. Webster Tarpley will be on Mike Malloy tomorrow night

Mike just announced it.

[Virginia Dare]

5. I think all it really takes is critical thought...

Actually look at the official story the way it is laid out, and you will realize that it is completely and utterly ridiculous.

You don't have to buy into theories of controlled demolitions and the like in order not to believe the official conspiracy theory.

Personally, I have kept an open mind about the whole thing. I don't 100% discount anything one way or the other, except the official government story.

[QuettaKid]

10. actually, all you really need to do

is watch the videos CLOSELY of WTC7 coming down. There are crystal clear views of the squibs blasting out in pairs from the SW corner of the building. They are right there as plain as day. MIHOP.

[3waygeek]

38. IIRC there was also TV footage

of some NYC official saying that they brought WTC7 down.

[coalition_unwilling]

12. Even the official narrative posits a "conspiracy theory," i.e., a cabal

of 19 hijackers led\directed by the demonic Osama bin Laden and cadre.

So even if you buy into the official narrative, you believe in a "conspiracy theory." Americans face an epistemological crisis in what they know and how they know it. They are forced to choose between competing conspiracy theories.

Of course, let's keep this in perspective: 30% of Americans believe Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11.

[Raster]

18. The reason why so many still believe that Saddam was behind 9/11...

is because bushco* incessantly hammer it away. They still push it. Remember, if people think Saddam was behind it, they won't look at or for the real perps, like for example, the Saudis, who probably financed 9/11.

[devilgrrl]

14. you mean ones like Vince Foster's "murder" or black babies out of wedlock?

Because Crackpots still believe those.

[petgoat]

35. How many PhDs put their careers on the line to form

"Scholars for Justice for Vince Foster"?

http://www.st911.org/

Sign the petition for the release of suppressed evidence! Almost 13,000 signatures!

[greyl]

51. Bad example. Vince Foster wasn't globally recognized.

The implication that PHDs are always correct and that they always tell the truth is horrible logic.

How many PHDs donate money to Republicans? How many PHDs are part of bush's staff?
How many PHDs were part of the tobacco lobby?

Also, do you know how many PHDs supported the Vince Foster bullshit?

[Bryan Sacks]

47. before you close that mind of yours all the way . . .

you might want to check out
http://www.fbicover-up.com/

[Bolo Boffin]

52. You really think that Ken Starr covered up Clinton murdering Vince Foster?

:rofl::eyes: :smoke: :crazy: :silly: :wtf: :freak: :dunce: :spank: :wow: :thumbsdown: :dem: :tinfoilhat: :woohoo: :spray:

[electropop]

20. Please read the August 6th 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing

that the Bush cabal chose to ignore:

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/whitehouse.pdf

If you doubt it's real, you may be able to find the CSPAN transcript of when Condi was forced in a Congressional hearing to name its title. I heard that one as it happened.

[petgoat]

24. Condi lied to the faces of the 9/11 widows

when she said the "Bin Laden Determined to strike in US" memo did not warn
of new attacks.

[gulfcoastliberal]

32. And she lied to the world when she claimed no one conceived of using

airplanes as missiles. Remember the Genoa, Italy conference with the anti-aircraft defence ring. And Chimperor still opted to stay on board a military ship rather than a hotel.

Remember Ashcroft suddenly stop flying commercial the summer of 2001?

[CJCRANE]

6. Remember the 10 per centers (* disapproval)

on 9/12/01 ?

Now they're the 60 per centers.

It's only a matter of time before the real possibilities about 9/11 finally start to sink in.

[VegasWolf]

7. I certainly can't believe kerosene brought down the WTC. It doesn't burn

hot enough.

[BrokenBeyondRepair]

11. correct

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_fuel

:toast:

[iamahaingttta]

8. I watched those towers burn...

...with my own two eyes. I was on my way to the subway to go to work, and turned right around and went back home. During the three block walk back to the apartment, these three thoughts crossed my mind:

- It was Islamic terrorists
- Our government was going to be found complicit
- This is a world-changing event and the beginning of WWIII

Nothing since then has convinced me otherwise.

[coalition_unwilling]

13. You watched something burn, but it wasn't the towers. Or at least

it wasn't the steel in the towers. Jet fuel (kerosene) burns at a maximum temperature of 1200 degrees F. Steel doesn't liquify until it reaches 1600 degrees F. The fires you were seeing were most likely carbon-based (paper, furniture, building materials) whose maximum temperature when burning is unlikely to reach 1000 degrees F.

[iamahaingttta]

28. Well, yeah...

...I think you're nitpicking. I'm also convinced it was a planned demolition, but I wasn't going to say that here. That has a way of getting threads locked.

[hack89]

58. Classic strawman

show me anywhere in the NIST report(or any report for that matter) where it talks of steel melting due to gas fires.

Look up the temperature when steel looses half it's strength. And while you are at it, look up the temperatures of house fires - your F should be a C.

[Miss Chybil]

9. So many unbelievable things have been happening in this country

and within our government, I think this poll shows just how skeptical Americans are becoming. I have never truly believed in MIHOP, or LIHOP, but if they asked me this question, I would have to show my doubt in my own opinions, by, at least, answering "somewhat likely." I don't know what the hell happened because we haven't had an HONEST accounting of the events - before and after 9/11. So, if there are doubts, whether there was a MIHOP, a LIHOP, or not, this administration has allowed my own doubts to fester on their hipocracy and their lies.

[Bjorn Against]

15. Correction ALL Americans believe in 9/11 conspiracy theory

Because even the official story is a conspiracy theory. A conspiracy is two or more people working together to commit a crime, and I certainly have not heard any 9/11 theories that have not involved a conspiracy. Let us make it very clear, the Bush Administration's story is just as much of a conspiracy theory as anyone elses story is.

[unda cova brutha]

16. not surprising considering the ties bin bush has with bin laden family

[woo me with science]

17. and 55 percent believe in the rapture. nt

[petgoat]

36. But there's not much overlap between Truthists and Rapture-bunnies nt

[woo me with science]

63. Anyone who has to refer to him/herself as a "Truthist"

is struggling to be believed.

[sarcasmo]

19. Kick and Nom

[truthisfreedom]

21. we are become but sheep...

bushco is planning on staying in office after the 2008 erections.

[Efilroft Sul]

23. There's a funny typo in your post!

I thought the Bushies were all hopped up on Ambien, but now I see that it's Viagra!

[ConcernedCanuk]

27. I don't think that "r" was a typo - bushies get off on killing

.
.
.

the "r" is on the other side of the keyboard - pretty hard to typo that one -

and for a a country so on "alert" about attacks from somewhere else -

how could this ever have happened without complicity in the WH?

Kennedy was killed by PNACers cuz he wanted peace -

PNACers wanted WAR - well,

now they got it

and the hatred and disrespect of the whole World.

Welcome to your "New American Century"

Hatred and Disrespect

Well done . . .

[Efilroft Sul]

59. Actually, it's "Mission Accomplished." n/t

[bdamomma]

43. unless we change his plans

[EstimatedProphet]

22. Maybe it's a conspiracy, maybe not, but people believing it is their fault

It is this administration's fault (conspiracy existing in fact or not) that people are upset about them, and willing to believe that they had a hand in it. We have 1) a patently laughable explanation of why it happened presented as fact, 2) an administration and its' lapdogs who say, in effect, believe what we say or you're a traitor, 3) an obviously invented attempt to find a rationale to blame the whole thing on the pet enemies of the administration rather than actually find out and deal with who is responsible, and 4) callous and heartless use of the event by the administration to shore up its' own support and benefit from it. Given all of these things, who in their right mind would believe what the administration says? If they set out to lie and mislead intentionally, they couldn't have done a better job.

[muryan]

25. I find this hard to believe

I don't know a single person that thinks the government was involved in the attacks, I know a lot of people who think they are responsible for the attacks due to incompetence(myself included) but nothing intentional.

[iamahaingttta]

29. You hang around with the wrong crowd!

You should meet some of MY friends. My thoughts on the subject are mild in comparison! And we're all New Yorkers who watched it happen...

[petgoat]

34. When you read about the warnings from 11 different countries

(including Taleban) and about the warnings from 3 FBI offices, and
the investigations squelched, the idea that it was simple incompetence
and failure to connect the dots becomes indefensible.

Add to this the fact that the 9/11 Commission Report is a transparent
whitewash, and that 97.3% of the WTC steel was rapidly recycled and
the 0.3% of it that was retained does not support the official story,
and the need for a new investigation becomes clear.

[Ezlivin]

26. Why not? Bush refused to testify under oath, alone and on the record

He had to testify behind closed doors, not under oath, off the record (no notes were allowed) and with Dick Cheney by his side.

He did not want the 9/11 Commission formed. He fought against it for months, then tried to appoint, ahem, Henry Kissinger to head it up.

They spent approximately $15 million investigating 9/11.

Over $40 million was spent investigating Lewinsky/Whitewater.

[bdamomma]

44. because both bush and cheney both lied.

[NVMojo]

30. hmmm, are they trying to downplay the Vanity Fair article out this week

about NORAD/9-11?

[reaper66]

31. The U.S. Government carried out 9/11

The government carried out 9/11. If you don't believe me then here is the proof.


Free online 9/11 Videos

terrorstorm
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3710767957407328313&q=terrorstorm

Martial Law 911 Rise of the Police State
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6495462761605341661&q=martial+law

911 The Road to Tyrrany
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1358726890127819985&q=911+road

Loose Change 2nd Editon
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5946593973848835726



video clips

New York firemen discuss collapse nof WTC
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6246148295258152003&q=WTC+collapse

WTC collapse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmBL2oYdXWQ&search=WTC%20collapse

Larry Silverstein admitting that he pulled building 7. keep in mind it takes days to wire a building for demolition. But magicly they were able to do it on 9/11 in just a few hours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7he_sAVs0A&search=Larry%20Silverstein

Alex Jones interviews actor Charlie Sheen who believes that the oficial 9/11 story is a fraud.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4559472852690653060



9/11 smoking guns

Don't believe me check out the facts for yourself

1. NORAD (North American Arospace Defence Command) stood down on 9/11 because they were running a drill of hijacked jets flying into the world trade center and pentagon.at the exact same time it was occuring in the real world.

2. The Twin Towers were brought down in what apeared to be a controled demolition. when you watch video of the collapse you can see what appears to be blast points or squibs going off in a controled fashion.

3. Jet fuel can not melt steel. Jet fuel is kerocine and only burns at 1500 degrees tops. steal doesn't begin to weaken until after 2000 degrees of temperature, at about 2500 degrees it becomes red hot, and at 3000 degrees starts to melt. No steel building in history has ever collapsed from fire.

4. Building 7 which was never hit by a plane mysteriously callapsed later in the afternoon on 9/11. Building 7 only had a few small fires in it but it somehow callapsed. Later on a PBS documentory America Rebuilding the owner of the trade center Larry Silverstien admited on TV that he blew up building 7

5. All of the supposed hijackers had their houses, cars, and credit cards paid for by the U.S. Government and some were living with FBI informants. They where in reality agents taking part in a drill.

6. Two months prior to 9/11 Osama Bin Ladin was treated at the American hospital in dubei pakistan where it has been confirmed that hie met with the local head of the CIA.

7. Public officials were warned prior to 9/11 not to travel to New York. These include Juhn Aschroft the attorny Generl who stopped flying commerical citing a hijack risk. Mayor Willy Brown of San Fransisco was warned by the whitehous not to fly to New York on the day of 9/11. Auther Salman Ruschti was warned by the FAA not to fly to New York on the day of 9/11. They even publicly banned him from flying. oh and yes the joint chiefs of staff had a scheduled meeting in New York City on the day of 9/11 but canceled their trip at the last minute.

8. Prior to 9/11 President Bush signed executive order W199i telling the FBI to back off Osama Bin Ladin and Al Qeida. He even fired agents that woulden't follow their orders.

9. on 9/11 there where a record number of put options placed on american and united airlines stock. A put option is a bet that a stock will fall.

10. The Bin Ladin Confession tape with the fat Bin Ladin has been proven to be a fake. The person in that tape who confessed to carriying out 9/11 was not Osama Bin Ladin.


Historical examples of goverment sponsered terrorism

again don't take my word for it check out the facts yourself

1. November 27 1933, Documents uncovered from nazi archives as well as testimonies from the Nerimberg Trials clearly admit that on the night of November 27, 1933 Adolf Hitler Burned the Reichstag Government building to the grownd and blamed it on his political enemies

2. August 31, 1939: Adolf Hitler watned to invade poland but did not want to look like the aggressor. so the nazis took a polish prisonor from one of the concentration camps, dress him in a polish uniform, and took him to the twon of Glywits on the german poland border and shot him. The nazis then bombed a german radio station and blamed it on the polish saying that they had captured a dead polish solder as proof. Hitler then had his excuse to envade Poland.

3. 1953: Operartion Ajax. The CIA working with Mi6 (british intelligence) overthrew the elected leader of Iran Dr. Mohomad Mosedeque. Mosedeque had been educated in the west and was pro america. unfortunately he denied britsh patroliam a monopoly on iran's oil feilds. The CIA has actually declassified most of operation ajax detailing how they carried out terror attacks in order to blame it on mosedeque to get control of irans oil fields. They brag about how they machine guned crowds, bombed the homes of prominant religous leaders, and then distributed handbills saying "up with Mosedeque, up with communisom, down allah". Dr. Mosedeque was then incarcerated for the duration of his life for crimes that were commited by CIA and Mi6 and a new puppet government was installed.

4. 1943-1983: Operation Gladio was an umbrella name for hundreds of bombings that were carried out by western intelligence agencies and NATO all over the middle east, europe, and aisa, Several italian presidents have gone public claiming that operation Gladio was targeted at innocent civilians and children and was to blamed on communists. On November 22 1990 the European parliment passed a resolution condomning the acts of operation gladio.

5. 1964 The Gulf of Tonken In the summer of 1964 President Lindon B. Johnson needed a pretext to commit the american people to the expanding covert war in south east asia. So the Gulf of Tonken incodent was staged claiming that vietnameze patrol boats had a attacked a U.S. destroyer off the coast of Vietnam. This staged incodent paved the way for 58,000 american deaths and over 1.500.000 vietnamize

6. 1962 Operation Northwoods In 1962 chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff L. L. Leminser came up with a plan to stage false flag operations as a pretext to invade cuba. The documents have now been declassified and were reported on by ABC News back in 2000. In operation nortwoods they discussed how they could stage the shootdown of airliners full of vacationing college students, stage sniper attacks in D.C. or Miami, have friendly cubans attack the marine corps base at quantamino bay, or even blow up a ship like they did to get into the spanish american war. Furtunately President Kennedy was not amused by northwoods and had Leminser removed as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

7. June 8, 1967 During the 6 day war between Isreal and the Arab Nations Presiden Lindon B Johnson sends the U.S.S liberty to collect electronic intelligenc in the eastern mediterainian. The clearly marked U.S. ship was 14 miles off the coast of Isreal in international waters. Isreali aircraft cleary identified the ship as an american vessel and an ally. At 2:00 pm that afternoon the U.S.S. Liberty was attacked by two unmarked mirage 3 fighter bombers The U.S.S. liberty was then attacked by three Israli torpedo boats bearing Isreali flags. The torpedo boats opened fire with high caliber machine guns and launched torpedos. The torpedo boats then began strafing life rafts in the water, an international war crime. During the attack the U.S.S. Liberty continually called the 6th fleet which was nearby begging for air support. Two groups of fighter aircraft were sent to defend the Libery but unbelievably they were recalled by the whitehouse. The Admiral in Command of the sixth fleet called washington to confirm the recall order. Secretary of defense Macnimara came on the line followed by the president himself who told the Adimiral "I want that G D Ship going to the bottum" Finally after 3 hours into the attack a russian spy ship apeared so the isrealies withdrew because there were witnesses allowing the Liberty to limp home to safety. Here is what really took place. President Johnson had personal control over the ship, made a backroom deal with Isreal to atttack it with an order to kill everyone onboard. Then the attack was to be blamed on egypt and U.S. would enter the war and take over the entire middle east

[Wiley50]

45. Helpful hint to newbie: Learn how to spell

I thought they were typos until you spelled British Petroleum : "patroliam"

I'm not trying to discourage or otherwise be mean to you

But, folks around here generally know how to spell
and tend to distrust those who don't.

There is a real useful button at the bottom of your post window
It is labeled "Check Spelling"

It's really quite handy

BTW Welcome to DU

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[samsingh]

37. i am so starting to believe this too

[insleeforprez]

39. Looking more deeply at the poll...

"More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.

and later...

The poll also found that 16 percent of Americans speculate that secretly planted explosives, not burning passenger jets, were the real reason the massive twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed."

So, it sounds like 16% believe that the government actually took part in 9/11 (which is still extremely high, IMO), with the other 20% saying that the government did nothing to stop it. That is a much more reasonable position, though I am not personally cynical enough to agree with it.

Incompetence? Yes.
Intentional negligence/intentional ignorance: I doubt it.

[Minstrel Boy]

40. that's not what the numbers say

More than a third suspect federal officials either assisted in the attacks or took no action to stop them, not from incompetance, but in order "so the United States could go to war in the Middle East."

Wilfully doing nothing, for a reason, is not incompetance.

[MadMaddie]

41. No it's criminall....perhaps even Treasonous..!!

[Jazz2006]

49. That's a reasonable interpretation of the story...

It would be nice to see the actual poll data in order to see what the true numbers were in response to each specific question.

Without that data, it's very difficult to come to any solid conclusions, of course, but your interpretation certainly sounds reasonable on its face.

The story also included these disturbing factoids:

"The poll found that a majority of young adults give at least some credence to a 9/11 conspiracy compared to less than a fourth of people 65 or older. Members of racial and ethnic minorities, people with only a high school education and Democrats were especially likely to suspect federal involvement in 9/11."

[petgoat]

50. When you investigate the warnings from 11 countries and 3

FBI offices, and the fact that the Mossad warned of 19 hijackers in the US
planning something big, and the fact that the Mossad warning named names,
and the four names released are those of Mohammed Atta and three other
alleged hijackers, the notion that it was mere incompetence becomes
pretty indefensible.

Al Qaeda's Project Bojinka plot to hijack airliners and crash them into
Sears Tower, the TransAmerica Pyramid, the WTC, the Pentagon, and CIA
HQ was known in 1995.

The 9/11 Commission Report is a transparent whitewash, 97.3% of the WTC
steel was rapidly recycled and the 0.3% of it that was retained does not
support the official story. We need a new investigation.

[greyl]

53. "Intentional negligence and ignorance" are possible though, right?nt

[Bolo Boffin]

55. The only problem I have with "intentional negligence/ignorance" is

lack of proof.

I don't know how you'd even go about proving that someone intentionally ignored something. It sounds like the ground in which plausible deniability would live and thrive.

And we all know what masters of plausible deniability the current administration is.

[Redstone]

46. And the same percentage of them think bush is doing a good job.

Redstone's Rule #4: Never underestimate the stupidity of the American public.

Redstone

[Jazz2006]

48. Good point. nt

[eridani]

54. The OP made a good point connecting belief in conspiracy to lying

I dropped the following missive to one of the authors of the survey summary.

jourdept {at} ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu
Re: your Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_4888448,00.html

I think that you are dead on to link increasingly higher numbers of people believing in government complicity in the 9-11 attacks with increased awareness of the many well-documented lies that the current administration is responsible for promulgating.

I would like to add the observation that to criticize “conspiracy theorists” is to blame the victim instead of taking on the perpetrators. There is a reason why people come up with conspiracy theories—they happen to be a normal and healthy response to the experience of being forbidden access to relevant information and being constantly lied to by people who do.

The radical therapist Claude Steiner once said that paranoia is actually a heightened state of awareness, in which the paranoid put together narratives that make sense of the only information they have available. He gave an example of a woman he treated who believed that her husband was engaged in several elaborate plots on her life. What Steiner did was to interview the husband, who was disturbed by his wife's narrative. The husband was in fact thinking of having her permanently committed to the funny farm, but he always responded to his wife's questions about what was wrong between them by saying "Nothing, honey."

That was the crux of the problem. The wife was in a heightened state of awareness and knew only that "Nothing, honey" was a pile of steaming bullshit. Not having access to real information about what was going on in her husband's head, she invented it. Steiner’s ultimately successful therapy was simply to convince the husband to stop lying and withholding information. In this case, the husband did not exactly lead the examined life, and was unaware of the harm that social "white lies" can sometimes cause. Being genuinely concerned about his wife, he agreed to try to be more introspective and commit to being honest about his feelings. The wife agreed to acknowledge this effort, and to be more persistent about asking for information instead of automatically assuming the worst. Of course members of the current administration have no such commitment to making it all better for the rest of us—see the classic Ingrid Berman/Charles Boyer movie Gaslight for a psychological take on their game.

The bottom line here is that it is a basic requirement of sanity to be able to make sense of one’s information environment, and if those people who know what is going on behind closed doors constantly lie to the public and withhold information, people will naturally want to fill in the blanks. This process is analogous to the effects of sensory deprivation—float in one of those tanks long enough to deprive your brain of sensory input, and it will quickly start inventing some.

Current official explanations of 9-11 are like a picture puzzle with half the pieces missing. Many people have been taking magic markers and extrapolating from what is visible to fill in the missing spaces in an attempt to put together the entire picture. They are constantly ridiculed for this, and opinion makers who wish to be taken seriously always bog the discussion down in disputes about whether or not the colored-in parts really look like the original pieces. Some will be closer approximations than others, of course; a few may well be wildly off. But the really important issue (which remains for the most part unaddressed) is “What in bleeding hell gives our government the right to hide the pieces in the first place?”

Attacking people who are trying to make sense of their information environments with limited data is highly unethical, no matter how nutty their theories may sometimes sound. It's exactly like putting a rape victim on trial for her previous sexual history instead of going after the rapist. Theories may fall anywhere on a continuum from plausible to seriously off-base, just as women's prior sexual histories may vary from none to extremely experienced. By any objective analysis, some unofficial theories of what happened on 9/11 are prim virgins in high-collared white lace blouses, and some are prancing around in tight red spandex streetwalker outfits. But either way, it just plain should not matter—critics should focus on calling the rapists, liars and secret-keepers to account rather than slandering their victims.

“Conspiracy theorists” are commonly dismissed as irrational or unscientific. It’s true that scientific training helps people to cope with not having certain and final answers, and that only a minority of the population has such training. One important part of scientific training is learning to avoid speculating beyond the data, but this requirement of the scientific process depends critically on the assumption (which is almost always valid) that scientists will present all relevant data and methodology to their research community as accurately and completely as they can. Since this condition is not currently met by our government (and most certainly not by the 9/11 Commission), it is outrageous to attack as “unscientific” people who express concern about a government that insists on keeping secrets from them, especially when those secrets threaten the foundation of our democracy. The attacks should be directed instead toward those who are keeping what should be publicly available information from them.

How long will the official arbiters of "reality" continue to defend the rapists, the liars, and those who conceal information that in a real democracy ought to be made available to the public? If we could spend $40 million investigating a blow job, surely we could spend more than $15 million on finding out what really happened on the day of the worst attack on our soil. I hope that you will join with those who are demanding more honesty and transparency in the public sphere. The urge to be accepted as a real member of the elite class of reality creators, those who claim the right to lie and withhold information on the grounds that they alone are entitled to decide what the public should know, can be very tempting. Any person who gives in to this temptation badly fails our Republic.

[mogster]

57. That was a good line of reasoning

Hopefully, they will start to think for themselves. I can't understand why they don't do so already.

[mogster]

56. One wonders when it will go from 'conspiracy theory' in the media

To be the 'investigation' into the terror attacks on the US Homeland. I don't get it.

[Uppanotch]

60. Any new investigation will start with the same lies about OBL/al Q. EOM

n/t

[indepat]

61. And a third of the people would follow this junta through the gates of

hell.

[Uppanotch]

62. Especially, if they thought they'd get a tax cut for doing so. EOM

n/t