The Seattle PI actually published this op-ed.
In spite of Connelly's faith in what commission members say, the report seems to be an obvious cover-up. The question that we all need to ask is: What is the commission covering up? Was 9/11, in fact, an inside job?
The PI has some explaining to do. (And so does Seattle University, where Richard Curtis works as an "adjunct professor of philosophy".)
For those interested in the facts on this matter, I recommend the fine Popular Mechanics study.
(The 9/11 Commission report can be criticized legitimately — but not in this way. From what I have read, a good argument can be made that the Commission was not hard enough on the Clinton administration failures in the war on terror.)
Posted by Jim Miller at May 16, 2006 09:19 AM | Email ThisIf that was their intent, they should follow up with at least a brief editor's note stating that the conspiracy theorists are obviously wrong -- and doing as Stefan did by pointing out an accurate description and analysis as "balance."
Posted by: Micajah on May 16, 2006 11:21 AM"An alert Washington State Patrol officer guided a bomb-sniffing dog past my car in the Whidbey Island ferry holding area last weekend."
If Connelly ACTUALLY LIVED on Whidbey Island, instead of visiting there occassionally on weekends, he would notice the bomb sniffing dogs a lot more often.
Posted by: Richard Pope on May 16, 2006 11:25 AMIn spite of Connelly's faith in what commission members say, the report seems to be an obvious cover-up.
I thought when I read this that they were talking about the Blue Ribbon comission on elections in King County.
Posted by: PW on May 16, 2006 01:04 PMI was quite awakened when I travelled to London in December. I talked with a number of people in various venues and all of them thought our government either allowed 9/11 to happen or contrived it. The rest of the world doesn't have a press that is so severely malfunctioning as we do in the United States. And the rest of the world hasn't been brainwashed to accept all that the government claims as fact to be truthful. As of late, the papers have clearly documented that people like Donald Rumsfeld are flat out lying to the public. Pretty disgraceful behavior for people who are supposed to answer to the American people.
but the blundering Bush Administration is viewed as the source of all that is good.
Who have you been talking to? There's a lot of disenchantment on spending, border security, lack of resolve on social security reform, domestic oil production, etc. You need to get out more.
Posted by: RBW on May 16, 2006 03:39 PMIf you're going to fake a terrorist attack, it's pretty important that your suicide pilots actually be dead.
Posted by: Rick on May 16, 2006 05:42 PMNone of those named appear on any of the passenger lists released by the airlines. Most important, six of the men named by the government are still alive and have never even been to the United States. We know that because European media (as reported by The Associated Press, the London Telegraph and the BBC) have interviewed them. It is not a matter of mistaken identity not being noticed or someone using a false passport. The commission insists that the people they named were the hijackers but that claim is demonstrably false.
Please tell me who demonstrated that the passengers captured on airport cameras were not the same people matched with passport and visa photos on file for the 19 hijackers.
I'm curious. Why would you think that gathering information about what happened in New York by going to London and other European nations would give you a more accurate picture makes any sense?
On the other hand, I suppose that going to London to discern what happened in New York makes as much sense as going to a philosophy professor understand the physics of collapsing buildings.
Posted by: RBW on May 16, 2006 06:52 PMBecause the European press isn't as brain dead and corporate controlled as it is over here. This blog site is constantly complaining about the poor press. The press in Europe is much better and less fear mongering, in my opinion.
Check the passenger lists for the 4 flights. Not one of the alleged highjackers is listed. I could see if possibly 1 or 2 were missing from the manifests. But not all of them.
9/11 was obviously well-known by elements within the government, and ignored and allowed to happen. The terrorists are the best friends of GW Bush and Rummie and Tricky Dick. They refer to them all the time. They love terrorism and terrorists. It gives them purpose. It gives them a way to scare people into thinking that it's un-American to question the government.
Ask some questions about 9/11 and see if you get any believable answers. You won't.
Here, I'll say it again:
Only an imbecile could believe that 9/11 was contrived or faked.
That anyone could (even half-heartedly) imagine that any American leader, much less George Bush, could be complicit in the planning or execution of that horrible event is beyond insulting - it is the sign of monstrous insanity. It's one thing to be a little skeptical about things, but to allow what passes for your "imagination" to so totally sweep you away from reason or common sense is more than troubling.
I don't pity fools like you. Nor do I fear you, but I am wary of cowardly mental midgets like you.
If you believe "The Grand Conspiracy" then I hope that you also subscribe the theory that GW is gathering data on you and that one night, very soon, when you least expect it, there will come a knock on your door......
Posted by: alphabet soup on May 16, 2006 08:08 PMYou're wrong.
"The rest of the world doesn't have a press that is so severely malfunctioning as we do in the United States."
Maybe. This would explain why Germany's leading magazine Der Spiegel and our number one TV station ARD have debunked this conspiracy nonsense a long time ago.
Here's a six page Spiegel article in English:
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,265160,00.html
We're not silly over here. Well, some are, of course. In 2002/2003, one conspiracy book sold 130,000 copies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (100 million people approximately speak German). But those times are gone.
Most of the conspiracy theorist who have remained are nutcases and/or neo-nazis and/or East German communists. Or they simply hate the "Amis".
And they hate Der Spiegel since September 8, 2003.
Based on the lunatic rantings of paddy-whack and this educated idiot, I believe that I'm going to invest (heavily!) in mental health institutions. I have an impression that BDS is running its course and having its effect.
At some point it won't be safe to let these loons roam the streets any longer ;'}
Posted by: alphabet soup on May 17, 2006 12:43 PMI'm a conservative but I'm also disgusted with the behavior of our Congress and President, who call themselves conservatives but have never met a spending bill they didn't like.
The part of the official 9/11 story that I simply cannot believe is the physics of the so-called collapses. I'm not a physics professor (and if I was I would keep my mouth shut if I valued my career) but I did get A's in college physics. The government's overheated steel and gravity story doesn't explain how the towers fell without violating the laws of conservation of energy and momentum. Examples are the speed the towers fell, the ejection of 10-ton steel beams hundreds of feet, and the behavior of the top 20 floors of the South Tower which began to topple over but then disintegrated into bits before they hit the ground (see the picture in Popular Mechanics). The alternative explanation, preplanted explosives, doesn't violate the laws of physics, but it leads to such an emotional violation of the American self-image that I completely understand why people block it out and call anyone who agrees with it insane.
I don't pretend to know how much of the 9/11 report is truth and how much is lies. The 9/11 debunking websites are a mix of truth and fantasy. But I think a new investigation, with grand juries and criminal charges, is going to become politically inevitable, because the 9/11 disbeliever movement is growing like mad. It used to be only a few people on the fringe, but it takes more than a few people watching to put a video about 9/11 on top of Google Video's most popular list.
It's nice to hear at least 1 Republican isn't wedded to namecalling and hate-mongering. Alphabet soup seems to be a soup bowl full of hatred. Deep seething hatred.
You seem to be pretty clear-minded about how the government 9/11 story violates the laws of physics. Obviously our government is lying to the U.S. public in a big way.
Clearly Bush isn't a member of the Conservative party. He's part of the War Party. More and more Republicans are recognizing that as Bush's ratings sag to historic lows.
Good point about the 9/11 video being on top of Google's most popular list. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are obviously watching this.
Posted by: Rick on May 17, 2006 05:36 PMNice attempt at Liberal Projection (tm) rick...
Embrace your insanity. Go ahead and indulge yourself. It changes nothing. Reality demands respect and wandering around in a delusion will only get you plucked off the street.
GSL - you're a liar, not a conservative. Get a life.
Posted by: alphabet soup on May 18, 2006 06:54 AMhttp://thechiefbrief.blogspot.com/2006/05/truth-on-911-rumors.html
I e-mailed this professor and we have had a bit of an exchange. He is pretty nutty. He basically admitted that his initial points were wrong, but that it didn't make any difference because there are other more important points to discuss, and he is "just asking questions".
Also for more on 9/11 conspiracy nuts see my other blog (shameless self promotion)
http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com
Posted by: James on May 19, 2006 02:35 PM