Update, August, 2008: NIST's draft report on the collapse of WTC building 7 has been released for public comment. Click here to download the full report in pdf form. NIST's press release and other material on the report can be found here. Video of NIST press briefing about the release.

6 Debunked Conspiracy Claims from Today's NIST (WTC 7) Report.

July, 2008: The BBC TV program I'm in briefly, "The Conspiracy Files–9/11–The Third Tower" is an outstanding examination of why the WTC 7 conspiracy theories are nonsense.

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Did firefighters abandon their fallen brothers to help Larry Silverstein demolish a skyscraper that had only sustained minor damage and fires?

9/11 “Truth Movement” leaders gather at Ground Zero and accuse Silverstein of murder and the FDNY of a heinous crime and cover-up.

Do their claims stand up to examination?


By Mark Roberts. Email: nyctours(at)gmail(dot)com October, 2006. Revised January & April, 2007. Downloadable versions of this document (January revision) are available at 911myths.com

Table of Contents

Introduction
Are they “More to be pitied than censured?” –This page

Part II
Please read this section if you read no other



WTC7_Eyewitnesses.xls (Excel spreadsheet)



Introduction

For the past few months I’ve been going to the World Trade Center site on Saturdays with some friends. We go there to oppose the ignorance that’s spread by members of a group called NY911truth. These people say they have evidence that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were an “inside job” perpetrated by elements within the US government. They haven’t shown any such evidence, but they argue passionately, aided by large laminated posters, that the hijackers are still alive, that no airliner hit the Pentagon or crashed in Pennsylvania, that there’s proof that explosives brought down WTC buildings 1, 2, and 7, that al Qaeda is run by the US government. And on, and on.

They claim to be spreading the “truth” about 9/11, but they are unable to answer basic questions such as, “What did NIST (the National Institute for Standards and Technology, which investigated the tower collapses) conclude were the causes of the tower collapses,” and “On September 11, 2001, what big building was standing right where we’re standing?” None of them have answered these questions correctly. This statement remains true as of mid-January, 2007.

I recently kept track of NY911truth’s statements at Ground Zero over a 3 ½ hour period. During that time I didn’t hear any of the 10 of them make a single true claim to the public. Recently they spent an hour arguing with an Air Force morgue technician who processed the remains from the Pentagon. Remember, this group claims that there were no remains of flight 77 passengers at the Pentagon, because that plane never crashed there. It takes a special kind of person to make that argument to the face of someone who personally handled those charred remains.

Abby Scott and Ray Rivera made a funny video based on some of these encounters, which captures a bit of the lunacy of the “Truthers.” When I’m around the Truthers I often have the refrain of the old song “She’s More to be Pitied Than Censured” running around in my head:

She is more to be pitied than censured,
She is more to be helped than despised.
She is only a lassie who ventured
On life's stormy path, ill-advised.

Then I snap out of it and remember that these people apologize for terrorists while accusing innocent people of mass murder, all without a shred of evidence. And they do this at Ground Zero. They are the most delusional people I have ever met, and their delusions are dangerous.

Below is a scanned and reduced reproduction of the pamphlet that NY911truth hands out by the thousand to tourists from Mexico, Sweden, and Nebraska. I’ve highlighted all the false statements in red, and all the misleading statements and photos in purple.



The area at lower right that’s unbesmirched by red and purple is the group’s contact information, which I’m afraid to check for accuracy. I’m not just interested in coloring, though. In May I took the time to write a 36-page analysis of this group’s single-sheet pamphlet. I sent it to their leader, Les Jamieson, and I’ve given links to it to all of the regular Saturday 9/11 deniers at Ground Zero, but as far as I know none of them have read any of it. Nor will most of them look at the evidence we provide when we make our points at Ground Zero. They are repulsed by evidence like a vampire is by a cross.

I met the two people who I go to Ground Zero with, via an internet forum for critical thinkers that’s run by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Recently one of them wondered if our presence at Ground Zero wasn’t counterproductive, in drawing more attention to the 9/11 deniers, and in making Ground Zero less conducive to reflection than that bustling, noisy, touristy place already is. Here’s part of my response to his forum post “Why we fight...”
  • So that on September 11, 2007, people can go to Ground Zero without running into a crowd of black-shirted "patriots" marching behind a ranting charismatic leader to shout "Murderer!" outside the business of a Jewish "conspirator."
  • Because it's difficult for people who were more seriously affected by the attacks (than I was) to debate the creeps with dignity.
  • Because firefighters (on 9/11) thanked us for learning about what they do and standing up for them. Because the creeps make it necessary to defend the people who would enter the maw of hell to save them.
The ugliness of the uniformed “patriots” chanting “murderer” outside the office of a man they claim is a “conspirator” really happened. On September 11, 2006, about a thousand members of the “9/11 Truth Movement” gathered at Ground Zero during memorial services for the victims, to protest what they believe is the US government’s involvement in the attacks. They wore black shirts that said “Investigate 911” and carried banners that said “USA Did 9/11,” “The Bush Regime Engineered 9-11,” and the ever-popular “9/11 Was an Inside Job!”

This throng of wrong was led by Alex Jones (not to be confused with journalist Alex S. Jones), a conspiracy salesman whose radio show, website, and videos make him the Prince of Paranoia to those who fear they’re being followed by silent black helicopters. Jones claims, apparently in all seriousness, that members of the U.S. political and economic elite practice satanic occult rituals. He also claimed that:
"They're preparing for new terrorist attacks that are much larger. & they're planning to bring in foreign armies....The U.S. government is going to engage in large terrorist attacks domestically & probably internationally...They may kill millions of Americans." (Alex Jones Radio Show, 7/11/02)

Jones’ paranoia and grandstanding is amply displayed in a video shot in New York on September 9, 2006 by the Loose Change crew. (View video). They enter a buffet restaurant, and at 1:40 in the video Jones approaches a group of soldiers at a table and begins harassing them. The soldiers leave the restaurant, with Jones and two cameramen on their heels. Jones follows them down the street while lecturing them about WTC building 7 being “pulled” and “thermite” being found on steel at Ground Zero (more about these falsehoods later). The soldiers walk on with dignity. Jones takes a parting shot while jabbing his finger in the air: “The military-industrial complex tried to get this republic, but they failed!”
Jones then returns to the restaurant, where he apologizes to the manager for “running his guys off.” Ever the gentleman, Jones then “tips” the manager for his troubles. Conspiracy!


About the soldiers, Jones says to the camera, “Yeah, that guy was Northcom. Those guys were Martial Law Officers. Hit ‘em with the codes!” Jones believes that the U.S. will soon be under martial law, and that citizens will be herded into FEMA-run concentration camps. Honest.

When Jones returns to the table, the Loose Change crew applauds him, their hero. His accomplishment? Harassing people who may be asked to put their lives on the line so that Alex Jones can remain free to make a public jackass of himself. “That’s martial law, Northcom,” said Jones, giddily. “He was just laughing at me (inaudible). I fired off a code – gave him a Northcom designation code! He was like, Whoa!” A restaurant employee, functioning as the only editor the Loose Change crew seems to have ever met, then asks the cameramen to stop shooting.

On his radio show on 9/11/01, Jones lapsed into paranoid hysteria and blamed the attacks on the “New World Order,” of which the aforementioned “occult-practicing elites” are supposedly members. That’s forgivable. I’m sure the shock of the attacks made many people say and do strange things. The problem is, Alex Jones still thinks that the “New World Order” perpetrated the attacks, and so do his followers.

In the hands of this Hyperion of hyperbole, a “bullhorn” truly lives up to its name. At Ground Zero on 9/11/06, Jones stood at the fence of historic St. Paul’s Chapel, which houses a 9/11 memorial and which served as the place of refuge and care for workers at Ground Zero, and screamed “9/11 was an inside job!” Then he led the crowd a few blocks away to another historic building on Broadway. This description by a protester reads like a parody, but isn’t (bolding mine):
"Anywayz, that went on for a while, and then the movement began walking to 120 Broadway, where Larry Silverstiens office is. The police blocked off 2 lanes of traffic and the Truth Movement gathered in the middle of the street. Alex Jones got on the megaphone again and started speaking about WTC 7 and other things. In the hour or so we were there, we chanted "Pull it! pull it! pull it!" and "murderer! murderer! murderer!" among other sayings like "911 was an inside job, we have the proof, so face the truth!" After that, the Truth Movement marched to Police HQ, but me and my boy were both tired as shit and beat, so we decided to head back to Penn Station.

...Another thing I couldn't help but notice was the respect, concern, and love that the 9/11 Truth Movement represented. And on the other side, the hate and anger and wickedness of the so called "ordinary" people. They could not debate one fact, they couldn't talk without cursing or offending whoever they were talking to. To think that if it were them who died in the towers, and I had been there fighting for truth and wanting to know what happened to them, how unworthy they would be to protest for. I'm absolutely sure that there were good people that died in the towers, and not all evil hateful monsters like those there yesterday pretending to mourn. I dedicate my protest to any good person that died in the buildings, but it's sad to say, those people I encountered yesterday in mass, are not worth protesting for. Next time they're government kills them, I might just stay home and be quiet." (bolding mine) http://tinyurl.com/npobs
Radio host and conspiracy-monger John C. Clayton, who goes by the name “Jack Blood,” was equally skeptical about the “ordinary people” at Ground Zero. As a bell tolled the number of the 9/11 dead and the memorial service was underway across the street, he told a videographer, “I can only imagine how this would have gone if we weren't down here, if there wasn't a counter-message to the heartstring pulling and tying in knots” http://tinyurl.com/eaj7t Yes, Jack, it’s too bad you can’t mobilize 1,000 people to protest at every memorial service for murder victims. Fred Phelps would be proud of you.


“Jack Blood” at Ground Zero

(To read more of Jack Blood’s 9/11 victim-bashing, see the first page of my document Loose Change Creators Speak.)


Why were these protesters at Ground Zero during the memorial service? These quotes from the three creators of the 9/11 conspiracy video Loose Change, who organized the protest, say it all:

Dylan Avery, writer and director of Loose Change:
“This is gonna be the mainstream media event of the year! The major media everywhere is gonna be there, and if they wanna cover the memorial, they're gonna have to cover us, because there's so many of us in numbers.”
Korey Rowe, producer of Loose Change:
“They will have to cover us if they want to cover the memorial.”
Jason Bermas, production assistant and “researcher” of Loose Change:
“There's gonna be every major media outlet in the world at Ground Zero, and if they want a wide shot, they're gonna have to cover us, and a hundred signs that say ‘9/11 Was an Inside Job!’” (Quotes and references appear in Loose Change Creators Speak P. 21)