Debunking the Most Desperate and Absurd Truther Lies about 911
~ AN EXERCISE IN LOGIC ~
INTRODUCTION: Never mind that 911 played out before our very eyes on live TV in the busiest city in the world. Never mind that Al Qaeda has repeatedly admitted to the attacks and had tried previously to take down the North WTC tower in '93 and vowed to try again. Never mind that nobody from air traffic control, nor American Airlines, nor first scene responders, nor crash scene investigators, nor forensic investigators, nor police or fire department responders, nor witnesses, nor news crews, nor mysterious demolition crews have ever come forward and claimed to have been either a would be conspirator (who said no to the evil government recruiter) or a conspirator as part of a nefarious 911 plot. Never mind that a U.S. District Judge called the truth movement a product of "cynical delusion and fantasy" and 3 more judges agreed. But some delusional anti-government purists have desperately tried to challenge the obvious, taking the impossible position that the US government blew itself up on 911 all in a massive conspiracy of thousands of evil government operatives. After 14 years of searching for actual hard evidence and waiting for a single conspirator to come forward, truthers still have nothing -- Just a rabid hatred of government that obscures all logic. It's time for them to hang it up. But, for posterity, we can still laugh at the most desperate and absurd truth movement lies....
UPDATE: Use archive.org and/or archive.ph to view links to webpages that no longer exist.
1) “Pull it”
In a 2002 PBS conducted an interview with WTC Building 7 lessee, Larry Silverstein. In that interview he used an ambiguous word in two sentences... "pull"
"I remember getting a call from the fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure that they were going to be able to contain the fire. And I said you know we've had such terrible loss of life. Maybe the smartest thing to do is just pull it. And they made that decision to pull, and then we watched the building collapse." -- Larry Silverstein
Truthers hailed this as proof positive that building 7 was brought down by controlled demolition, and this sparked a back and forth red herring debate about whether the ambiguous word "pull" is or isn't a term used by the fire department or in the demolition business.
Unfortunately truthers didn't think this one out.
For starters, the only thing that matters is what the word "pull" meant to Larry Silverstein. A spokesperson for Silverstein later said that he meant withdraw firefighters. And for what it's worth, according to at least 11 demolition companies surveyed, "pull it" is not a term that they use to describe "demolishing a building". Furthermore, fire departments are in the business of fighting fires -- Not demolishing buildings!
And lo and behold, NY Deputy Fire Chief Peter Hayden used the same P-word to describe moving people out to safety when asked about WTC7 in an interview with Firehouse Magazine:
“...we started PULLING the people back after a couple of hours of surface removal and searches along the surface of the debris. We started to PULL guys back because we were concerned for their safety" -- Deputy Chief Peter Hayden of the New York Fire Department
But just for fun, let's assume for a moment that when Larry said "pull" he meant "trigger the explosives". Why on earth would he openly admit to insurance fraud in a TV interview? It makes absolutely no sense. And better yet, why hasn't the insurance company that paid out on the claim investigated this? Obviously even they don't believe in controlled demolition fairy tales.
Even more ridiculous is that in believing that Larry meant "trigger the explosives" you must also believe that the New York City Fire Department conspired with Larry Silverstein to commit insurance fraud by demolishing World Trade Center 7! And you must also accept that conspirators had both 1) advance knowledge of the 911 attacks and 2) had previously arranged for crews to rig building 7 with explosives without being detected by tenants or security. It's so fantastically absurd that even Hollywood would reject this script.
The cost of rebuilding WTC7 plus paying back the loans on WTC7 exceeded the amount of the WTC7 insurance payout. Therefore there would be no motive to destroy WTC7 in the first place.
Furthermore, Larry Silverstein is already worth 3.5 billion. Why would a billionaire risk going to prison for insurance fraud, for potentially accidentally killing hundreds or thousands of people with high explosives in order to hopefully save money when he's already mega-wealthy? The idea of rigging a huge building full of tenants with explosives without being noticed or getting caught is certifiably absurd to begin with. How would you even begin to recruit people to work on such a massive nefarious project, and then keep them quiet? Nobody would even consider such a thing. Only truthers dream this stuff up!
Then we have these facts: WTC7 burned out of control for 7 hours. Firefighters and others on the scene said that by 2 PM WTC7 was bulging and shortly thereafter began making creaking noises. Accordingly, NYFD evacuated the area due to safety concerns. Seismic records recorded by the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory showed no trace of detonation charges. The plane impacts and building collapses produced signals, but there was no trace of any detonation charges. WTC7 did not collapse symmetrically. No conspirators have ever come forward with any information about any nefarious destruction of WTC7. Case closed.
2) The BBC was given advance knowledge of the collapse of WTC7
The media makes mistakes all the time. They are often guilty of being hasty. The Chicago Tribune famously printed the false headline Dewey Defeats Truman. TV news rooms are notoriously chaotic when it comes to reporting the news as events unfold live. Yet somehow truthers surmised that when the BBC reported on the collapse of WTC7 twenty minutes before it happened, that this was the smoking gun. They declared that the BBC must have been given advance knowledge of an evil plot to demolish the building.
Once again truthers never thought this one out.
First of all, a logical person has to wonder why would you give a news organization, let alone a foreign news organization advance knowledge of a nefarious act? Why not just let them report it as it happens?
It had already been reported that WTC7 was on fire, it was bulging and making creaking noises, and that fire crews had been pulled out of the area for their safety. It is easy to see how the story got twisted around. Somehow somebody mistook "about to collapse" as "has collapsed".
Furthermore, for someone to believe this conspiracy you must also have an even larger web of conspirators. In addition to a mysterious crew of demolition conspirators slipping past security with wires and explosives rigging the building for weeks and without being noticed by tenants, plus Larry Silverstein, plus NY Fire Department conspirators, plus an insurance company looking the other way, you would also have to have secretive play-by-play communication between the NY fire department and a mysterious government control center conspirator who in turn contacts a producer conspirator at the British TV network. It's more ridiculous than anything Hollywood could produce.
When conspiracy theorist's best evidence of controlled demolition is a false news report, they have reached the point of futility.
3) 2,200 Architects and Engineers
Some 2,200+ architects and engineers world wide apparently signed a petition demanding an independent investigation into the destruction of the world trade center buildings because they question the "official story".
What a small group of people think is not actual evidence, and truthers are devoid of any actual evidence. But for whoever might be swayed by the opinions of others, at first glance 2,200 might seem impressive... That is until you realize that, according to US labor statistics, there are 1.6 million architects and engineers in the United States alone!!! It's fair to assume that world wide there might be 10 times that many architects and engineers. So that means that perhaps only about 0.00014% of all architects and engineers signed this petition, or nearly one out of every 7,500 architects and engineers! That's beyond dismal! And you have to assume that some of these architects and engineers who signed the petition are from countries who are not exactly best of friends with the US (like Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, etc). Furthermore what percentage of these architects and engineers actually have training and experience with 50 and 110 story skyscrapers rather than just ordinary commercial property, residential homes, mud huts in Pakistan, etc?
And finally, what is stopping these 2,200 architects and engineers from conducting additional studies on their own? They are free to investigate all they want! The truth is that they have already been investigating 911 for over 13 years but still have no hard evidence of any conspiracy and no conspirators or would be conspirators have ever come forward (in a world where somebody... anybody always leaks information). In real life, when there is something nefarious, these things investigate themselves as whistleblowers come forward, yet nothing of the sort has ever materialized. So this petition itself is one big red herring. It's an attempt by truthers to create a bubble of uncertainty.
4) "I heard explosions!"
Some witnesses reported hearing "explosions" to describe what they heard when each of the 3 buildings collapsed in NYC. Truthers didn't think this one out because all 3 of the building collapses are already captured on video (complete with audio) and this footage tells a different story. There is no need to "piece together" what happened when it's already on video! Video does not lie or get confused. No Vegas-like explosions are heard in any footage of 911.
The average Joe on the street does not know what a collapsing building is supposed to sound like. It's loud and it makes a rumbling sound -- like an explosion. Again, anyone can listen to the collapses on YouTube and play them back over and over. The fact that truthers are ignoring video proof in favor of cherry picking witness descriptors is very telling.
5) Free-fall speed
This lie traveled around the world and even got regurgitated by buffoon Rosie O'Donnell on the View who stated that each WTC tower fell in 9 seconds. In reality it took the South tower about 15 seconds to collapse and the North tower collapsed in about 22 seconds.
Furthermore, from simply looking at video of the collapse, one can clearly see large pieces of debris falling over the side and away from the main structure at a much faster speed than the main structure. There is no need for a physics degree and complex physics calculations. These pieces of debris represent the speed of gravity because they are falling through thin air without resistance. By the time this debris hits ground level the main structure is still collapsing up around perhaps the 40th floor.
6) Thermite was found in WTC dust
BYU professor Steven E. Jones published a paper claiming that he discovered traces of thermite in WTC dust. For starters this paper was not peer reviewed by a civil engineering journal such as the Journal of Engineering Mechanics. Jones is a physics professor but apparently has no experience in building collapse forensics. Brigham Young University's structural engineering professors do not agree with Jones' claims. In fact, at 
the request of BYU administrators, Jones removed his paper from BYU's website and was placed on paid leave.
Then James Millette, a scientist of forensics, particle and materials studies since 1972 did his own study of WTC dust. Finally someone who is qualified! Millette essentially debunked Jones, demonstrating that there is no thermite in any shape, form, or function in ground zero dust particles. In fact some of what Jones had thought was elements left behind from a termite reaction was nothing more than paint and carbon steel, according to Millette.
“The red/gray chips found in the WTC dust at four sites in New York City are consistent with a carbon steel coated with an epoxy resin that contains primarily iron oxide and kaolin clay pigments.”
“There is no evidence of individual elemental aluminium particles of any size in the red/gray chips, therefore the red layer of the red/gray chips are not thermite or nano-thermite.”
Furthermore, you don't have to be a forensic scientist to figure out that the WTC buildings were not brought down by controlled demolition. All one has to do is look at video of the collapse of the WTC towers and then use logic. Each of the two WTC buildings began to collapse exactly at the point of the fires. If the buildings were rigged with thermite and triggered by fuses you have to say to yourself... Wait a minute! These fires burned for 56 minutes (South tower) and 1 hour and 43 minutes (North tower) before collapsing, but the thermite didn't get set off. And you also have to ask yourself how did the "big bad government" know precisely which floors the planes where going to crash at? And why wait so long? Why not collapse the buildings upon impact of the planes? And what about those planes loaded with jet fuel??? How anyone can look at planes hitting the towers and think that it was something else, is going through an exercise in stupidity.
7) The WTC's were designed to withstand a jet crash
This truther assertion is just plain false, yet somehow this lie has also traveled around the truther world. In reality the WTC buildings were designed to hopefully withstand fire resulting from a smaller Boeing 707 traveling at slow speed (186 MPH) and low on fuel. On 911 the towers were hit by 767's that were not only flying faster (at 470 and 590 MPH) but were also loaded with fuel. Some question why does the element of speed matter? The force of a collision increases exponentially with speed. For example a 100% increase in velocity results in not twice as much kinetic energy but 4 times as much.
A better question is for truthers to answer. If one believes that "the big bad government" pre-planted thermite where the planes crashed (this is where the buildings began to collapse), then how on earth did thermite and intricate wiring survive the impacts and explosions? As usual truthers never thought this one out.
8) Cell phone calls from planes are impossible / fake calls
Truthers claim that the phone conversations between passengers and loved ones from aboard flight 93 were impossible because cell phones were not designed for calls from high altitudes. As always, truthers never thought this one out.
For starters this theory is coupled with the fantastical claim that no plane crashed in Shanksville, PA or in Washington DC. Never mind that we already have video proof of planes crashing into the world trade center buildings! If you can connect simple dots then you can immediately discard the "no planes" theory as a desperate fairy tale.
In reality most of the calls from flight 93 were made using onboard air phones -- not cell phones. Only two cell phone calls were placed. Despite numerous truther videos and websites claiming the contrary, high altitude cell phone calls are indeed possible. This has been outlined by numerous experts and in numerous articles. The ability to connect a call and the connection duration depends on various factors such as altitude, proximity to cell towers, and the speed of the aircraft.
To believe that these calls were staged you must also assume that either 1) the family members are all lying about the conversations they had, or 2) a team of evil government pranksters somehow managed to prerecord voices of each passenger then placed and recorded each call in real time by playing samples of the pre-recorded voices. Then you have to ask why go to all of this enormous trouble??? Icing on the cake? Why not just let it all play out without placing "fake" calls to loved ones? It makes absolutely no sense.
9) Flight 93 did not crash in Shanksville
This absurd conspiracy theory was born out of ignorance of what a plane crash is supposed to look like from a helicopter. When overhead photos didn't show a debris field and a cartoon cut out of the plane, truthers cried foul.
Most planes attempt to make an emergency landing -- Not Flight 93, which was hijacked on a suicide mission and crashed at a 40 degree angle. As a result, most of the wreckage including the engines was pummeled into the ground, out of sight. Small debris was found above ground but was small enough that it was not visible from the high aerial shot of the crash scene. PSA Flight 1771 also left a similar crater and empty crash scene when it crashed in 1987.
Even though flight 93 went down in a very rural area, there were many documented witnesses.
The cockpit voice recorder captured the final 30 minutes of the flight. Hijacker Ziad Jarrah's voice is heard announcing to passengers that a bomb is onboard, etc. Air traffic control also recorded Captain Jason Dahl shouting "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" etc.
Furthermore, 3 other planes were hijacked under the same method of operation and crashed on 911, two of which were captured on video in NYC. These planes were never reported to have landed or crashed anywhere else. It's a case of connecting simple dots.
10) A missile crashed into the Pentagon - Not Flight 77
As if it wasn't any easier to connect the 4 plane "dots", truthers nevertheless claim that Flight 77 did not crash into the Pentagon simply because there was no clear video footage of the event. Truthers love to latch on to any bubble they can find.
Keep in mind that in New York City, the most crowded city in the world, only one camera happened to capture the first crash (Flight 11). Therefore it's not surprising that there is no clear video footage in Washington DC.
And so in the absence of irrefutable video evidence, what's the next best thing? Lots of witnesses plus circumstantial, physical and forensic evidence. We have a mountain of that! In fact there were at least 163 documented witnesses to the Flight 77 crash. 136 of them said they saw a plane, 26 said it was an American Airlines jet, 7 said it was a Boeing 757, 39 said large jet / commercial airliner, 2 said commuter plane but didn't mention size, and 1 said a corporate jet. NOBODY said they saw a missile. Nobody.
Truthers have also flat out lied and claimed that there was no plane debris at the scene. This is pure fabrication. Most famously, part of the aluminum fuselage was sheared off when wings of the plane clipped light posts. Furthermore, for a missile to have been fired into the Pentagon it would have to have traveled in an impossible zig zag pattern in order to take out the 5 lamp posts that were sheered by the wings of Flight 77.
DNA from all victims except an infant was recovered from the crash scene. Flight 77 has never been reported to have gone anywhere but into the Pentagon.
11) NORAD allowed Flight 77 to crash into the Pentagon
Truthers will argue that the Pentagon was the "most secure building in the world" and therefore Flight 77 should have been shot down. As far as ground protection, the Pentagon is very secure, but certainly not so much when it comes to air security. In fact Reagan Washington National Airport is located just 3/4 of a mile away from and right in line with the Pentagon! Planes constantly fly over the pentagon! This perfectly illustrates the lack of forethought that goes into these truther conspiracy theories.
As for why North American Aerospace Defense Command did not engage with Flight 77, NORAD didn't actually track flights within America prior to 911. The hijackers also turned off the transponders on the planes, which meant Air Traffic Control couldn't track for certain where the planes were. NORAD needed an alert from Air Traffic Control in order to act. Then what could they have done? Prior to 911, passenger jets had never been used as weapons. The method of operation for hijackers had always been to land planes. The attacks of 911 were completely unprecedented and unexpected.
Furthermore, if a NORAD jet had shot down flight 77, they would have been criticized for murdering all of the passengers. Truthers have already (falsely) accused NORAD of shooting down Flight 93. So NORAD is damned if they do and damned if they don't shoot down the planes.
12) Not hot enough to melt the steel
It is a fact that jet fuel burns at 1,517°F and construction steel melts at around 2800°F. This gives us at least a rough basis for guessing how hot it was inside of the burning towers. Know-nothing truthers quickly hailed this 1,000 degree temperature difference as proof positive that something else (besides the obvious) brought down the world trade center towers.
However the operative word is "melt". Did the trade center structural steel need to melt (zero strength) in order to collapse with all of that dead weight (of 4,500 tons per floor) pushing down from above? Of course not! It is a fact that structural steel begins to soften around only 797°F and loses half its strength at only 1,200°F.
But wait! There's even more absurd truther lies!
CLICK HERE to continue reading!