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Will the Conspiracy Theories Ever Die?

By Jamie McIntyre Friday, September 11th, 2009 8:16 am
Posted in Asides, On My Soapbox

On this somber anniversary, I am going to take advantage of the fact that I now have my own blog to set the record straight on one event of eight years ago.

For years now a tiny snippet of my reporting from that day has been circulating around the Internet, and used – out of context — to buttress the malevolent arguments of some wacky conspiracy theorists who claim to believe September 11 was in “inside job.”

Click on this excerpt from YouTube to see how the clip has been used to portray me as someone who was on the scene but yet saw no evidence a plane hit anywhere near the Pentagon. Listen carefully.

Now check out what I really said in this longer clip, which can also be found on YouTube. Here you see that I am answering a question from Judy Woodruff about an earlier, erroneous report that the plane may have crashed short of the Pentagon. No, I say, nothing NEAR the Pentagon, only AT the Pentagon.

This is a good cautionary tale about believing what you “see” on the internet. As I like to say, It’s good to have an open mind, but if your mind is too open your brain can fall out.

Tags: 9/11, Conspiracy, Flight 77

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	Justin September 11th, 2009 at 12:48 pm I stumbled upon this clip last night before you posted it and find it extraordinary and disturbing the lengths some will go to twist words to get exactly what they want to hear.
	CharlesHouston September 11th, 2009 at 1:53 pm This is a good example of the advantages and disadvantages of this Internet thing!! Both responsible people and irresponsible people can have web sites that are hard to tell apart. A well done conspiracy site could appear to be as reliable as a site done by an actual reporter. And the history of governments (and corporations, and individuals) hiding things — often for good reasons — makes reasonable people want to give the fringes some ability to be heard. The only thing that I can suggest is that journalists keep patiently explaining the truth (as they see it) and address conspiracy theories as they can.
	JMitchell September 11th, 2009 at 4:46 pm The conspiracy theorists are irresponsible individuals who want to create their own version of history to fit their own politics. My friend standing at his office window of the Navy Annex watched an airliner fly over his office window, and “accordion“into the side of the Pentagon. He is an eye witness. The conspiracy theorists also can’t explain what happened to the passengers of Flight 77, but they must think they are living in the Hollywood sound stage where they believe 9/11 was staged.
	AJM September 11th, 2009 at 5:41 pm The BBC did a pretty good job of debunking the ‘Loose Change’ excercise in bedroom journalism: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=668022450...
	Don September 12th, 2009 at 6:51 pm The conspiracy theorists are irresponsible individuals who want to create their own version of history to fit their own politics. Truer words were never spoken. The problem is some people will believe them because they are words that fit there beliefs. You can find them under every rock. There the uniformed many of them will believe anything . They are in the Streets of our Nations Capital to day protesting. What they do not no and they do not want to no. They have been Indoctrinated to believe anything that some people want them to.
	SaratogaYork September 13th, 2009 at 9:11 am Thank your for your painfully personal passion to set the record correct. My local community swarms with “Truthers”… and yet I remain thankful that this is still America. And STILL The Home of the Brave. The Brave. Like my brother who personally oversaw the evacuation of his floor of Building 7… and no, his corner office columns were never wrapped in detonation explosives. No, he walked the entire floor one last time before following his co-workers down the stairway. The Brave. Like my friend FBI Agent John O’Neill who was last seen going up Tower 2 to rescue the victims, most already dead. The Brave . Like my friend who took the pictures of the North side of Building 7 with two floors ablaze and a company of firefighters who had been turned away, dejected and disgusted. I was the one who posted the photo on a Truther’s blog… a photo now widely spread and attributed to an “anonymous” source. The Brave. Our friends and quiet anonymous neighbors who boarded planes for flights to see those they loved, those they laughed with. Those they left with broken hearts and shattered worlds. The Brave. Like those of us who have a general grasp of the killers, a motivated and meticulous team of religious zealots, murderers all. We’ve learned the names of the guilty, names which do not include “Cheney” of “Rumsfeld.” The Brave. We who continue to hunt for Bin Laden and all Al Qaeda brethren committed to killing more Americans. We realize that for all of our government’s lies of the past, we remain focused on the realities at hand. For all our shortcomings, we know the value of a “Canary in the Coalmine”… and the perverse Prairie Dog Panic of the delusional “Truthers.” Yes, it is always wise to know the failings and the propaganda of our nation’s darker moments. Better still to understand the history of the Mideast, the meaning of Jihad, and the extreme underpinnings of the Wahabi followers of Abd al-Wahhab… the Saudi Arabian sect of Islam that took unspeakable terror into the skies on September 11, 2001. It haunts us still. And it hunts us with a bloodlust.
	SaratogaYork September 13th, 2009 at 9:12 am Thank your for your painfully personal passion to set the record correct. My local community swarms with “Truthers”… and yet I remain thankful that this is still America. And STILL The Home of the Brave. The Brave. Like my brother who personally oversaw the evacuation of his floor of Building 7… and no, his corner office columns were never wrapped in detonation explosives. No, he walked the entire floor one last time before following his co-workers down the stairway. The Brave. Like my friend FBI Agent John O’Neill who was last seen going up Tower 2 to rescue the victims, most already dead. The Brave . Like my friend who took the pictures of the North side of Building 7 with two floors ablaze and a company of firefighters who had been turned away, dejected and disgusted. I was the one who posted the photo on a Truther’s blog… a photo now widely spread and attributed to an “anonymous” source. The Brave. Our friends and quiet anonymous neighbors who boarded planes for flights to see those they loved, those they laughed with. Those they left with broken hearts and shattered worlds. The Brave. Like those of us who have a general grasp of the killers, a motivated and meticulous team of religious zealots, murderers all. We’ve learned the names of the guilty, names which do not include “Cheney” or “Rumsfeld.” The Brave. We who continue to hunt for Bin Laden and all Al Qaeda brethren committed to killing more Americans. We realize that for all of our government’s lies of the past, we remain focused on the realities at hand. For all our shortcomings, we know the value of a “Canary in the Coalmine”… and the perverse Prairie Dog Panic of the delusional “Truthers.” Yes, it is always wise to know the failings and the propaganda of our nation’s darker moments. Better still to understand the history of the Mideast, the meaning of Jihad, and the extreme underpinnings of the Wahabi followers of Abd al-Wahhab… the Saudi Arabian sect of Islam that took unspeakable terror into the skies on September 11, 2001. It haunts us still. And it hunts us with a bloodlust.
	Findthefacts September 14th, 2009 at 6:01 am Thank you for finding another eye witness that discounts the official version of the story. If the plane did fly directly over your friends office window of the Navy Annex, then it could not have possibly knocked down the light poles. Only if the plane had passed south of the Navy Annex is it possible to knock down the light poles. Conspiracies are only conspiracies until they are proven fact. The conspiracy of 19 Arab hijackers has not been proven fact. It is only a conspiracy theory. Lets look for the facts to prove which conspiracy theory is correct.
	Eye Witness September 14th, 2009 at 2:06 pm I was in the parking lot of the Pentagon that morning. I heard the airplane, turned to watch it, wondered why it was so low, then watched it crash into the side of the building. I was, to say the least, stunned. I am not sure what these crazies who were not there are saying, but unless they pulled of the most amazing illusion in history, convincing me that I saw something that was not there, that airplane flew straight into the side of the building.
	Janna September 15th, 2009 at 2:33 pm I’m sure the plane crashed into the Pentagon, but I still wonder who was behind it. I don’t believe the official story.