In a weird alignment of planets, this week in the news, at home and at work I’ve been plagued by conspiracy theorists determined to convince me, once again, that George Bush, Zionists or even the Vatican were responsible for the September 11 attacks.

In general, I consider conspiracy theories the rabid fantasies of lonely blokes who failed at university and have spent the rest of their lives trying to prove they’re smarter than everyone who passed.

And since many of them are, unlike me, smart enough to retain and regurgitate precise (albeit selective) scientific detail, it makes me a pretty soft target for their rants. Therefore, in preparation for my next 9/11 nut job assault, I’ve been working on an official response.

I don’t know if you’ve checked, but there are significantly more websites dedicated to conspiracy theories than to the mainstream point of view. In fact my 15-year-old got half way through a history assignment on September 11 before her confused cries for help alerted us to the fact she was reading the wrong stuff.

I know if you’re a conspiracy theorist you’re mad at me now for not letting my daughter read everything and draw her own conclusions. Honestly, I was just saving her the time.

With a nod to the animated series South Park, in short, there are three reasons I don’t think George Bush, The Pope or even the CIA did it – love, logistics and dibber-dobbers.

Truth Movement websites, as they’re known, routinely claim there were no terrorists on board any of the 9/11 flights. Apparently the pilots were either stooges or, in the case of the World Trade Centre crashes, the planes were military jets guided remotely into the buildings with no passengers on board. The phone calls from supposed loved ones were faked and the actual passenger jets that went missing on the day were shot down over the ocean.

The heart of the conspiracy theory stems from how the buildings collapsed. In particular, that an aviation fuel fire is incapable of melting steel, that the buildings collapsed upon themselves and that a third building, not hit by a hijacked plane also collapsed. There’s plenty more, by the way, but this will do for now. Based on those propositions, the truth movement contends all three buildings were imploded in a “controlled demolition” using explosives planted at some earlier time.

They also claim the Pentagon was not hit by an airliner but by a guided missile and the fourth airliner, United 93, was shot down en route to the capital because the passengers threatened to land it successfully thus exposing the plot.

To accept any of it, you have to believe there are thousands of people connected to the US government evil and brilliant enough to co-ordinate such a complex plan, without one person ever dobbing. Keep in mind that the group had to train or invent 19 fake hijackers, complete with elaborate background stories and send them to flying schools across the country to ensure there was someone to blame following the event.

Imagine the paperwork. No matter how rotten you think the US administration is there must be some good people in there. And surely they’d be looking for paperwork on every new recruit, every planning meeting, request for flight times, aircraft requisition, talent fee, mislaid guided missile or flying student conveniently made disappear. And don’t get me started on the overtime it would have taken for the bomb squad to wire up the twin towers.

It’s not only ridiculous to suggest there were hundreds of civil servants willing to cold heartedly slaughter thousands of their countrymen, it’s deeply offensive. And just quietly, you know how all of your friends have stopped arguing about your whack job theories? I promise you, it’s not assent, they’re just bored.

It’s not only ridiculous to suggest there were hundreds of civil servants willing to cold heartedly slaughter thousands of their countrymen, it’s deeply offensive.

The post Radio Host Caroline Hutchinson Proves She's No Journalist appeared first on 9/11 Truth News.

The trek west took 105 minutes, but so what? Michalek, 64, would have driven nine hours to commune and commiserate with other Iowans who believe the official story of Sept. 11, 2001, is a big fat lie.

“It’s the only game in Iowa,” he said.

The only game, he meant, for people who think 9/11 is the least examined tragedy in American history.

According to 911truth.org, the Adel group has company. Grass-roots organizers also exist in Cedar Falls, Davenport and Indianola.

That said, going on nine years after the attack on the United States, the 9/11 truthers are still playing small ball. The group, for the most part, is still more sect than mainline denomination.

Though 15 people showed up for the June meeting at the Adel Public Library, the attendees are convinced the movement is gaining strength and that someday the conspiracy theory will become an accepted fact.

James Hufferd, a former junior college teacher with a Ph.D., has been calling these monthly meetings for almost three years. When they have a speaker, they draw a decent crowd. In April, theologian and author David Ray Griffin filled a 300-seat auditorium at Drake.

On this night, Dennis Scar, 60, rolled in from his farm near Earlham. Lin Cornelison, 59, traveled from Creston. Angela Bassett, 38, came from Urbandale. Scott Hartung, 51, Kent Harkrader, 45, and John Frankling, 35, are from Des Moines.

Spread out on a table was a small video library. Dave Scar, 58, of Woodward, said he’s made 11,000 copies of various titles. Simply ask and ye shall receive.

Beginners, Scar said, might want to begin with “Loose Change” then work their way to “Zero: 9/11” or “911 in Plane Site” or “Blueprint for Truth” or “9/11 Mysteries.”

Most members of the group seem to believe the attack was an inside job that gave the United States an excuse to go to war. And if you disagree, it’s only because you haven’t taken the time to study the evidence or you’ve fallen under the sway of the lazy, corrupt corporate media.

If you want to debate the truthers, come prepared. Right or wrong, they’ve looked into this a lot more than the rest of us.

Michalek, a retired teacher, probation officer, truck driver, farmer and military veteran, said he lies in bed wondering how he can make people understand that, whatever happened, 9/11 cries out for further investigation.

“I wake up at 3 in the morning,” he said, “asking myself: How can I better reach people? How can I change minds? For me it was easy. I knew the government lied to me about Vietnam, because I was there.”

In Tuesday’s session, the truthers ate pizza and watched a film of scientist Kevin Ryan speaking at a college in Vermont. Ryan was fired from his lab director job after challenging government findings that burning jet fuel weakened the steel beams supporting the World Trade Center towers.

Ryan’s laboratory said he was axed for making his opinions sound like those of his employer. The Adel crowd believes he was fired for telling the truth.

Before they watched the video, “The Emerging Science Around the 9/11 WTC Destruction,” Hufferd warned the group. It’s a little technical.

A little technical? Ryan stood behind the lectern and talked about nanothermite and red/gray chips and methyl ketone something or other.

The video was less about juicy tidbits and dark scenarios and more about science and how the collapse of the Trade Center showed all the characteristics of a staged demolition event.

The truthers watched the film as if it were the final episode of “Law & Order.” In Ryan’s Q&A session, there was some sexy stuff about gangsters and FBI moles and how the conspiracy might go back further than people think.

When the film was over, the group members talked about what they’d learned: “I hadn’t heard two people were killed in the clean-up,” one person said.

Another wondered how John O’Neal really died. John O’Neal? I looked it up later. He was a counterterrorism guru who got fed up, quit the FBI and became head of security at the World Trade Center. Two weeks later, he died in the attack.

All their curiosity doesn’t make the truthers popular. In fact, it rubs a lot of people the wrong way.

Even loved ones sometimes wonder what went wrong. Frankling, a carpenter, said his mother isn’t buying what he’s selling. “She told me, ‘I raised you better than that,’ ” he said with a smile.

Most people, somebody else added, don’t want to believe the United States would murder 3,000 of its own citizens. Truthwise, there definitely is that.

The post For 9/11 Skeptics in Iowa, Case Is Far From Settled appeared first on 9/11 Truth News.