9/11 Fact Sheet

When walking from one class to another I often times pass by an area of campus I like to call "Propaganda Ally." This is an area of campus that allows for people to exercise their right to free speech. Walking down this path can often be entertaining, and other times it can just be annoying.

Today, as I was walking to the student center from my first class, I was handed a pamphlet. It reads as follows: (Under each of the points I will be posting my comments in italics)

The Independent Thinkers
9/11 FACT SHEET
What occurred on September 11th, 2001 is a matter of facts, physics and unprecedented violations of national protocol by American officials themselves. Here are 10 points to consider. There are hundreds more.

1. No steel-framed building before or since 9/11 has ever collapsed due to fire.

Have any steel-framed buildings before or after 9/11 ever collapsed due to a freaking airplane crashing into it? I was under the impression that the planes crashing into the buildings was the cause of the collapse. After all, the two planes that crashed into the building weighed around 300,000 pounds. Do these "thinkers" really believe that an extra 300,000 pounds of weight crashing into a building at speeds around 466mph isn't going to affect the buildings' frames?

2. No official agency (FAA, FBI, or the airlines) has ever released a list of the 9/11 passengers. But within hours, the FBI released a list of the hijackers.

Isn't this the case in ALL incidents like this? I mean, I don't know who all was killed in the Columbine shootings. I can find the names of the shooters though. Furthermore, I'm glad the names of the victims are kept private, and I believe that they should remain private. If anyone of my family were to be killed in such a tragic manner, the last thing I'd want is some complete stranger from across the country tracking down my telephone number to tell me how sorry (or happy) he is about my loss.

3. On September 11th, 2001 the FAA successfully grounded all aircraft--an unprecedented operation. Yet it could not successfully scramble any jet fighters that day--a normal procedure occurring over 100 times a year.

I’m pretty much not going to comment on this one because I don’t really get what point it is that they’re trying to make.

4. Building 7, a 47-story skyscraper and part of the World Trade Center complex, was not struck by a plane but collapsed in 6.5 seconds at 5:20 p.m. on September 11th, in the exact manner of a controlled demolition.

From my understanding, Building 7 was across the street from the twin towers. Building 7 took on severe damage from debris that fell from the towers. So, you’re telling me that if a building were to take on gashes in the walls that went from the 8th to 18th floor (that’s 10 stories of damage) that there’s no possible way that it would collapse? True, this building wasn’t hit by a plane, but it did take on its fair share of damage.

5. There was no visible airplane debris where flight 93 supposedly crashed in Pennsylvania--only a smoking hole in the ground, much like a bomb crater.

Supposedly? Only a smoking hole? Hmm… that’s odd. If there was “only a smoking hole in the ground” then what was it exactly that Somerset County Coroner Wally Miller identified at the crash site to be the bodies of the passengers? I guess he just supposedly found the passengers' bodies. Oh, and I guess some aliens teleported the flight data recorder 25 feet below the crater. Since there was no airplane debris… alien interference seems to be the only logical explanation as to how that got there.

6. Office fires burn at low temperatures of 600-800 dF. Steel melts at 2750 dF. Jet fuel is an ordinary hydrocarbon; its maximal burning temperature is 1200dF in open air. Neither jet fuel nor the burning contents of the buildings could have caused the towers' steel structure to buckle or fail.

Hmm… I wonder if the 300,000 pounds of exploding metal slamming into the building at 466 mph could have weakened the steel structure and caused the buildings to collapse. Then again, I’m sure the engineers and architects that worked on the towers worked that kind of weight and force into their schematics, so the plane crashing into the buildings probably had nothing to do with the collapse.

7. Tests have shown that cell-phone calls cannot be made at altitudes over 4000 to 8000 feet, as cell towers are located on the ground. Commercial airplanes fly at 30,000 feet and above. No passenger could have successfully placed a call for help by cell phone from an airborne plane on 9/11, as reported.

Dang, I didn’t realize the towers were 30,000 feet tall. And I thought the towers were 1,368 feet and 1,362 feet tall. But I must be wrong, because 1,368 and 1,362 are both less than 4000-8000. And if you can’t get what I’m hinting at here… if it’s true that cell phones won’t work at altitudes over 4000-8000 feet, and the towers were 1362-1368 feet, and the plane had to drop its altitude all the way down to the 1,300s then I’m confused with how it would be impossible for someone to make a call.

8. 9/11 was immediately declared an "act of war" by President Bush. The rubble from Ground Zero was carted away and the steel sold off without examination.

Umm… if we were to blow up some buildings of equal value/importance in another country… wouldn’t it be an act of war? Who wouldn’t have viewed it as an act of war? What, it was an accident? It wasn’t an actual attack?
Furthermore, what exactly needed to be examined? Also, did these people want the government to put police tape around the entire crash site until a full investigation was complete? Yeah, that’s practical. However, I would love to have seen the results of the investigation… “Well Sarge, it appears a giant flying device crashed into both towers.”

9. Enormous profits were made by insiders of plummeting stock prices of the two airlines involved in 9/11--American and United. Federal law protects their identities.

Hell yeah, and it should. Imagine what would happen if the entire population of America new the names of those who profited from the crashes. I don’t understand why this type of information should be made public. Someone is always going to profit from something bad. That doesn’t make the profiters evil people. They just had the better luck.

10. Accepting victims' compensation barred 9/11 families from further discovery through litigation.

And I’m leaving this alone because, again, I don’t understand what they’re trying to say here.

After going through this pamphlet, I find it humorous that this group calls themselves “thinkers.” It’s a lack of thought that produces this kind of nonsense.