But the BBC reporter is clearly seen reading from a teleprompter. Obviously, she was reading something written on it, and not making up what would have then seemed to be a wild tale. In other words, she was reading a script, and that script had been put up on her teleprompter early. Not only that, she was sitting in front of a live image of the still-intact Building 7.
Somebody wrote that script and did so while Building 7 was still standing. How could they know that it would collapse, even if it was unstable, even if there was a fire in the cellars?
No, the author of the script did not think the building had collapsed. He knew that it would, and the statement was read early as a miscue.
If the BBC had not lost the video of that entire day, it would be easier to believe that this was some sort of a mistake. But the idea that an organization like the BBC, which prides itself on the record it keeps, would lose an entire day of some of the most historic footage it has ever shot is just very difficult to believe. It seems more likely that there was something on that footage that they wanted to bury.
As, indeed, there was.
The video in question is indeed a puzzle. I've been trying to come up with explanations that exclude "conspiracy" . . . and the scenarios that emerge are strained. I'd really like to know what's going on here.
how nice of You to write this
ReplyDeleteIn one of Arthur C. Clark's 2001-whatever books, he casually talks about the Tsunami of 2005. Does that mean there was a conspiracy to create a Tsunami that included Clark?
ReplyDeleteOf course not.
My media player could not open the file in the article. I wonder if there was some conspiracy to keep me from investigating the 9/11 claim.
Not all evil in the world is of George Bush's doing.
There are real Islamist terrorists out there. They bomb buses filled with school children. They kill people in resturants. They blow up trains filled with commuters. They make death fatwas on authors that criticize them. They believe in Sharia law: Homosexuality is a capital crime, as is conversion to another religion. Women are treated as property. Ancient Buddas are destroyed along with symbols of any other religion.
These are the people that bombed the World Trade Center. They even proudly admitted it.
There are conspiracy theories on how the Holocaust never happened (in an attempt to exonerate the Nazis). The conspiracy theories on 9/ll are along the same lines.
Stan
Thank you, Stan. You said everything I wanted to, but couldn't figure out just how I wanted to do it.
ReplyDeleteThe point that some people are trying to make about this hot-button subject is who knew about it, and when.
ReplyDeleteI just don't know enough about the WTC controversy to make up my mind. It is almost certainly a lot more complicated than the conventional wisdom lets on. There are a great deal of questions about the circumstances, even after we drop the obvious "nutty conspiracy" aspects.
Most people arrive at conclusions in this way: they make up their minds and then go out and find the evidence to support it.
With 9/11, there's unfortunately a lot of material to get through, and most don't have the time for it. That's fine, as long as decisions are based on enough verifiable evidence and not primarily on emotion.
What I'd really like to see is a debate between the best minds on all sides of the issue. This may have happened already. If someone has a URL for this, please post it.
Stan--
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts are appreciated -- and I agree with you -- but you simply didn't respond to my question. Indeed, you make a joke about not having seen the video.
I'm not trying to "start something"; I'm honestly seeking an explanation for the rather weird spectacle in the tape. Is it a hoax? Some clever viral marketing campaign to promote "The Number 23"? (You'll see where I'm coming from if you watch it.)
Or, if authentic, how does this impact the official version of events on 9-11-01 -- if at all?
Take a look. I'm puzzled.
Katie--
Having gotten through the requisite preamble, what do you think of the tape? What are we seeing?
Greg--
ReplyDeleteI for one would love to live in a world where one could blame W for everything!
Watched the tape, and while I can't say 100% for sure, I think it's a fake. I remember very clearly the immediacy, the confusion and the ad hoc quality of the reporting on the day and evening of 9/11, and this does not have that quality. There's a deliberate and polished tone to the piece that seems VERY out of place. It's too even-handed in tone. I have never seen of heard of any of the expert interviewees before, and the reporter's voice doesn't sound familiar to me either.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more likely: a vast global disinformation conspiracy involving hundreds of thousands, or even millions of participants, none of whom leak the truth, or a small group of conspiracy theorists who put together a superficially convincing "report" out of public domain news footage, and slap a BBC logo on it? My vote is viral campaign, or just outright lie for the sake of lying.
Thanks, Chris, for taking a look and offering an opinion. I hope more people follow your lead.
ReplyDeleteIf you're right and it's bogus (and I think you've got a case), I'd like to nail the perpetrators. To me, the giveaway (if it's a hoax) is the "23 minutes after" bit. That seems a bit too timely.
Any TV people (aka Paul Kimball) want to take a stab at this? ;-)
OK, I watched it, and offer up this opinion. With the large amount of confusion surrounding that day, I think it's possible that someone simply jumped the gun.
ReplyDeleteLooking at a timeline, the area around WTC7 was evacuated at 4:30 due to severe residual damage to building.
I can see a possibility that someone wrote a blurb about the building collapsing - sort of a "just in case" thing - and then got misinformation that the building had collapsed, thereby jumping the gun.
If I recall correctly, I seem to remember that MSNBC also reported that WTC7 collapsed before it actually did, but then they backpedaled, and said that they'd received incorrect information (maybe from the BBC?) and that the building was still standing.
I find it hard to believe that the BBC would have kept reporting this as fact when the damn structure was showing up right behind her, unless the crew was unfamiliar with the skyline, and didn't know that they'd been misinformed.
Look at it this way, I heard about five different accounts of what had damaged the Pentagon before anyone knew what had really happened. Might be the same sort of thing in this case.
Or as Chris said, it's fake.
I would say it's a fake, but CNN did it too! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1LetB0z8_o I hope that still works.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there's this video that raises even more similar quesitons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U_GISl3aAA
As I said in my blog about it: The questions that need to be answered are the following: (Conspiratorial) Who gave the information to the reporters? and (Journalistic incompetence) Why didn't anybody look out the window to make sure that WTC7 had indeed collapsed?
Assuming for the sake of argument that the timeline is accurate, i.e. the report was issued prior to the collapse, and that the video is legit, which it seems to be, then I would say that someone simply goofed. Bad reporting happens all the time. Given the confusion of that day, it doesn't strike me as odd at all that a BBC reporter, or anyone, might "jump the gun" by a few minutes with a report that a building which was severely damaged had collapsed when it had yet to do so. This isn't that big a deal... unless you're pre-disposed to buy the grand conspiracy theory.
ReplyDeleteThis is certainly much easier to accept than the alternative - a vast conspiracy that included the BBC, and then saw such a major error that could ruin the whole thing.
I just wish folks would use some common sense. They could start by buying and then reading (yes, the whole thing) the 9/11 Commission Report.
I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. I remember the reporting on that day. It was a fluid situation, and many things were gotten wrong, or they jumped the gun on news. Heck, they reported that Al Gore won Florida too. The media is not perfect.
The great irony is that the conspiracists hate and don't trust the media, but then they latch onto it here as proof positive of their wacked out claims.
That's the real story.
Paul
Paul--
ReplyDeleteThanks for weighing in. I'm waffling between "goof" and "hoax," but leaning toward "goof."
i agree with paul here.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see Paul backed my theory. To me it was the only thing that made sense, so it's nice to hear that someone agrees with me.
ReplyDeletemore than a bit relevant here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.websurdity.com/2007/02/28/uncomfortable-questions-was-the-death-star-attack-an-inside-job/
Mr. Ecks--
ReplyDeleteHA! :-)
The chap is totally fair, and there's no skepticism.
ReplyDelete