A major September 11 conspiracy theory group's co-founder is Steven E. Jones, who was a BYU physics professor. In November 2005, Salt Lake City Utah's Deseret News reported on a paper that Mr. Jones had posted on BYU's physics page that offered his research on the subject. The paper has since been removed and Mr. Jones was put on paid leave and subsequently retired from BYU last fall. However, the paper, titled "Why Indeed Did the World Trade Center Buildings Collapse?", was published in the book "9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out" and can be found at journalof911studies.com. The Deseret News provided the following quote:
"It is quite plausible that explosives were pre-planted in all three buildings and set off after the two plane crashes — which were actually a diversion tactic," he writes. "Muslims are (probably) not to blame for bringing down the WTC buildings after all,"Professor Jones was also interviewed by a local Salt Lake City news program:
Mr. Jones has done numerous interviews and has spoken at many conferences explaining his findings and answering questions.
However, many organizations are skeptical of the skeptics, including the folks at Popular Mechanics. Their March 2005 cover story was devoted to debunking the debunkers. After Rosie's comments stirred the controversy again, Popular Mechanics revisited the issue. Here are some pertinent quotes:
debris from the 110-floor North Tower hit WTC7 with the force of a volcanic eruption. Nearly a quarter of the building was carved away over the bottom 10 stories on its south face, and significant damage was visible up to the 18th floor.Popular Mechanic's website has many valuable photographs of the towers and the damage done to them by the two planes. They also reveal that WTC7
The North and South Towers of the World Trade Center weren’t knocked down by planes—they both stood for more than a half-hour after the impacts. But the crashes destroyed support columns and ignited infernos that ultimately weakened—not melted—the steel structures until the towers could no longer support their own weights. Ms. O’Donnell fundamentally misstates the case with her use of the word “melted”.
"housed the city’s emergency command center, so there were a number of fuel tanks located throughout the building—including two 6000-gal. tanks in the basement that fed some generators in the building by pressurized lines."Popular Mechanics also refutes Mr. Jones's claim that the towers were felled by explosives by saying that wiring the buildings for a controlled demolition "would present insurmountable logistical challenges."
The 9/11 conspiracy groups are not satisfied with these explanations however. Nor, I suspect, will they ever be. Rosie O'Donnell says she would like to have physicists on the show to discuss the issue. Hopefully they will have physicists from both sides of the argument so a real discussion might be possible. Maybe she'll invite Mr. Jones. It might possibly be the only time she ever agrees with a Mormon.
7 comments:
I went to one of Brother Jones's presentations at ISU. Whether you agree or not, he presents interesting information and has done a significant amount of work.
Jones certainly has done a lot of research, and he presents himself well. He doesn't come off as the raving lunatic conspiracy theorist, and seems to lend a degree of credibility to the whole thing.
According to the Deseret News article I linked to, even his split with BYU was amicable. He has some very gracious words for BYU, even though by all appearances they pushed him towards retirement.
I noticed that he analyzed a piece of steel or something from the Towers and found residue from explosives. That seems to be one of the major smoking guns.
What did you think of his presentation, Jessica? Are you on the conspiracy bandwagon?
His presentation was excellent. Afterwards, I told him he would be blessed. Not that I believe any conspiracy theory, but I believe he is trying to find the truth and I think he will be blessed because of it.
After his presentation, which offered a lot of information that is well over my head, I have a hard time coming up with any type of argument against what he has presented. I don't know what happened on 9/11. I just know there is a hell of a lot none of us know and many suspicious things that took place before, on, and after.
I want to also add that I think Rosie is amazing. She has been a tireless advocate for children and has spent a lot of time and money trying to help fix the foster care system, which reached a stage of crisis years and years and years ago.
Cameron, I have heard Dr. Jones speak on TV and he raises so interesting problems and issues.
The question is not whether his view is correct, but that it is absolutely clear that the 911 Commission Report is woefully inadequate, primarily because the Bush Administration did everything it could to obstruct the work of the Commission and it failed to deal with many serious issues.
We need an independent, thorough investigation with full security clearance and subpoena power to compel all the parties with evidence to bring it forward. The reason conspiracy theories exist is that the government spends so much energy hiding things and whitewashing investigations. If they have nothing to hide, why not support a strong, independent investigation?
One thing is clear from the horrible events of that day: Either our government was extremely incompetent or something more nefarious was afoot. In either case, the public has every right to demand accountability from those responsible.
Important to remember: If there was a conspiracy then those who pulled it off are VERY WEALTHY and have connections to the military, and the intelligence apparatus. Which means they'll have people in the media who will attack, defame, harass and debunk anything so the sheeple don't have to rouse themselves from their sleep.
The Whole Thing Stinks.
Terry, Cyre, and Jones are all idiots if they believe that the kind of conspiracy needed to plant explosives in WTC-7 could stay secret in this day and age. The military does not have lots of people who want to go around killing Americans. And even if they did -- why blow up WTC-7? And if there was a reason to blow up WTC-7, why not just blow it up? And why doesn't Jones, in his "analysis", ever mention the forces involved from having two 100+ story buildings collapse near WTC-7, one of which took out a major portion of the bottom ten floors of the building?
Bubblehead, I have had some of the same questions in regard to the conspiracy theories out there. It just isn't feasible that a US gov't group pulled off the whole thing and kept it quiet.
The US gov't can't keep attorney firings quiet, let alone a conspiracy of this scale.
However, some of these theorists also claim that the US knew about the attacks in detail before they occured and allowed it to happen in order to ramp up military spending and action around the world.
The problem with this is much the same as the problem with the gov't actually doing it themsleves. How does an institution so big and cumbersome keep everything quiet.
If we've learned anything about the feds over the last couple of decades it's that they fail miserably in keeping their skeletons in the closet.
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