9/11: Debunking The Myths

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Popular Mechanics March 2006 Issue, prominently displaying this article

9/11: Debunking The Myths is a Popular Mechanics article in their March 2005 issue that attempts to debunk various 9/11 conspiracy theories . It later was expanded into a book named Debunking 9/11 Myths.

Coverage

It has been refered to by mainstream papers such as the San Francisco Chronicle , Fox Newss The O'Reilly Factor

It has been heavily referenced to by the Counter Misinformation Team in their "The Top September 11 Conspiracy Theories"

It has been refered to in Information Clearing House , 9/11 Citizens Watch, Rense

Criticism

Prominent journalist Paul Craig Roberts stated, "The Popular Mechanics article and the TV documentary are obviously false since they both endorse the official explanation that the WTC buildings "pancaked" at free fall speed, an obvious scientific impossibility. Whether the false reporting by Popular Mechanics and television are due to incompetence or to complicity in a government cover-up, I do not know."

Paul Joseph Watson of Prison Planet.com calls it a "9/11 hit piece, which was a straw man set-up that attributed claims to the 9/11 truth movement that were clearly absurd." .

Jim Hoffman addresed it in an article named "Popular Mechanics Attacks Its "9/11 LIES" Straw Man"

Alleged factual errors

In the 'Intercepts Not Routine' section, the article states, "In the decade before 9/11, NORAD intercepted only one civilian plane over North America: golfer Payne Stewart's Learjet, in October 1999."

Several people, including Jim Hoffman and Paul Joseph Watson , pointed out that "[t]his bold assertion flies in the face of a published report of scramble frequencies that quotes the same Maj. Douglas Martin that is one of PM's cited experts!". This was a reference to an Associated Press article that said, "From Sept. 11 to June, NORAD scrambled jets or diverted combat air patrols 462 times, almost seven times as often as the 67 scrambles from September 2000 to June 2001, Martin said.".

Alleged bias

People in the 9/11 Truth Movement have questioned the objectivity of the article, noting that Benjanim Chertoff, a cousin of future U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, was involved in the article..

Paul Joseph Watson and others at Prison Planet have argued that "This means that Benjamin Chertoff was hired to write an article that would receive nationwide attention, about the veracity of the government's explanation of an event that led directly to the creation of Homeland Security, a body that his own cousin now heads."

Alleged omissions

Paul Joseph Watson has argued that the article omitted several events that would diminish the credibility of its claims including the 9/11 War Games, "firefighters and other individuals who reported numerous explosions before the towers fell, squibs of debris seen shooting out of the towers well below the collapse point, and the fact that the towers fell only slightly slower than absolute free fall.". "The article regurgitates pancake and truss theories yet fails to acknowledge the comments of WTC construction manager Frank DeMartini who before 9/11 stated that the buildings were designed to take multiple airliner impacts and not collapse ." "The article also completely fails to answer why pools of molten yellow metal were found underneath both towers and Building 7 subsequent to the collapses. The classic crimp implosion of Building 7, which was not hit by a plane, is glossed over as the piece again tries to mislead its readers into believing that over engineered steel buildings collapse from fire damage - an event unprecedented in world history aside from three examples in one single day."

External links

• Debunking the 9/11 Myths