The 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists and Their Poisonous Reach

Mary Katharine Ham takes a look at the 9/11 conspiracy buffs, those fools who see evil committed before them, deny it and start looking for an even greater, albeit hidden and unsupported, evil at home [hat tip to Jack M. blogging at Ace’s digs].

Flight 77 careened over that same road on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 moments before slamming into the Pentagon and taking the lives of 184 people. Last night, a beam of light shone for each of those victims, rising toward the moon on a clear September night.

Hani Hanjour, a 29-year-old Saudi, flew that plane into the Pentagon in a suicidal strike on the “Great Satan,” America , driven by a sick Islamofascist ideology.

But there are some who don’t believe that. There are some who call that the “official story.” They say they seek the “truth” about what really happened on 9/11. The “truth,” according to them, is that a sinister cabal of neocon politicians arranged for a missile to hit the Pentagon and for a controlled demolition to bring down the Twin Towers.

These neocons killed almost 3,000 Americans in a bid to increase both the power of the Bush administration and the willingness of American citizens to support military action in the Middle East, according to the conspiracy theorists. They subsequently covered it up with the “official story” of bin Laden and 19 hijackers, according to members of the “9/11 Truth Movement.”

The head of this tinfoil hat brigade is Dylan Avery, a 22-year-old conspiracy theorist who has parlayed his creative version of history into two very popular Internet films, “Loose Change” and “Loose Change 2nd Edition.”

Avery and his cohorts’ research, theories, and “evidence” are so laughable that it can be easy to laugh off the movement itself.

Yes, it’s safe to say that that was my reaction for quite some time. In fact, up until this morning I was willing to shrug these fools off as either misled or nuttier than squirrel crap, but we’ll get back to this morning in a bit.

Ms. Ham continues with her reasons for the need to more directly confront these twisted conspiracy ideas.

It’s important for those of us who know what took the lives of 3,000 Americans five years ago today—four commercial planes with full loads of jet fuel and passengers driven by 19 murderous maniacs—to understand that there is a disturbingly large and vocal segment of the American population that doesn’t believe that.

A recent Scripps poll found that more than a third of Americans believe 9/11 was an “inside job.”

Truthers are professors and Democrat candidates for Congress.

The Truthers believe the American government planned and carried out the carnage of Sept. 11 on its own people, and they’re determined to tell the rest of us all about it.

Feel free to read it all, including the linked details of the “truthers.” Ms. Ham’s advice for dealing with the conspiracy theorists and those that have fallen under their sway is simple: aggressively present them with or guide them to the facts of 9/11.

Take some time to watch “Screw Loose Change.” It is long, but it’s worth it to truly understand the dangerous deniers we’re facing in our own country. Read the “Screw Loose Change” blog and Popular Mechanics’ book, “Debunking 9/11 Myths.”

But you might want to hold off until tomorrow. On this day, it will make you too angry.

So why did my view on this matter change this morning, why the sudden urgency to confront these idiots? A key piece of my kick-off-the-day ritual is a perusal of my local paper, which these days is the Dallas Morning News. As part of the paper’s 9/11 opinion page coverage was a collection of thoughts from Dallas-area high school seniors. As I glanced over them, the following header caught my mind and I read one student’s thoughts.

… Conspiracy-minded

In May of my junior year, an online video titled Loose Change became a sensation. The documentary basically stated that the attacks were a hoax masterminded by a secret government conspiracy. Sounds a little far-fetched, right?

Well, the students in my Advanced Placement American history class began questioning the legitimacy of Sept. 11. This class was college-level and filled with high-achieving students. It’s a shame when our future leaders begin to see the “land of the free, home of the brave” as a destructive place that perversely kills its own citizens.

Kind of makes me want to cry all over again.

Lela Atwood, Naaman Forest High School, Garland

These dangerously idiotic and undermining “truths” are apparently being discussed openly during class at Naaman Forest High School, and discussed in such a manner that students are left unsure or even believing them. As scary as that is in and of itself were it to be anywhere in the great U.S. of A., that school is only 3.7 miles from my home and, should my wife and I have children and not move, would be the public school option for my family.

That surpasses frightening and reaches into disgusting. The conspiracy fools must be confronted — facts must address shady twistings into demented “truths.”

After all, I believe that children are our future; teach them well and let them not become demented, misled fruitcakes.