Excerpt from Thierry Meyssan's remarkable book Pentagate

Meyssan's book contains Pierre-Henri Bunel's thorough evaluations of the various explosions and fires on 9/11 and his conclusions of what caused them. His areas of expertise: Pierre-Henri Bunel is a graduate of the Ecole Militaire de Saint-Cyr (the French officers’ academy) and a former artillery officer, whose expertise is recognized in the following fields: the effects of explosives on humans and buildings, the effects of artillery weapons on personnel and buildings, firefighting for specific types of fire, wrecks and remains of destroyed airplanes. He participated notably in the Gulf War, at the side of Generals Schwartzkopf and Roquejoffre.

The Effects Of A Hollow Charge, 4th chapter of bookPentagate

What is the nature of the explosion that took place at the Pentagon on 11 September 2001? An analysis of the video pictures of the impact and the photographs of the damages permits one to know by what type of device the attack was caused. Did the explosion correspond with that produced by an airplane’s kerosene or that of a real
explosive? Did the fire correspond with a hydrocarbon fire or with a classic blaze?
Deflagration or detonation?

As a preamble, it seems indispensable to make clear to the reader an essential distinction: the difference between a deflagration and a detonation.

The combustion of explosive chemical materials - powders, explosives or hydrocarbons, for example - release energy by producing a shock wave. The diffusion at high speeds of the enormous quantity of gas produced by the chemical reaction is accompanied by flame, by a noise caused by the displacement of the shockwave through the air, and by smoke. One also often observes, even before seeing the flame, a cloud of vapor due to the compression of the air surrounding the zone of the explosion. The air can’t be set into motion immediately, so it compresses under the influence of the shockwave. At first, under the compression of the air molecules, the invisible water vapor that the atmosphere always contains in greater or lesser quantities compresses and becomes visible as a white cloud.

What I would like to underline here is the notion of the shockwave. An explosion is a reaction that projects gas at a greater or lesser speeds. Explosive materials, according to their chemical composition and the physical arrangement of their molecules, impart upon the gases they generate a greater or lesser speed of propagation. One says that they are more or less progressive. The observation of the shockwave is thus a precious indication of the speed of the gases projected by the explosion.

Explosive materials are divided into two groups, according to their progressiveness. Explosives produce a shockwave whose speed of propagation is superior to a value of about six thousand feet per second. One says that they "detonate". Explosive materials whose shockwave speed is lower than that do not detonate. They deflagrate. This is the case, for example, of gunpowder or hydrocarbons.

In an internal combustion engine - and the turbojet of a Boeing 757 is a continuous internal combustion engine - the fuel under pressure deflagrates and does not detonate. If it detonated, the engine’s structure would not withstand it. The kerosene of an airliner that crashes ignites and does not generally produce even deflagration, except in certain circumstances and at points limited to the engines. In the recent case of the Airbus that fell on a Queens neighborhood in New York in November 2001, the engines did not explode upon arriving at the ground. Kerosene is a heavy oil analogous to diesel fuel, tri-filtrated in order to satisfy the physical conditions of passage through the fuel injectors of jet engines. It is in no sense an explosive.

The color of explosions as also fairly remarkable. In detonations, the shockwave displaces itself rapidly. If the explosion occurs in the air without obstacles, the flame is often pale yellow at the point of the explosion. As it moves away from ground zero it turns orange then red. When it encounters obstacles, such as the walls of a building, one practically doesn’t see the pale yellow part. The duration of illumination by this color is brief. The form of the flame gives an impression of "rigidity" because of the speed of propagation. It is only when the dust lifted by the shockwave starts to bum due to the brutal rise in temperature that smoke appears. This is fire smoke that has little resemblance to the black, heavy coils given off by hydrocarbon fires.

But solid explosives are not simply chemical combinations. One can improve their effectiveness by playing with their physical forms. In principle, the shockwave propagates perpendicularly to the surface undergoing reaction. By working the shapes of the explosive charges one can orient the shockwave in such a fashion as to send a maximum of energy in a given direction, like directing the light of a lighthouse with a reflector. We thus find spherical charges whose shockwaves go in all directions; cylindrical charges like those that equip shrapnel shells, those weapons that burst into minuscule pieces of steel the size of a tab of chocolate and spray the battlefield; t1at charges, that allow making holes in plane obstacles with a minimum of energy lost in useless directions; but also hollow charges. These latter concentrate the principal shockwave in the shape of a high-temperature jet bearing a quantity of energy capable of piercing armor made of steel, composites or concrete.
The ignition

The explosive that constitutes the weapon [1 ] should explode at the desired time. In order for it to react exactly as the user wishes, it needs a certain degree of stability. The explosive that constitutes the principal charge of a weapon is too stable to explode by a simple shock. In fact, to initialize the chemical reaction, the charge must be submitted to a shockwave provoked by a more sensitive and less powerful explosive that we call the detonator. The explosive charge of the detonator reacts to a shock, to a spark or to an electrical or electromagnetic impulse. It then creates a shock wave that provokes the detonation of the principal charge.

The system that commands the explosion of the detonator is called the ignition system. The devices vary considerably and it would take too long to examine all of them. I will thus only deal with the two systems that might have been used at the Pentagon, explosive ignition systems commanded by the operator and ignition systems for hollow charges by instantaneous percussion with a short delay.

Shells, bombs or missiles are equipped with an ignition system which comprises the release, the delay system and a detonator. This device is called a fuse. It is fixed on the weapon either during its construction, or at the moment of conditioning for firing. It includes a security system that prevents the ensemble from functioning until being armed.

The release can be activated by a shock in the case of percussion fuses, by a radar detector at a distance in the case of radio-electric fuses, by the reaction to a source of heat or a magnetic mass in the case of thermal or magnetic fuses.

Either the release provokes detonation instantaneously, or the delay system acts so that the weapon only detonates several milliseconds after the impact. In this last case, the weapon begins to penetrate the objective by physically denting it with its armor. The charge detonates once the weapon has already entered the objective, which increases its destructive effect.

For certain very hard fortifications, one even finds that there are multi-charge weapons. The first charges fracture the concrete, while the later one or ones penetrate and detonate. In general, anti-concrete charges are hollow charges. The jet of energy and melted materials penetrate the fortification and spread inside quantities of hot materials pushed by a column of energy that pierces the walls like a punch. The great heat produced by the detonation of the hollow charge provokes fires in everything that is combustible inside.

During the Gulf War, the anti-fortification missiles and guided bombs pierced all of the concrete bunkers that were hit, notably at Fort As Salman. A single bomb could pierce through three thicknesses of armored concrete, having begun with the thickest, on the outside.
The missile

In order to conduct an attack with such a weapon system, a launcher is obviously needed. In the case of guided bombs, the launcher is a plane or at the very least a powerful helicopter. The weapon then leaves with an initial speed which is that of the carrier vehicle. It descends in a glide and generally guides itself by following a laser illumination. In the case of a missile, its range is much greater because the missile has its own engine. If needs be, one can conceive a system so that the missile depart from its own launch pad on the ground. There are in fact ground-to-ground anti-fortifications missiles.

A cruise missile of a recent model generally follows three phases of flight. The launch, during which it attains its tlight speed in emerging from the bay of an airplane or a missile launch-tube. Pushed forward by the engine at full power, it reaches its cruising speed and deploys its wings and tail fins. It then descends to its cruising altitude and follows its approach trajectory. In the course of this flight phase, it frequently changes direction, turning according to the Hight program, climbing or descending to remain low enough to escape detection as far as possible. One might then mistake it for a fighter plane in tactical Hight maneuvers. It keeps this altitude until it reaches the point of entry to the terminal phase. This point is situated a certain distance from the objective; two or three miles depending on the models. From this point, the missile flies in a straight line t?wards the target and undergoes a strong acceleration that gives it maximum speed to strike the objective with the maximum of penetrative force.

The missile thus has to reach the point of entry to the terminal phase with great precision, so that before acceleration it is not only in the right spot but also pointing in the right direction. That is why it often happens that the missile ends its cruising flight with a tight turn that allows to adopt the right alignment. A witness might observe that the missile reduces its engine power before throttling back up.
The type of explosion observed at the Pentagon

On 8 March 2002, a month after the beginning of the controversy on Internet and three days before The Big Lie was published in France, five new images of the attack were released by CNN [2 ]. A photo agency then distributed them very widely to numerous newspapers throughout the world. These images originating from a surveillance camera were not made public by the Pentagon itself, which contented itself with authenticating them. In them, one can see the flame developing from the impact on the façade of the Department of Defense’s building.



The first shot (Photo Section, p. II) is that of a white puff that seems to be a white smoke. It definitely calls to mind the vaporization of the water contained in the ambient air at the beginning of the deployment in the atmosphere of a supersonic shockwave of detonating material. One distinguishes, however, traces of red name characteristic of the high temperatures reached by the air under the pressure of a rapid shockwave.

What is plain to see is that the shock wave starts from the interior of the building. One sees above the roof the emergence of a ball of energy that isn’t yet a ball nf fire. One might legitimately think of a detonation by an explosive with a high energetic power, but for the moment it still cannot be determined whether it is a charge with a directed effect or not.

One distinguishes at ground level, starting from the right-hand side of the photo and going to the base of the mass of white vapor, a white line of smoke. It looks very much like the smoke that leaves the nozzle of the propulsion unit in a flying vehicle. As opposed to the smoke that would come out of two kerosene-fueled engines, this smoke is white. The turbojets of a Boeing 757 would in fact leave a trail of much blacker smoke. The examination of this photo alone already suggests a singleengine flying vehicle much smaller in size than an airliner. And without two General Electric turbopropulsion units.



In the second shot (Photo Section, p. III) one still sees the horizontal trail of smoke but one can also make out very clearly the development of the red flame. It is interesting to compare this shot of the impact at the Pentagon with that of the impact of the plane with the second tower at the World Trade Center (Photo Section, p. 1II). The color of the latter is yellow, which points a lower temperature of combustion. It is mixed with black, heavy smoke. It is the color of hydrocarbon combustion in the air. In this case, it is kerosene contained in the airplane that is burning. This flame descends quite slowly down the front of the fa,ade where the plane had penetrated, carried by the falling fuel. In contrast, the flame of the Pentagon explosion rises sharply from inside the building, ripping off debris that one sees mixed with the red flame. There is no longer the cloud of vapor due to the shockwave that masked the flame in the first photo. The intense heat has caused it to evaporate. As we have seen, that is characteristic of detonations of a high-yield explosive.

We should take the opportunity here to note the appearance of the smoke rising from the first tower that was hit, as the fire develops there. It consists of heavy, oily coils. As for traces in the air of the airplane, as opposed to the aircraft that seems to have hit the Pentagon. there is no trail although the impact has just taken place.


The photos on page IV of the color section were taken a short time after the explosion. The firemen are not yet in action. In the one at the top, the flame of the explosion itself has extinguished. The fire llt by the explosion smolders and its flames are not yet visible, except at the level of the point of impact, where one perceives a red glow in the axis of the vertical support of the highway signs. We are thus not seeing the configuration of an airliner fire because the kerosene would have ignited instantaneously. The fa,ade has not yet collapsed. It does not present any visible signs of major mechanical destruction, although the upper floors and the roof have already been hit by the blast.

In the photo below, taken according to its author about a minute later, the fires ignited inside the building by the heat wave have begun to spread. The arrow indicates a hole in the fayade through which one sees the heart of a fire beginning to mount. The façade still has not collapsed and the initial smoke has dissipated. It is only after the fires have begun to merge and fom a single blaze that the thickest smoke appears, but without presenting the same appearance as the smoke from an airliner fire with its reservoirs of kerosene.

To sum up, the examination alone of these photos that everyone has seen in the press permit one to measure the striking differences between the two explosions. If the flame of the World Trade Center is obviously that of kerosene from an airplane, it would seem that this is not at all the case at the Pentagon. The flying device that struck the Department of Defense has, at first sight, nothing to do with the airliner of the official version. But we have to continue the investigation in order to progress in our search for elements that will perhaps permit us to determine the nature of the explosion that damaged the Pentagon.
A hydrocarbon fire?

When the firemen intervened on the site, one sees clearly that they are using water to attack the fire (Photo Section, p. X). Several official photographs show a fire truck that we in France would call a CCFM (carnian citerne pour feu moyen - a tanker truck for a medium-sized fire). The water coming out of the hoses is white in color, so it does not contain that substance used on certain fires known as a "retardant". In general, retardants give the water a reddish or brownish color. Thus the principal fire being attacked is not a hydrocarbon fire, because one cannot see any foam cannons that are characteristic of interventions in airplane accidents or any hoses projecting adapted products.



However, the examination of the photo at the top of page VI does show the residues of carbonic foam, The explanation is given in certain accounts of September 11 according to which either a helicopter, for some, or a truck, for others, parked close to the fayade, exploded. One can see in any case on many pictures a truck on fire to the right of the impact. On the other hand, the quantity of foam residues is relatively small. Essentially, it is spread not on the building fire but on the lawn that stretches in front, as if they had extinguished a fire set alight by that of the attack. This is what is known as a "sympathetic fire", in French firemen’s jargon. A foam hose was thus used to put out one or more secondary fires.

One can see in the pictures released by the Department of Defense a truck armed with a foam cannon attacking a fire situated in front of the façade, while the high-powered water pumps attack the main fire inside the building. The spraying as it is being carried out at that moment manifestly aims at lowering the general temperature by wetting everything first, before penetrating into the building to extinguish fires point by point.
Artillery, intelligence and BDA

After having given my reactions as a fonner firefighter, I’m now going to give those of an artillery officer and observer. Among his tasks, an artillery observer must pick out objectives, estimate the type of weapon needed to be deployed to treat them and the quantity of projectiles required to render them harmless. Once the objective has been treated, one must still evaluate the real damage to measure whether the first strike was sufficient or if firings should continue.

It’s a matter of establishing an appraisal of the damages that is then transmitted to the command and intelligence echelons. This evaluation of battlefield damages is called in English a Battlefield Damage Assessment (BDA). One must, of course, employ maximum objectivity in these evaluations: it would be stupid to ask for more firings on an objective that had already been neutralized or destroyed, but just as stupid to let it be thought that an objective had been rendered harmless when it still presented a menace.

During the Gulf War, every day there was a meeting in General Schwartzkopf’s command post between tq..e French, British and American commanders-in-chief. A part of the "intelligence" chapter of this briefing dealt with the examination of BDA photos. And Schwartzkopf paid particular attention to this. In these pictures one saw the effects of weapons and the scale of damage inflicted on the objectives.

This was not mere voyeurism on the part of the three generals. It permitted them to decide if there was reason to continue attacking objectives already treated, but also to decide whether to use less powerful weapons in order to prevent the destruction inflicted on military objectives from impinging on the civilian environment. Needless to say, for the interpreters of images, artillery observers and intelligence officers, damage evaluation was a key matter that we studied carefully. And when one adds practical experience to theory, as unfortunately was my case, one does possess some elements of objective appraisal in examining the damage suffered by a building; especially if one knows the building well, as is also true in my case concerning the Pentagon.


The official photos of the facade:

A general view of the façade is highly interesting. Furnished again by official bodies, it is presented at the top of page V of the Photo Section.

As the firefighters finished working on the exterior of the building, one can make out several instructive elements. First of all, the soot covering the fayade is a mix of that which would have been deposited in a classic fire and others more characteristic of those deposited by the shockwave of a high-yield explosive, but in no way of the thick, oily coat deposited by a kerosene fire. The windows have been broken by a detonation and not melted by a hydrocarbon fire that would have lasted several days. The most remarkable thing is that relatively few of them are broken, and that the windows affected are essentially situated close to the point of the explosion at the level of the lower floors. Near ground zero, therefore. It is very likely that the shockwave was propagated along the corridors, and one follows it very well in the general overview shown on page XI of the Photo Section. This corroborates the testimony of David Theal1 [3 ]. This liaison officer at the Pentagon describes the sudden arrival of a violent noise accompanied by debris that ravaged the corridor outside his office.

At the beginning of its displacement, the shockwave broke panes and, once it was channeled by the walls of the corridors, it took an orientation that no longer had as much effect on the windows. It should be made clear that these were double-glazed windows in which the outer pane is particularly solid. That was what a representative of the company that installed them declared [4 ], and it’s also what was explained to me well before this attack, during an official visit to the Pentagon as an observer.

On a picture that is a more detailed close-up, at the bottom of page V, one has a view of the impact zone after wreckage was cleared. It allows one to make out the vertical concrete pillars of the building’s frame and the corridors that fun along the floors. One understands better then how the shockwave bypassed the windows as we mentioned above.

The shot shows that the vertical pillars, some of which are surrounded by wooden casings, have obviously been weakened at the ground level, that is, the place where the detonation occurred. But they weren’t crushed or broken as would have been the case if they were struck by the leading edges of the wings of a hundred ton airplane. They would have been hit by the part of the leading edge situated approximately at the spot where the engine pods are fixed, the most solid area. Manifestly, no wing has struck these vertical pillars of the building’s concrete frame.

If a plane had struck the Pentagon, as the official version would have us believe, the wings would have touched the vertical pillars at approximately the level of the floor on which one can see men standing. It’s obvious that the weakened zone of the pillars is located below, where one can see the wooden casings and the red-colored steel props. So the vehicle that carried the charge that weakened the pillars struck lower than an enormous airliner would have done. And r refer you back to the first photographs studied on which we could see the trail of smoke from a propulsion unit very close to the ground.

This picture also permits us to put into context statements by certain experts, according to whom "the Pentagon is constructed of particularly solid materials". It’s true that the building’s contractors used hardened materials for the windows and the outer facings, but the Pentagon is no more a blockhaus than an armor-plated car is a tank.
An anti-concrete hollow charge

The last photo was produced by the Department of Defense and published on a Navy Web site [5 ]. It is presented on page XII of our Photo Section. In examining it, one can see an almost circular hole topped by a black smudge, This perforation is about seven feet in diameter and is situated in the wall of the third line of buildings working inward from the façade. It is supposed to have been made by the nose of the plane.

That would mean that the nose of the aircraft, a radome of carbon fiber that is far from being armored, would have traversed without destroying them six load-bearing walls of building considered to be rather solid. And what would then be the cause of the black smudge marking the wall above the hole? The hydrocarbon fire. But then, all of the façade of this building would be marked with soot and not only the few square feet that have been really blackened. And the broken windows, was that the result of the impact? I remind you that the windows are solid.

The appearance of the perforation in the wall certainly resembles the effects of anti-concrete hol low charges that I have been able to observe on a number of battlefields.

These weapons are characterized by their "jet". This jet is a mixture of gas and melted materials that is projected in the direction of the axis of the paraboloid that constitutes the forward face of the weapon. Propelled at a speed of several thousand feet per second, with a temperature of several thousands of degrees, this jet pierces concrete through many feet of thickness. It could thus pierce five thick walls of the building without any problem. Five walls out of six because the fayade was perforated by the vector itself. The detonation of the military charge only occurs, in fact, once it has been carried inside the objective. As I eXplained earlier, the fuses arming anti-concrete charges are not instantaneous, but have a short delay. That is why the flame of the explosion developed from within, the interior of the building towards the exterior. As one sees on the photos taken by the security camera, the shockwave damaged the fa,ade, the upper floors and the roof, and propagated itself through the corridors at the height where the vector had struck: on the ground level.

The jet contains gases at a high temperature that slow and finally come to a halt before the melted materials. The gases burn everything combustible in their path. A schematic diagram of the flame and the jet of a hollow charge that is piercing walls is shown on page XIII of the Photo Section.

The melted materials travel further than the gases, and in this particular case, the picture of the last hole certainly resembles the effect that the melted materials of a jet would have had at the end of their trajectory. They would have been finally stopped by the last wall they reached. But still fairly hot enough, they would have marked the wall with this black smudge, just above the hole. Heat rises from materials that are beginning to cool and thus only mark the fayade above the impact. At this terminal point, the temperature is no longer high enough to make more of a mark on the cement. On the other hand, the remnants of the shockwave still have enough energy to break the windows immediately around the hole. One understands then why the firefighters intervened with water. It is the extinguishing t1uid with the strongest heat-to-mass ratio. It is thus the best -adapted to cooling materials that have absorbed a "heat wave" and to extinguish fires in urban areas that have been lit by sympathy. It was not a matter of the firefighters extinguishing a hydrocarbon fire, but of putting out punctual fires and cooling overheated materials.

This photo, and the effects described in the official version, lead me therefore to think that the detonation that struck the building was that of a high-powered hollow charge used to destroy hardened buildings and carried by an aerial vehicle, a missile.



Pierre-Henri Bunel is a graduate of the Ecole Militaire de Saint-Cyr (the French officers’ academy) and a former artillery officer, whose expertise is recognized in the following fields: the effects of explosives on humans and buildings, the effects of anillery weapons on personnel and buildings, firefighting for specific types of fire, wrecks and remains of destroyed airplanes. He participated notably in the Gulf War, at the side of Generals Schwartzkopf and Roquejoffre.

This author's articles

(JPEG) Pentagate is fully accessible in both PDF and HTML formats, free of charge, on the website Pentagate.info .

Pentagate is also available in the Voltaire Network online bookshop .







[1 ] In military language, the ammunition is the ensemble of the propulsive charge and the projectile. The weapon is the launcher for small caliber launchers. and the projectile itself for large caliber weapons systems. Thus the weapon of an artillery man is the sllell or the missile, not the cannon or the launch pad.

[2 ] ’Images show September II Pentagon crash’, CNN, R March 2002 (report includes video clip of explosion): http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/03/07/gen.pentagon.pictures

[3 ] ’September 11, 2001’, Washington Post, 16 September 2001: http://www.washingtonposLcom/ac2/wp-dyn/A38407-2001Sep15 .

[4 ] ’DoD News Briefing on Pentagon Renovation’, Defense Link, Department of Defense, 15 September 2001: http://www.defense1ink.mil/news/Sep2001/t09152001_t915evey.html .

[5 ] ’War and Readiness’, All Hands, magazine of the US Navy: http://www.mediacen.navy.mil/pubs/allhands/novOl/pg16.htm .

"Welcome to the Police States of Amerika! Now, as you go through Customs....Please empty all of the contents of Your Rights into the trash bin....Thank You.....No, you won't be getting them back... But, that's o.k.... You won't be needing them anymore... Enjoy your stay......and......Remember: We'll be watching.......listening......All up inside your stuff!"

The Obscene Court has just ruled 5-4 that police, with a warrant, may bust down your door/raid your home.......without identifying themselves as police first.
Hmmmm......

So, if someone drops a dime on you as a stupid joke or to be evil, and implicates you as a trouble-maker......the police can come busting in, day-or-night...

All night-vision, combat boots, kevlar, billy clubs, automatic weapons and trigger-fingers ( Heck, they're acting upon a tip that you are a "terrorist"!).... ala SWAT.....

And... They don't have to say, "This is the Police! We have a Warrant!"........

Now... They just come rushing in like....some........

Well, like Home-Invasion Robbers are known to do....

So.... You jump out of bed and run down the stairs to defend your loved ones, your home, your private property against the swarm of armed invaders and....... they, the armed-up-the-wazoo, home-invading police, thinking you, "the terrorist suspect", is charging them.... well, they just shoot you dead.

I can hear it now... "Oops! Sorry... We were acting on "intelligence" that turned out to be bad....

No, you can't sue us for wrongful death....it was a "National Security Issue", at the time.

It's isn't that far-fetched....

The Authorities in London are in Clean-up/Spin/Defense mode currently for a raid on a private citizen's home in Forest Gate. 250 armed officers converged upon the (Muslim) man's home, busted in without identifying themselves...he thinks he's being robbed...runs down the stairs to defend his family... and ... they shot him on sight...In His Own Home! Thankfully, he didn't die. The man and his brother were questioned...then released without charges....The police didn't even apologize until after the man indicated that he wasn't interested in seeking damages in court...but he wanted an apology... Like he should have to state that to get one?! Tony Blair, of course, is backing the police and the commissioner.

......I hear something ticking.....tick....tick....tick.... Hopefully it is the timer on America's patience/apathy...
WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!!!
-L

The sky may have been overcast... But the Stars were on stage!!!

Haight Street Fair Day: San Francisco: June 11, 2006:

At first, I was planning on not going... Not that I could escape it, unless I left the 'hood.... A slowly-recovering, soft tissue wrist injury made the thought of lifting 2x4's, stage-building and playing roadie all day, well... not sound as fun as usual.

But, as the crowd out on the street began to grow exponentially, I started to reconsider...and rationalize... Well, I do have a splint I could put on my arm... and I'll just not overdo it... (Historically, in these situations, I've often been the only girl...and not wanting to be percieved as contributing less to the job at hand than anyone else...I've pulled off some amazing feats of strength that surprised everyone... most of all...me.). Sheer determination does wonders.

So, I took Jessi the dog for a good walk and headed for the main stage. I'm so glad I've learned to heed my intuition... the show was incredible! I haven't been to many concerts in my life, thus far, and quite a few of my favorite bands/performers of all time no longer perform... The death of a member kinda makes any future tours unlikely if not a total impossibility.

But, today I lucked out, twice! I was fortunate to be present at a performance by two truly great bands: Touch Me Hooker and Flipper.

I wasn't familiar with TMH and although I had heard of Flipper, from seeing the band's name on flyers around S.F. quite a while back, I wasn't at all familiar with their music. (Although, I must say, the intriguing looking guitarist with the long dreads, looks terribly familiar to me - well, they are a San Francisco band...) (*Update: I now know his name is Ted Falconi*) A good friend informed me that Flipper was Kurt Cobain's inspiration for Nirvana (one of those all-time-faves I'll never see)... and after hearing them live...there's no doubt in my mind... If I could play guitar...I'd take off in a whole new direction in my life!

Touch Me Hooker was fantastic! High energy and spontaneous and the crowd loved them! Flipper was Incredible! Raw, heavy on the bass, high energy punk rock! The crowd in front of the stage was responding in kind...I even saw one guy dive the crowd and get carried aloft for a few moments... Being at this show is one of the high-points of my life, thus far. (Excuse me whilst I take a moment to gush...) I even got to shake Bruce Loose's hand!! ...Ahem...

Blah...blah...blah........ Here's some pictures! Enjoy! xo L.

(P.S....Much Love and Gratitude to Pablo and the entire crew that made this legendary event possible and have for 29 years. And thanks as well as to it's sponsors, supporters, the merchants, the SFPD and all who came to have a good, safe time and did!)

Main Stage View.


Touch Me Hooker- Lead Vocalist Paul Castile on the stacks.
TMH
FLIPPER!
Bruce Loose/Flipper
Ted Falconi/Flipper
Will Shatter/Flipper
Steve DePace/Flipper
Flipper
Bruce Loose, Ted Falconi/Flipper
Thank you, Good Night!

WMD, Bio Weapons Found!!!...At Lawrence Livermore Labs!!!


From CBS:
Biodefense Lab Fight Heads To Court

SAN FRANCISCO, June 13, 2006(AP)

To the Bush administration, a biodefense lab designed to test lethal agents including HIV, plague and anthrax is "vital to national security."

But area residents have visions of a biodisaster and warn an accident could kill thousands.

Years of legal wrangling were to culminate Tuesday when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments about whether the Department of Homeland Security should be permitted to open the lab at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about 50 miles east of San Francisco.

The new facility would test some of the deadliest toxins known to man in simulations of terrorist attacks. Construction is complete, and the facility is set to open by August, said John Belluardo, spokesman for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Its actual mission is a matter of some dispute.

Opponents, citing government documents, said in court filings it would "aerosolize" the bioagents "in order to speed the efficiency by which they could kill and spread disease." And if the agents escaped into the air, it could be catastrophic, killing hundreds or thousands, they say."If these bioagents are released into the environment in significant quantities, they could cause massive human mortality within the densely populated San Francisco Bay Area," the opponents wrote in their court brief. That scenario was "never modeled nor considered" by the Bush administration in its safety assessments, the opponents say.

The lab sits in a region under which several faults lurk, and the lawsuit warns an earthquake could trigger the release of potentially deadly agents in the densely populated East Bay region near San Francisco. Some 7 million people live in the broader bay area.

Spokesmen for the government and Lawrence Livermore don't dispute the lab would produce airborne pathogens. But they firmly deny that advancing biological weapons is the facility's aim, pointing out the United States signed the 1975 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, a treaty that banned the development, production and stockpiling of bioweapons.
Also, they say the Department of Energy's environmental assessment found no serious risk of an accident.The facility "will significantly improve the nation's ability to detect and respond to the threat of terrorism using biological agents," the Department of Energy said in its court brief.

A court order blocking it "would directly and adversely impact the "national security"," the administration said. The facility would test the agents, which could also include hantavirus, influenza, hepatitis, Q fever, brucellis, herpes and salmonella, among others, on live animals.

Two groups representing area residents and other project opponents, Tri-Valley CARES and Nuclear Watch New Mexico, asked a federal court to block the project in 2003. Their lawsuit argued the Energy Department failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act by moving ahead without a full environmental impact review.The lawsuit also argued that the Energy Department, which began research on the site before the Department of Homeland Security took it over, failed to comply with the Freedom of Information Act by failing to turn over certain documents to the groups.

A federal district court judge sided with the Bush administration in 2004, saying the administration had not violated the two federal laws.

The project's foes appealed, saying the lower court had improperly excluded critical evidence and wrongly interpreted the National Environmental Policy Act.

(If you aren't f'g angry.....you aren't f'g paying attention!-L)

Wired News @ Lycos recently reported: A Sixth Sense for a Wired World:
People who implant small magnets into their fingers can detect electromagnetic fields. --Wired News ...Hmmm...

I have looked high and low for a way to contact them about the story...to no avail. So I'll post my response to it here:

I have searched for years for anyone to mention they could or heard of someone else who could:
A.) Sense electromagnetic fields with their hands. And/Or:
B.) See the electricity radiating outside of telephone, power lines, etc.

....Because....I have been doing it for YEARS....and without having magnets implanted under my skin! I can find the studs (or metal...I've checked with a magnet and where I felt 'something' the magnet would stick to the wall.)behind the walls with my hands and see 'rings' of energy encircling lines that have electricity/power running through them. Different sized-rings for different power lines.

Wow! I feel vindicated! Even though, it seems other people need magnets to do what comes naturally to me...Anyway, I've also been trying to figure out a practical application for these and other quirks of mine.

Like I said in my profile.... I was born WAY ahead of my time (dammit)

How many licks does it take...
Current mood: cynical
Category: News and Politics

Ding...Dong...Zarqawi's "Dead"..... Again.
I have so many doubts about the reliability of anything... Sheesh!... Everything that is reported in the mainstream press. Have doubted the veracity of their stories for longer than I can remember. Maybe it isn't all of their fault...maybe it is just that they are repeating what they were told by the "authorities"/spin secretaries. Maybe they should begin their news broadcasts with a disclaimer..."Everything we report to you tonight as "news', may or may not be true and may be retracted/revised at a later date." Sounds a lot like the "We can neither confirm not deny...." line of the intelligence community (...and I use that term loosely.)

Re: Zarqawi:
I came across a posted response to a Blog (on Blogger's "The Truth Will Set You Free") that piqued my interest...basically it poses the question... "If a fire on a few floors of the WTC can cause it to fall in on itself, (...don't get me started on that one...oh boy!) how is it that 1000 lbs of military explosive ordinance dropped on Zarqawi seems to have only left his body with a bloody nose? What's he made of? I guess he ate his Wheaties. The rubble that was the "safe-house" he was in fared far worse than he did. Besides, isn't this the 3rd or 4th time he's been killed? I guess previous reports of his "...death have been greatly exagerrated."

The "Good News" is that, whether or not it is true, if this spec-ops attack was orchestrated to try to impede the free-fall of Bush's ratings (which ripples out to damage his party), and be a image booster/photo-op, it failed miserably. Bush, when talking about the reported death of Zarqawi, decided to invoke the names of the Americans Zarqawi (allegedly, there's no evidence it was he, they all had masks on) beheaded. The father of one young man, now a Green Party candidate for office, said he took no joy in Zarqawi's death. He said that both the terrorists in Iraq and the terrorists in D.C. (my terms for them) just keep going back and forth lobbing violent vengeful acts at each other and it will never stop until someone on one of the sides says, "Enough! I am not going to participate in this violence anymore!". (Good Luck!) He also said that he won't be happy until our troops are home and Bush is "...gone.". I second that emotion!!

And another thing...
Regarding: "The Canadian 17".
There seems to be a sudden silence in the press about the 12 men and 5 boys arrested and facing domestic terrorism charges in Canada. Considering the 'authorities' claimed that they planned to attack the Parliament and "behead" the Prime Minister (what an terror-izing thing to say.)... Well... I just think that, if the allegations were true and backed up by real evidence, wouldn't that deserve some more ink or airtime?

One other thing regarding them.... What 'terrorist' worth his or her salt would be soooo stupid as to purchase excessive amounts of the chemicals/ingredients necessary to build a bomb, in a way that can be traced back to them??? I am sure there are other ways. Also, I have heard that they were aware that they were under surveillance...yet gleefully continued to attempt to manufacture mayhem..... Hmmmm.... Curiouser and curiouser.

?
What better way to manufacture support for militarism/suppression of Constitutional and Civil Rights than make it look like there are boogeymen here, there..and ....Oh my God! ... Look Out! ... They are Everywhere! And they want to behead the Canadian Prime Minister! Those bastards!!!

Don't worry...it will all be over soon. :-)
L

The F-Ugly face of facism...Updated 6/7/06
Current mood: mischievous
Category: News and Politics

Eeewwww, That Smell......Smells like...Facism?!

O.K...O.K...
I've held it back as long as I could. (It's like trying to hold back a tidal wave....) Upon hearing about the lame-ass attempt by our (Thankfully Temporary, but, unfortunately) current leader to use some sleight-of-hand trick to call all of our attention away from the enormous and bloody disaster they created in Iraq, I am happy to say I refuse to remain quiet about it a moment longer:

George "Can you say nuk-ya-ler?" Bush:

"Ladies and Gentlemen...Looky, here...Ahhh......Umm...Never you mind those vicious murders of unarmed Iraqi men, women and children by some of our boys in the military! Never mind the (thankfully failed and) obvious attempts to cover these heinous crimes up and claim that those killed were insurgents (children?) or were killed by IED's! Never you mind the ongoing foreign oil dependency/ga$ price$! Heck! Why don't ya just go trade in your SUV or Hummer for a nice little hybrid? Ehhhh...Never mind that Global Warming is melting glaciers and ice sheets and that polar bears are DROWNING(!) cause they can't find somewhere to climb out of the water! Heh! Heh! I mean.... Who needs polar bears, anyway, am I right? Looky here...Rummy Dumbsfeld and I have, uhhh...Well, we've mulled over these ahh, crises, ahh...long and hard (ha!) and we have come up with a solution:...We've decided to, ahhh, CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION (!) so that our LGBT brothers and sisters can be treated like 2nd class citizens in every state... not just the ignorant ones. Heh! Heh!... And that way, the judges that have been overturning laws against gay marriage, on the grounds that such laws are...uhhh....unConstitutional, that's right, unConstitutional... will be stopped from their evil-doing. (?) Heh! Heh!...Just like our Heavenly Father, in Heaven and my evangelical christian and fun-da-mental-ist base want it! Heh! Heh! Sorry, can't tell ya'll anymore than that...it's a...uhhh...National Security issue. Thank You. And, uhhh...God Bless America!"

....So, in honor of the repugnican party, I offer this.......with lol....Not!

Thanks to:
Dr. Lawrence Britt, who has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

(Pssst....Any of the following sound familiar????)

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. (You are either with us or the Terrorists!)

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc. (Where to begin? Abu Ghraib...Gitmo...secret interrogation centers...)

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, (Under the Bull-crap regime... add the LGBT community.)etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. (The pentagon gets the money...but soldiers were having to buy their own body armor...)

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution. (Condi Rice is a two-fer!)

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to (sic) media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common. (See: Fox/Faux News.)

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses. (Raise the terror warning to orange...what? Well, a uhh...higher Orange. / Anyone else ever notice how no two "new threats" are never for the same target??? Hmmm...)

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions. (Apparently, 'Manifest Destiny' isn't dead...And God Bless America!)

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite. ("America: Bend Over for Business!")

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed. (But, hey...they are spending a lot of $$ looking for that Hoffa fella!)

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked. (Or attacked as "Unpatriotic".)

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations. (Budget for "Corrections" is TWICE that of Homeland Security!...Do you feel safer?)

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders. (What're friends in high places for??)

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections. (Ha!Ha!Ha!...No!....Stop.... Yer killin' me....Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!...)

Oh, yeah...
If you live in Kalifornia...Tomorrow/Tues. 6/06/06(coincidence?!...actually, I don't believe in them.)is the Primaries...Please...Vote! (And if your county uses electronic/sabotage-friendly/paper-less voting machines)...Vote Absentee!
Merci beaucoup!
xo
L

Hey! ! You!! ...The One With The Camera!!
Current mood: devious
Category: Life

The following is a Public Service Announcement:
I can appreciate an artistic photograph of an interesting subject as well as the next person.....But...

...If you are taking a picture of a person that you do not know...unless they are indicating their consent by posing for you...ASK THEM FIRST!!

Speaking as a reclusive schizophrenic with a heavy, old-school skateboard nanoseconds away from my hand...in a city full of photo-crazy tourists...
Just because you observe someone who is creative enough not to look like everyone else...that does not mean that:
a.) They are doing it for your benefit or amusement.
b.)They want you to take their picture.
c.)They won't break your camera (or something else) if
you take their picture without their express permission.

"Welcome to Kalifornia!!".....Now Go Home!

- This public service annnouncement brought to you by your local neighborhood SK8rGrrl. -

A Silly Little 9/11 Conspiracy Theory (...just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean...)

-thanks to DDX for forwarding this.

Please read, Please forward:


----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Rowan
Date: Jun 1, 2006 11:42 AM

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Terrorcell
Date: Jun 1, 2006 9:35 AM

Astute observers of history are aware that for every notable event there will usually be at least one ,often several wild conspiracy theories which spring up around it. "The CIA killed Hendrix" " The Pope had John Lennon murdered ", "Hitler was half Werewolf", "Space aliens replaced Nixon with a clone" etc,etc. The bigger the event, the more ridiculous and more numerous are the fanciful rantings which circulate in relation to it. So its hardly surprising that the events of Sept 11 2001 have spawned their fair share of these ludicrous fairy tales. And as always, there is - sadly - a small but gullible percentage of the population eager to lap up these tall tales, regardless of facts or rational analysis.

One of the wilder stories circulating about Sept 11, and one that has attracted something of a cult following amongst conspiracy buffs is that it was carried out by 19 fanatical Arab hijackers, masterminded by an evil genius named Osama bin Laden, with no apparent motivation other than that they "hate our freedoms."

Never a group of people to be bothered by facts, the perpetrators of this cartoon fantasy have constructed an elaborately woven web of delusions and unsubstantiated hearsay in order to promote this garbage across the internet and the media to the extent that a number of otherwise rational people have actually fallen under its spell.

Normally I don't even bother debunking this kind of junk, but the effect that this paranoid myth is beginning to have requires a little rational analysis, in order to consign it to the same rubbish bin as all such silly conspiracy theories.

These crackpots even contend that the extremist Bush regime was caught unawares by the attacks, had no hand in organizing them, and actually would have stopped them if it had been able.

Blindly ignoring the stand down of the US air-force, the insider trading on airline stocks - linked to the CIA, the complicit behavior of Bush on the morning of the attacks, the controlled demolition of the WTC, the firing of a missile into the Pentagon and a host of other documented proofs that the Bush regime was behind the attacks, the conspiracy theorists stick doggedly to a silly story about 19 Arab hijackers somehow managing to commandeer 4 planes simultaneously and fly them around US airspace for nearly 2 hours ,crashing them into important buildings, without the US intelligence services having any idea that it was coming, and without the Air Force knowing what to do.

The huge difficulties with such a stupid story force them to invent even more preposturous stories to distract from its core silliness, and thus the tale has escalated into a mythic fantasy of truly gargantuan proportions.

It's difficult to apply rational analysis to such unmitigated stupidity, but that is the task which I take on in this article. However, it should be noted that one of the curious characteristics of conspiracy theorists is that they effortlessly change their so called evidence in response to each aspect which is debunked. As soon as one delusion is unmasked, they simply invent another to replace it, and deny that the first ever existed. Eventually, when they have turned full circle through this endlessly changing fantasy fog , they then re-invent the original delusion and deny that you ever debunked it, thus beginning the circle once more. This technique is known as "the fruit loop" and saves the conspiracy theorist from ever having to see any of their ideas through to their (ill)logical conclusions.

According to the practitioners of the fruit loop, 19 Arabs took over the 4 planes by subduing the passengers and crew through the use of guns,knives,box cutters and gas, and then used electronic guidance systems which they had smuggled on board to fly the planes to their targets.

The suspension of disbelief required for this outrageous concoction is only for the hard core conspiracy theorist. For a start, they conveniently skip over the awkward fact that there weren't any Arabs on the planes. If there were, one must speculate that they somehow got on board without being filmed by any of the security cameras and without being registered on the passenger lists. But the curly question of how they are supposed to have got on board is all too mundane for the exciting world of the conspiracy theorist. With vague mumblings that they must have been using false ID ( but never specifying which IDs they are alleged to have used, or how these were traced to their real identities), they quickly bypass this problem, to relate exciting and sinister tales about how some of the fictitious fiends were actually searched before boarding because they looked suspicious. However, as inevitably happens with any web of lies, this simply paints them into an even more difficult corner. How are they supposed to have got on board with all that stuff if they were searched ? And if they used gas in a confined space, they would have been affected themselves unless they also had masks in their luggage.

"Excuse me sir, why do you have a boxcutter, a gun, a container of gas, a gas mask and an electronic guidance unit in your luggage?"

"A present for your grandmother? Very well sir, on you get."

"Very strange", thinks the security officer. "That's the fourth Arabic man without an Arabic name who just got on board with a knife, gun or boxcutter and gas mask. And why does that security camera keep flicking off every time one these characters shows up? Must be one of those days I guess..."

Asking any of these basic questions to a conspiracy theorist is likely to cause a sudden leap to the claim that we know that they were on board because they left a credit card trail for the tickets they had purchased and cars they had rented. So if they used credit cards that identified them, how does that reconcile with the claim that they used false IDs to get on to the plane? But by this time ,the fruit loop is in full swing, as the conspiracy theorist tries to stay one jump ahead of this annoying and awkward rational analysis.They will allege that the hijackers' passports were found at the crash scenes. "So there!" they exalt triumphantly, their fanatical faces lighting up with that deranged look of one who has just a revelation of questionable sanity.

Hmm? So they got on board with false IDs but took their real passports with them? However, by this time the fruit loop has been completely circumnavigated,and the conspiracy theorist exclaims impatiently, "Who said anything about false IDs? We know what seats they were sitting in! Their presence is well documented!" And so the whole loop starts again. "Well, why aren't they on the passenger lists?"

"You numbskull! They assumed the identities of other passengers!" And so on...

Finally, out of sheer fascination with this circular method of creative delusion , the rational sceptic will allow them to get away with this loop, in order to move on to the next question, and see what further delights await us in the unraveling of this marvelously stupid story.

"Uh, how come their passports survived fiery crashes that completely incinerated the planes and all the passengers? " The answer of course is that its just one of those strange co-incidences, those little quirks of fate that do happen from time to time. You know, like the same person winning the lottery four weeks in a row. The odds are astronomical, but these things do happen...

This is another favourite deductive method of the conspiracy theorist. The "improbability drive" , in which they decide upon a conclusion without any evidence whatsoever to support it, and then continually speculate a series of wildly improbable events and unbelievable co-incidences to support it, shrugging off the implausibility of each event with the vague assertion that sometimes the impossible happens (just about all the time in their world). There is a principle called "Occam's razor" which suggests that in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the simplest explanation is most likely to be correct. Conspiracy theorists hate Occam's razor.

Having for the sake of amusement, allowed them to get away with with the silly story of the 19 invisible Arabs, we move on to the question of how they are supposed to have taken over the planes.

Hijacking a plane is not an easy thing to do. Hijacking it without the pilot being able to alert ground control is near impossible. The pilot has only to punch in a four digit code to alert ground control to a hijacking. Unconcerned with the awkward question of plausibility, the conspiracy buffs maintain that on that Sept 11, the invisible hijackers took over the plane by the rather crude method of threatening people with boxcutters and knives, and spraying gas (after they had attached their masks, obviously), but somehow took control of the plane without the crew first getting a chance to punch in the hijacking code. Not just on one plane, but on all four. At this point in the tale, the conspiracy theorist is again forced to call upon the services of the improbability drive.

So now that our incredibly lucky hijackers have taken control of the planes, all four pilots fly them with breath taking skill and certainty to their fiery end, all four pilots unflinching in their steely resolve for a swift meeting with Allah. Apart from their psychotic hatred of "our freedoms" , it was their fanatical devotion to Islam which enabled them to summon up the iron will to do this. Which is strange, because according to another piece of hearsay peddled by the conspiracy buffs, these guys actually went out drinking and womanizing the night before their great martyrdom, even leaving their Korans in the bar -really impeccable Islamic behavior - and then got up at 5am the next morning to pull off the greatest covert operation in history. This also requires us to believe that they were even clear headed enough to learn how to fly the huge planes by reading flight manuals in Arabic in the car on the way to the airport. We know this because they supposedly left the flight manuals there for us to find.

It gets better. Their practical training had allegedly been limited to Cessnas and flight simulators, but this was no barrier to the unflinching certainty with which they took over the planes and skillfully guided them to their doom. If they are supposed to have done their flight training with these tools, which would be available just about anywhere in the world, its not clear why they would have decided to risk blowing their cover to US intelligence services by doing the training in Florida, rather than somewhere in the Middle East, but such reasoning is foreign to the foggy world of the conspiracy theorist , too trapped in the constant rotation of the mental fruit loop to make their unsubstantiated fabrications seem even semi-believable.

Having triumphantly established a circular delusion in support of the mythical Arabs, the conspiracy theorist now confronts the difficult question of why there's nothing left of the planes. Anybody who has seen the endlessly replayed footage of the second plane going into the WTC will realize that the plane was packed with explosives. Planes do not and cannot blow up into nothing in that manner when they crash.

Did the mythical Arabs also haul a huge heap of explosives on board, and mange to deploy them in such a manner that they went off in the exact instant of the crash, completely vapourizing the plane? This is a little difficult even for the conspiracy theorist, who at this point decides that its easier to invent new laws of physics in order to keep the delusion rolling along.

There weren't any explosives. It wasn't an inside job. The plane blew up into nothing from its exploding fuel load! Remarkable! Sluggishly combustible jet fuel which is basically kerosine,and which burns at a maximum temperature of around 800 C has suddenly taken on the qualities of a ferociously explosive demolition agent, vapourizing 65 tons of aircraft into a puff of smoke. Never mind that a plane of that size contains around 15 tons of steel and titanium, of which even the melting points are about double that of the maximum combustion temperature of kerosine - let alone the boiling point - which is what would be required to vapourize a plane. And then there's about 50 tons of aluminium to be accounted for. In excess of 15lbs of metal for each gallon of kerosine.

For the conspiracy theorist, such inconvenient facts are vaguely dismissed as "mumbo jumbo". This convenient little phrase is their answer to just about anything factual or logical. Like a conjurer pulling a rabbit out of a hat, they suddenly become fanatically insistent about the devastating explosive qualities of kerosine, something hitherto completely unknown to science, but just discovered by them, this very minute. Blissfully ignoring the fact that never before or since in aviation history has a plane vapourized into nothing from an exploding fuel load, the conspiracy theorist relies upon Hollywood images, where the effects are are always larger than life, and certainly larger than the intellects of these cretins.

"Its a well known fact that planes blow up into nothing on impact." they state with pompous certainty. "Watch any Bruce Willis movie."

"Care to provide any documented examples? If it's a well known fact, then presumably this well known fact springs from some kind of documentation - other than Bruce Willis movies ?"

At this point the mad but cunning eyes of the conspiracy theorist will narrow as they sense the corner that they have backed themselves into, and plan their escape by means of another stunning backflip.

"Ah, but planes have never crashed into buildings before, so there's no way of telling." they counter with a sly grin.

Well, actually planes have crashed into buildings before and since, and not vapourized into nothing.

"But not big planes, with that much fuel ", they shriek in hysterical denial.

Or that much metal to vapourize.

"Yes but not hijacked planes!"

"Are you suggesting that whether the crash is deliberate or accidental affects the combustion qualities of the fuel?"

"Now you're just being silly".

Although collisions with buildings are rare, planes frequently crash into mountains, streets, other aircraft, nosedive into the ground,or have bombs planted aboard them, and don't vapourize into nothing. What's so special about a tower that's mostly glass? But by now, the conspiracy theorist has once again sailed happily around the fruit loop. "Its a well documented fact that planes explode into nothing on impact."

Effortlessly weaving back and forth between the position that its a "well known fact" and that "its never happened before, so we have nothing to compare it to", the conspiracy theorist has now convinced themselves ( if not too many other people) that the WTC plane was not loaded with explosives, and that the instant vapourization of the plane in a massive fireball was the same as any other plane crash you might care to mention. Round and round the fruit. loop...

But the hurdles which confront the conspiracy theorist are many, and they are now forced to implement even more creative uses for the newly discovered shockingly destructive qualities of kerosine. They have to explain how the Arabs also engineered the elegant veritcal collapse of both the WTC towers, and for this awkward fact the easiest counter is to simply deny that it was a controlled demolition, and claim that the buildings collapsed from fire caused by the burning kerosine.

For this, its necessary to sweep aside the second law of thermodynamics and propose kerosine which is not only impossibly destructive, but also recycles itself for a second burning in violation of the law of degradation of energy. You see, it not only consumed itself in a sudden catastrophic fireball , vapourizing a 65 ton plane into nothing, but then came back for a second go, burning at 2000C for another hour at the impact point, melting the skyscraper's steel like butter. And while it was doing all this it also poured down the elevator shafts, starting fires all through the building. When I was at school there was a little thing called the entropy law which suggests that a given portion of fuel can only burn once, something which is readily observable in the real world, even for those who didn't make it to junior high school science. But this is no problem for the conspiracy theorist. Gleefully, they claim that a few thousand gallons of kerosine is enough to

:completely vapourize a 65 ton aircraft

:have enough left over to burn ferociously enough for over an hour at the impact point to melt steel ( melting point about double the maximum combustion temperature of the fuel )

:still have enough left over to pour down the elevator shafts and start similarly destructive fires all through the building.

This kerosine really is remarkable stuff! How chilling to realize that those kerosine heaters we had in the house when I was a kid were deadly bombs, just waiting to go off. One false move and the entire street might have been vapourized. And never again will I take kerosine lamps out camping. One moment you're there innocently holding the lamp - the next - kapow! Vapourized into nothing along with with the rest of the camp site, and still leaving enough of the deadly stuff to start a massive forest fire.

These whackos are actually claiming that the raging inferno allegedly created by the miraculously recycling, and impossibly hot burning kerosine melted or at least softened the steel supports of the skyscraper. Oblivious to the fact that the smoke coming from the WTC was black, which indicates an oxygen starved fire -therefore, not particularly hot, they trumpet an alleged temperature in the building of 2000 C , without a shred of evidence to support this curious suspension of the laws of physics.

Not content with this ludicrous garbage, they then contend that as the steel frames softened, they came straight down instead of buckling and twisting and falling sideways.

Since they're already re-engineered the combustion qualities of jet fuel, violated the second law of thermodynamics, and re-defined the structural properties of steel, why let a little thing like the laws of gravity get in the way?

The tower fell in a time almost identical to that of a free falling object, dropped from that height, meaning that its physically impossible for it to have collapsed by the method of the top floors smashing through the lower floors. But according to the conspiracy theorists, the laws of gravity were temporarily suspended on the morning of Sept 11. It appears that the evil psychic power of those dreadful Arabs knew no bounds. Even after they were dead, they were able, by the power of their evil spirits, to force down the tower at a speed physically impossible under the laws of gravity, had it been meeting any resistance from fireproofed steel structures originally designed to resist many tons of hurricane force wind as well as the impact of a Boeing passenger jet straying off course.

Clearly, these conspiracy nuts never did their science homework at school, but did become extremely adept at inventing tall tales for why.

"Muslim terrorists stole my notes, sir"

"No miss, the kerosine heater blew up and vapourized everything in the street, except for my passport."

"You see sir, the schoolbus was hijacked by Arabs who destroyed my homework because they hate our freedoms."

Or perhaps they misunderstood the term "creative science" and mistakenly thought that coming up with such rubbish was in fact, their science homework.

The ferocious heat generated by this ghastly kerosine was, according to the conspiracy theorists, the reason why so many of the WTC victims can't be identified. DNA is destroyed by heat. (Although 2000 C isn't really required, 100C will generally do the job.) This is quite remarkable, because according to the conspiracy theorist, the nature of DNA suddenly changes if you go to a different city.

That's right! If you are killed by an Arab terrorist in NY, your DNA will be destroyed by such temperatures. But if you are killed by an Arab terrorist in Washington DC, your DNA will be so robust that it can survive temperatures which completely vapourize a 65 ton aircraft.

You see, these loonies have somehow concocted the idea that the missile which hit the pentagon was not a missile at all, but one of the hijacked planes. And to prove this unlikely premise, they point to a propaganda statement from the Bush regime, which rather stupidly claims that all but one of the people aboard the plane were identified from the site by DNA testing, even though nothing remains of the plane. The plane was vapourized by the fuel tank explosion maintain these space loonies, but the people inside it were all but one identified by DNA testing.

So there we have it. The qualities of DNA are different, depending upon which city you're in, or perhaps depending upon which fairy story you're trying to sell at any particular time.

This concoction about one of the hijacked planes hitting the Pentagon really is a howler. For those not familiar with the layout of the Pentagon, it consists of 5 rings of building, each with a space inbetween. Each ring of building is about 30 to 35 ft deep, with a similar amount of open space between it and the next ring. The object which penetrated the Pentagon went in at about a 45 degree angle, punching a neat circular hole of about a 12 ft diameter through three rings ( six walls).A little later a section of wall about 65 ft wide collapsed in the outer ring. Since the plane which the conspiracy theorists claim to be responsible for the impact had a wing span of 125 ft and a length of 155 ft, and there was no wreckage of the plane, either inside or outside the building, and the lawns outside were still smooth and green enough to play golf on, this crazy delusion is clearly physically impossible.

But hey, we've already disregarded the combustion qualities of jet fuel, the normal properties of common building materials, the properties of DNA, the laws of gravity and the second law of thermodynamics, so what the hell - why not throw in a little spatial impossibility as well ? I would have thought that the observation that a solid object cannot pass through another solid object without leaving a hole at least as big as itself is reasonably sound science. But to the conspiracy theorist, this is "mumbo jumbo". It conflicts with the delusion that they're hooked on, so it "must be wrong" although trying to get them to explain exactly how it could be wrong is a futile endeavour.

Conspiracy theorists fly into a curious panic whenever the Pentagon missile is mentioned.They nervously maintain that the plane was vapourized by it's exploding fuel load and point to the WTC crash as evidence of this behavior. (That's a wonderful fruit loop.) Like an insect which has just been sprayed, running back and forth in its last mad death throes, they first argue that the reason the hole is so small is that the plane never entered the wall, having blown up outside, and then suddenly backflip to explain the 250 ft deep missile hole by saying that the plane disappeared all the way into the building, and then blew up inside the building (even though the building shows no sign of such damage). As for what happened to the wings - here's where they get really creative. The wings snapped off and folded into the fuselage which then carried them into the building, which then closed up behind the plane like a piece of meat.

When it suits them, they'll also claim that the plane slid in on its belly, (ignoring the undamaged lawn) while at the same time citing alleged witnesses to the plane diving steeply into the building from an "irrecoverable angle." How they reconcile these two scenarios as being compatible is truly a study in stupidity.

Once they get desperate enough, you can be sure that the UFO conspiracy stuff will make an appearance. The Arabs are in league with the Martians. Space aliens snatched the remains of the Pentagon plane and fixed most of the hole in the wall, just to confuse people. They gave the Arabs invisibility pills to help get them onto the planes. Little green men were seen talking to Bin Laden a few weeks prior to the attacks.

As the nation gears up to impeach the traitor Bush, and stop his perpetual oil war, it's not helpful to have these idiots distracting from the process by spreading silly conspiracy theories about mythical Arabs, stories which do nothing but play into the hands of the extremist Bush regime.

At a less serious time, we might tolerate such crackpots with amused detachment, but they need to understand that the treachery that was perpetrated on Sept 11, and the subsequent war crimes committed in "retaliation" are far too serious for us to allow such frivolous self indulgence to go unchallenged.

Those who are truly addicted to conspiracy delusions should find a more appropriate outlet for their paranoia.

Its time to stop loony conspiracy theories about Sept 11.

Article.

by Gerard Holmgren

Copyright Gerard Holmgren. Jan 2003.