Miami Herald asks troubling questions about 9-11
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/13760721.htm
Published on Wednesday, February 1, 2006
9/11 Attacks: Avoiding the Hard Questions by Robert Steinback
I was 8 years old when President John Kennedy was shot to death in Dallas in
1963. If grace favors me, I’ll be 62 when documents related to the
assassination are released to the public, and 84 when the Warren
Commission’s investigative files into the tragedy are finally opened.
That’s a long time to wait for a chance to evaluate the purported truth.
It’s a blot on the presumed sophistication of the people of the United
States that any aspect of an event so dramatic and shocking should be kept
from us.
Perhaps it’s true, to abuse the line from A Few Good Men yet again, that we
can’t handle the truth. But there cannot be genuine resolution as long as
such critical information remains concealed.
Transformed by 9/11
Since Kennedy’s assassination, Americans have lurched between demanding to
know and plugging their ears: The Pentagon Papers, My Lai, the King
assassination, Watergate, Iran-contra, the savings-and-loan debacle,
Monicagate. Lately, however, it would seem the public’s verdict is in: Don’t
tell us. Keep us in the dark. We don’t want to know.
This is the worst possible time for probe-ophobia to grip us. Our nation was
irretrievably transformed by 9/11 — and yet there remain troubling
questions about what really happened before, during and after that day.
Rather than demanding a full and fearless vetting to hone in on the truth
and silence the conjecture about 9/11, many Americans remain unwilling to
peer into the microscope.
An online cottage industry of theorists, theory debunkers and debunker
debunkers has flourished since 9/11. Sometimes the flimsy theories are easy
to spot — come on, if the four passenger jets didn’t crash where it appears
they did, where did they go? More often, though, the cases aren’t so
obvious.
A group of experts and academicians ‘devoted to applying the principles of
scientific reasoning to the available evidence, `letting the chips fall
where they may,’ ‘’ last week accused the government of covering up evidence
that the three destroyed New York City buildings were brought down that day
by controlled demolition rather than structural failure. The group, called
Scholars for 9/11 Truth, has a website, www.st911.org.
Unanswered Questions
The reflexive first reaction is incredulity — how, one asks, could anyone
even contemplate, never mind actually do such a barbaric thing? But before
you shut your mind, check the resumés — these aren’t Generation X geeks
subsisting on potato chips and PlayStation. Then look at the case they
present.
‘’I am a professional philosopher who has spent 35 years teaching logic,
critical thinking and scientific reasoning,'’ group co-founder and
University of Minnesota professor James H. Fetzer told me. “When I come to
9/11, it’s not hard for me to determine what is going on. This is a
scientific question.
And it is so elementary that I don’t think you can find a single physicist
who could disagree with the idea that this was a controlled demolition.'’
The group asks, for example,
. How did a fire fed by jet fuel, which at most burns at 1,700 degrees
Fahrenheit, cause the collapse of the Twin Towers, built of steel that melts
at 2,800 degrees? (Most experts agree that the impact of airliners, made
mostly of lightweight aluminum, should not have been enough alone to cause
structural failure.) How could a single planeload of burning jet fuel –
most of which flared off in the initial fireball — cause the South World
Trade Center tower to collapse in just 56 minutes?
. Why did building WTC-7 fall, though no aircraft struck it? Fire alone had
never before caused a steel skyscraper to collapse.
. Why did all three buildings collapse largely into their own footprints –
in the style of a controlled demolition?
. Why did no U.S. military jet intercept the wayward aircraft?
. Why has there been no investigation of BBC reports that five of the
alleged
9/11 hijackers were alive and accounted for after the event?
Our current probe-ophobia is due in part to the political landscape: When
one party holds all the cards, any call to investigate an alleged abuse of
power or cover-up — no matter how valid — will look like a partisan
vendetta.
Those in power never want to investigate themselves.
Maybe that’s politics; he who holds the hammer drives the nails. But the
outrage of 9/11 transcends party affiliation.
We need all the outstanding questions answered — wherever the chips may
fall.
Email to: [email protected]
(c) 2006 Miami Herald
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