Metroland feature on 9/11 Truth

What Really Happened? --Metroland

"...The [Loose Change] group still faces plenty of legitimate criticism. Some argue that they base their assertions on speculations grounded in footage that they harvest from third- and fourth-hand Internet sources that could easily have been altered, or from sources like Wikipedia; they read too much into things that could have been reported in the heat of the moment, critics say, or simply recorded in error.

And yet, some of their most vocal critics also desperately want the group to succeed. Troy resident Patrick Buckley is one of those people. Buckley, like the guys behind Loose Change, was a young man on 9/11 and was gripped by the events and entered into a new sense of reality.

“I was in high school on 9/11. I was in 10th grade,” he explains. “I was completely disconnected from anything—from anything that had to do with politics, social issues, foreign policy. I remember when I saw it, I was in math class, and we saw just after the second tower got hit. The teacher came in late, right after the bell rang, and asked what happened. We pointed out that the two planes hit the towers, and she was just like, ‘I pretend that stuff doesn’t happen,’ and we went on with math class.”

Buckley says he realized that he wasn’t learning the things that really mattered in his high school, like current affairs and politics, so he began trying to understand what led to 9/11. Since then, Buckley has started investigations of his own and plans to run a Web site devoted to investigative journalism.

He notes that three years ago, the guys behind Loose Change would probably have been driven out of the country on a wave of angry patriotism, but that does not mean he agrees with everything they have to say.

“Yes, it helps spread speculation and helps get people to ask questions. But as far as I’m concerned, I would hope they would bring out some of the info that is out there,” Buckley says.

What information is that? The fact that the military was conducting war games the morning of 9/11, games that Buckley and a number of sources claim involved simulations of aircraft being hijacked and slammed into buildings. He says that the inclusion of the Project for a New American Century (a Republican think tank) in Loose Change is extremely important.

Rebuilding America’s Defenses, a document written by the think tank in 2000, pushes for the spread of American militarism and insists that Iraq be invaded as the beginning of a greater plan that would see the United States straddling the globe. The document goes on to assert that the only way to rally American enthusiasm for such change would be another Pearl Harbor-like event. “Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor,” the document declares. A number of members of the current Bush administration endorsed the paper, including Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

But Buckley says that there are documents and money trails to be followed. While the Loose Change guys seem to want to bring about an official criminal investigation of 9/11—an investigation they say the government should initiate—Buckley is certain that information about the true causes of 9/11 is out there and available to investigative journalists.

In fact, he says some of that information is available to the American public. He points to coverage by many mainstream news agencies of a Pakistani official, Mahmud Ahmad, who was removed from his position because he had sanctioned the wiring of $100,000 to highjacker Mohammad Atta. Buckley insists there are links between this man and American intelligence, and he points to coverage of a visit Ahmad paid to CIA Director George Tenet during the week of 9/11.

Buckley has approached the filmmakers with evidence like this in hopes that they will include it over evidence that he says is more speculative, like the size of holes left by planes or what may or may not be explosions seen while the towers collapsed.

“I’ve been trying to get this across to them for a while,” says Buckley. “They say they are open to change and want to have the most well-documented film.” ..."

Excellent article, although Mr. King slightly misinterpreted that last quote. I have only spoken to the creators of "Loose Change" once. I was referring to all those who perpetuate the cruise missile theory when I said "I've been trying to get this across to them for a while." When I discussed the issue with the three filmmakers in early August, they seemed to agree that the missile theory was an unlikely scenario. I expect that it will be removed from the final edition and I intend to contact the filmmakers with additional suggestions in the near future.