23 April 2006
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.
Simon and Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence
On April 12, 2006 Sean Wheeler wrote a blog post titled
9/11 Unanswered Questions. The post contains 5 very pertinent questions. It is also quite short, so allow me to present it here in its entirety:
Every now and then, I have to ask myself: "Am I crazy? Why do I believe 9/11 was an inside job?" Then I remember the following unanswered questions, and it all makes sense. All of the info here can be researched through mainstream news sources.
1) How could Arabs who are supposed to be jihadists but were actually party animals, who couldn't even fly a Cessna, shatter our multi-trillion dollar military/intelligence apparatus and simultaneously hijack 4 commercial jets, then fly 3 of them with precision that is difficult for even experienced pilots, without being intercepted by our air defense system?
2) How did 2 planes take down 3 steel-framed skyscrapers?
3) Why did the FBI confiscate surveillance video at the Pentagon?
4) Why do you think it took 14 months before the Bush administration authorized an investigation, underfunded it, appointed government insiders to the commission, withheld documents, left out hours of testimony by key whistleblowers, and Bush and Cheney would only testify in secret?
5) Why is there a gag order on all FAA employees that forbids them from speaking about the events of 9/11 for the rest of their lives?
Do you have a satisfactory answer for any of these? If so, please leave a comment below. I'd love to hear it.
In essense, this post is a challenge to those who believe that the events of 9/11 unfolded exactly the way the official version of those events would have us believe, or close to it. And, just like Wheeler, I too would love to see these questions answered.
Yesterday Wheeler decided to take this challenge of his a bit further by offering this 9/11 Quiz. It too contains a number of highly relevant questions and, just like his 9/11 Unanswered Questions, it has of this writing remained unanswered.
It goes without saying that I encourage anyone and everyone who feels up to the challenge to try and answer Wheeler's questions. However, you can say that Wheeler does not have an audience large enough, even aided by yours truly here, and the fact that no one has answered his questions in a way that would lay all worries to rest is only indicative of the fact that not enough people got to read them. You can say that - and you might be right to a considerable degree.
But it would be a mistake to believe that Wheeler is the only one challenging the audience to explain problematic aspects of the official 9/11 theory. A millionaire businessman by the name of Jimmy Walter has announced a $1 million dollar contest where participants are challenged to present a coherent scientific writeup on how the WTC towers could have collapsed in a way consistent with the official theory. I haven't seen the mention of when the contest officially started but its conditions are said to have been amended on November 11, 2005; hence the challenge has been there for at least 5 months. Thus far, it appears, it remains unanswered - that in spite of a rather seductive prize.
Contrary to what some critics are saying, 9/11 skeptics - most of the ones I have come across, at least - are not some loony "tin foil hat conspiracists" sitting in basements and swapping ridiculous stories. Quite to the contrary, we are willing to engage in a dialog, and some of us even challenge the opposition to answer our specific questions. Some of us are even willing to part with some rather noticeable assets of theirs - all that just to be proven wrong.
Yet all too often all we hear in response to reasonable and meaningful questions is silence. And the roar of that silence is deafening.