Loose Change

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Loose Change is a documentary challenging the official version of the events of September 11, 2001

Loose Change is a documentary written and narrated by Dylan Avery which questions the events surrounding the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the United States and alleges that the attacks were really the result of an orchestrated US government conspiracy.

Overview

Loose Change is a documentary by Dylan Avery (director and narrator), Korey Rowe (producer) and Jason Bermas (webmaster and graphic designer), released through their company, Louder Than Words. It received wide attention after being featured on FOX News.

The documentary presents a rebuttal to the official version of events during the September 11, 2001 attacks and the 9/11 Commission Report. It alleges that the attacks were not the result of terrorism but a series of cleverly executed events carried out by the US government.

Released as two separate editions, the documentary has been the focus of much debate with many websites and individuals challenging the validity of claims made by it. Avery is currently developing a script for a feature film version titled Loose Change: The Movie, scheduled for release in 2006.

History

Financial backing for the project came in April 2005 from producers such as Phil Jayhan of letsroll911.org [1]. Avery released the first edition of Loose Change with an initial press of 1,000 DVDs. Rowe, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan and Iraq joined the project in June 2005. Bermas also joined the team and together they released an updated second edition in November 2005.

The documentary is available for purchase and distribution through its official website [2]. It can also be viewed for free online and downloaded through Google Video.

The documentary has been released in two editions. The first was released in April 2005, followed by the second edition in November 2005. The second edition is a remake of the original with added footage and information.

Content

File:Screening color.jpg
Flyer for a screening of the documentary

Timeline

  • Includes background information of a plan put forward in the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis then outlines significant events that could be considered leading up to the events of September 11, 2001.

Pentagon

World Trade Center

  • Suggests that the actual collapses of the World Trade Centers 1, 2 and 7 were not triggered by the plane crashes but by a series of explosions within the buildings that were detonated shortly before each building collapsed.

Flight 93

Oddities

  • Asserts that cellular phone calls could not be made from American Airlines flights at the time of the crash, citing as evidence the "cell station that was installed into [an American Airlines] plane" to allow the use of cell phones in flight on July 15, 2004, and questioned the need for the booth if, according to the recordings heard, cell phones could already make calls.
  • Suggests that cell phone calls from passengers and crew were faked by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico using sophisticated voice-morphing technology and that the December 13, 2001 video of Osama Bin Laden admitting guilt was also faked.
  • Asserts that of the list of hijackers initially released by the government, many were not in the planes and were alive after September 11, 2001 and may even still be alive.

Cui Bono

  • Outlines possible motives for the attacks.

Factual inaccuracies

The film states that New York's Empire State Building was hit by a B-52 in 1945. It was actually a B-25 Mitchell, an aircraft less than one-third the size of a B-52. The authors have since apologized and acknowledged this error.

The movie cites a study in which cell phone calls could not be made at 32,000 ft, it is assumed flight 93 was flying that high for the entire flight. According to air traffic controllers in Cleveland, who alerted their counterparts at John P. Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County, the Flight 93 headed south and then east and began a steady descent from an altitude of over 20,000 feet to less than 6,000 feet. According to the air traffic controllers the transponders were turned off for 30 seconds, and then turned on to a different frequency, one that no plane that day was using. The bogus "squawk," a four digit code for the computer to display the planes' information, still allowed the air traffic controllers to track the plane, but not identify it. [1]

The film suggests that a plane hitting a single light pole would crash, citing the example of a Gulfstream II headed to Houston saying it crashed because it hit a light pole. In fact the Gulfstream II jet crashed and a TV reporter noted it had clipped a light pole while crashing, the film suggests the pole ripped the wing off. The film states 5 light posts were knocked over Flight 77, in fact light poles are designed to detach from few simple bolts, on impact from car crashes to save lives. The effect of hitting a light post by a plane's wing would not cause it to rip the wing off. [2]

Criticisms

The film carries many of the features of a Conspiracy Theory. Most notably, it appeals to common sense, letting the spectator draw some of the conclusions himself to make its claims more convincing. Regarding for example the events at the Pentagon, Dylan Avery shows a piece of the plane's fuselage on the lawn, and says: "And why is not singed, or scratched, after a 530 mph impact, and the subsequent fireball?", without trying to explain why it should be. He also claims that another part found on the site could not have come from a 757: "Let's look a little closer at the defuser case of a 757. Do you see the triangular bezels around the openings? Those are nowhere to be found on the case found at the Pentagon." The viewer is put in the expert's seat with selective evidence and quote mining; rather than conducting follow up interviews with experts it cites.

Pentagon crash

Loose Change has been criticized as disinformation even by some within the 9/11 Truth Movement, which disagrees with many aspects of the official version of events on 9/11/01. [3] A primary concern of many in the movement is the promotion by documentaries such as Loose Change and In Plane Site, that a commercial jet did not hit the Pentagon. [4] [5] [6] [7] The group Judicial Watch successfully obtained, from the Department of Defense, video footage of what may be Flight 77 striking the Pentagon taken from relevant security cameras at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001; on May 16 2006 the group released videos from the two cameras on their website with hopes to "...put to rest the conspiracy theories involving American Airlines Flight 77..." According to the DoD, the tapes had not been released earlier because the Zacarias Moussaoui trial was still underway.

Critics of the documentary's proposal that a cruise missile or a small aircraft may have been the cause of damage to the Pentagon, cite the nearly 100 documented accounts from witnesses on the scene [8] who reported seeing a large airliner. Some witnesses specifically noted seeing a 757, while only two witnesses, located some distance from the scene, reported seeing a small plane. Loose Change, however, implies that an equal number of witnesses reported different aircraft as reported a commercial jet, and does not mention the large body of witness reports in support of a commercial jet. Not a single witness at the scene has ever reported seeing a missile. [9]

Loose Change claims that the engines belonging to the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, made of steel and titanium alloys, could not have melted, because the burning temperature of kerosene in even a pure oxygen environment is below the melting point of titanium. Critics contend the melting point of titanium is irrelevant since the motors involve steel-titanium alloy rather than pure titanium, although Ti alloys melt at temperatures (1668 C) [10] significantly closer to titanium (1725 C) than to steel (1500 C).

World Trade Center collapse

The documentary focuses on the combustion temperature of jet fuel (1517 F) which is much lower than the melting point of steel (2777 F). This is true but irrelevant as it does not elaborate on the combustion temperatures of office equipment and open air flame which can be much higher. It also fails to note that "steel loses 50 percent of its strength at 1,200 F." [11] Which likely led to key structural failures that are heard as "secondary explosions" and "crashes" prior to the collapse. As the Twin Towers had strong outer shells and light weight trusses for floors, that would force the collapse inward as the towers were — structurally speaking — 95% air because of their open floor designs. This is significantly different to all the notable high-rise fires used as comparisons.

Flight 93 landing

Loose Change suggests that Flight 93 landed in Cleveland instead of crashing or being shot down in Pennsylvania, and that passengers were subsequently secretly evacuated to an empty NASA research building. A number of members of the 9/11 Truth Movement, however, note that there is virtually no evidence for such a claim, and that many witnesses reported seeing and hearing the plane at the crash site. [3] [4] [5]

Use of Wikipedia as a source

Wikipedia was used as a source for some information from the documentary. Wikipedia is not a primary source, and thus it has been argued that the producers' use of it as evidence is indicative of poor research method that should not be used in a documentary. In addition, some have alleged that since Wikipedia is able to be edited by the public, the producers could have manipulated the cited articles to strengthen their position. To date there is no evidence that this occurred, and the articles cited by the documentary appear to be unvandalized and match the producers' claims of their content.

Defense

Some defenders of the film, mostly others involved in similar types of movements and projects have defended the film against criticism. They note that some of the criticism of the film is statistically petty. For example in the film the narrator states that "[There were] 14 fighter jets to protect the entire United States." He says this in reference to War games being conducted on the date of September 11th. Critics point this out as one of many factual inaccuracies or outright lies in the film; the actual number is 16, counting two planes in Alaska (20 if four planes in Ontario are included). Supporters point that in relavance to the United states, there is no real difference between 14 or 20 planes. They also point out that the narrator is somewhat correct because there were only 14 in the lower 48 states.

Trivia

  • Samples from the Loose Change documentary can be heard in Ministry's song, LiesLiesLies, which can be found on the Rio Grande Blood record.

See also

References

  1. ^ A Sky Filled With Chaos, Uncertainty and True Heroism
  2. ^ Utility Poles - Description of Strategies
  3. ^ "'Loose Change' An analysis", by Michael B. Green, 911research.wtc7.net, retrieved March 1, 2006
  4. ^ Pentagon Attack Errors, 9-11 Review, retrieved March 1, 2006
  5. ^ Why the No-757 Crowd is Making an Ass out of Itself, Joël van der Reijden, retrieved March 1, 2006
  6. ^ The Pentagon attack: the "no plane" theories discredit 9/11 skepticism, oilempire.us, retrieved March 1, 2006
  7. ^ Flight 77.info, retrieved March 29, 2006
  8. ^ Pentagon eyewitnesses 'It was a plane bomb,' Eric Bart, retrieved April, 2006
  9. ^ "Eyewitness Accounts Describe Jetliner Approaching Pentagon", 911research.wtc7.net, retrieved March 1, 2006
  10. ^ Typical Properties of Titanium Alloys
  11. ^ Scientific American – Fahrenheit 2777

Comment

Debunking

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