Loose Change [Archive]

which doctor

13th July 2006, 05:29

Originally posted by fysh117+Jul 12 2006, 06:45 PM--> (fysh117 @ Jul 12 2006, 06:45 PM) I havent seen it yet, but i hear it's accurate [/b]
I've seen it before and I was a little weary of some of the claims made in the film.

I didn a little research on wikipedia and found that some of it is inaccurate.

Wikipedia
Factual inaccuracies

Note: the "Loose Change Viewer Guide" is linked in this section because the errors it enumerates are too many to list here.

In the introduction to his "Loose Change Second Edition Viewer Guide," Mark Roberts states, "I counted 81 errors of fact (statements like 1+1 = 3). In addition, I counted 345 instances of conjecture not supported by evidence, logical fallacies, uses of images that do not support the conclusions being drawn, and other flubs. And that’s only counting errors of commission. The errors of omission are much more serious."

For example, major omissions about the Pentagon attack include not mentioning that dozens of eyewitnesses state that they saw an American Airlines jet strike the Pentagon, that tons of Flight 77 debris was recovered there, along with numerous personal effects of passengers, and that all but one of flight 77's victims' remains were positively identified by forensics experts.[citation needed] No attempt is made in "Loose Change" to interview – or to present the findings of – the thousands of experts who were involved in the 9/11 investigations.

The "Loose Change Second Edition Viewer Guide" is available as a 146-page, 5 Mb .doc download [1], or as an HTML document.[2] (Note: this guide is to be updated when the "Loose Change" creators resolve their copyright violation issues.). "Sifting Through Loose Change: the 9-11 Research Companion to Loose Change 2nd Edition," is an interactive guide using an illustrated transcript here.

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 B-52 was not in service in 1945). The authors have since acknowledged this error and apologized.

The movie cites a study in which cell phone calls were increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to get through up to and at an altitude of 32,000 ft (9 750 m). According to air traffic controllers in Cleveland, who alerted their counterparts at John P. Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County, Flight 93 headed south and then east and began a steady descent from an altitude of over 20,000 feet (6 100 m) to less than 6,000 feet (1 830 m). [9]

The film states that 5 light posts were knocked over by Flight 77 and 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. The film suggests the pole ripped the wing off. In fact the Gulfstream II jet crashed and a TV reporter noted it had clipped a light pole while crashing. Light poles are designed to detach on impact to save lives if cars crash into them. [10]

Another possible flaw within the film is the suggestion of voice manipulation on Flight 93. While it is true that the technology does exist, it would seem that in order for voice manipulation technology to take place as Loose Change suggests, the voice needs to be recorded, not live. Flight 93 conversations were live. Although the above state voice modulation technology was touted as being able to recreate voices in almost "real time." [11]

The film suggests that there is a rumour claiming $167 billion in gold was stored in vaults beneath the World Trade Center, and that only $200 million of that amount was recovered. This amount would have exceeded the entire amount of U.S. gold reserves by approximately $67 billion, and would be about 56% of the world's gold reserves in September, 2001. In fact, all of the approximately $230 million in precious metals stored in the vaults beneath the WTC was recovered. [3]

The film focuses on the wrong type of engine for Flight 77. Bollyn, the reporter of American Free Press that Loose Changes uses, had contacted the factory in Indiana which makes engines for small planes like the Cessna Citation and Global Hawk, rather than the plant in Quebec that overhauls the 757 engines or the factory in Derby, England. Loose Change implies 757's only have Pratt & Whitney engines made of steel and titanium alloy. This is incorrect, because the engines used in Flight 77 are Rolls-Royce engines. [12]
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Criticisms

The viewer is often asked to draw his own conclusions based on selective evidence and quote mining.

Two different, detailed point-by-point critiques (Fisking) were prepared by 911research.wt7.net and an anonymous writer connected with ScrewLooseChange.com. ScrewLooseChange has also prepared a video version of Loose Change, subtitled with criticisms. The following points out the major disputes:
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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 the day of the attacks. [13] 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. [14] [15] [16] [17]

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 [18] 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, 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. [19]

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) [20] significantly closer to titanium (1725 °C) than to steel (1500 °C).

The group Judicial Watch successfully obtained, from the Department of Defense, video footage of the airliner striking the Pentagon taken from relevant, though quite distant, 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..." However, the producers of Loose Change claim that the videos released only bolster their claims that Flight 77 never hit the Pentagon. [21]

Chris Farrell, the Director of Investigations & Research at Judicial Watch, warned in an interview [22] that his organization "could be the water carriers for a honey pot operation, in which the government attracts overwhelming attention to the Pentagon issue, making it the cornerstone of the 9/11 truth movement, and then blowing it out of the water by releasing clear footage of Flight 77." He stated, "Let's just call it a baited trap, it draws somebody into a situation in which they're compromised."
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World Trade Center collapse

The documentary focuses on the combustion temperature of jet fuel (1517 °F / 825 °C) which is much lower than the melting point of steel (2777 °F / 1525 °C). 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 degrees F [650 °C]." [23] The steel components of the buildings were certified to ASTM E119. The time temperature curves for this standard require the samples to be exposed to temperatures around 2000F for several hours [24].

As temperatures rose in the buildings, the remaining core columns softened and buckled, shifting much of the burden to the building's exterior. The floors, which largely remained intact outside the impact zone, reacted by pulling the exterior columns inward, adding to the extreme stress on the exterior columns. In the north tower, as fires consumed office furniture and other debris, softening the steel in the exterior columns, they gradually started to bow inward and then buckle. [25]

This buckling and the resulting floors falling could be 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. It would allow the interior of the building to collapse first; so that debris and floors could fall inside the tower and blow out windows ahead of the exterior collapse. Sally Regenhard, founder of the Skyscraper Safety Campaign, has urged a reassessment of using trusses to create open floor designs; as she points out fire experts have a motto to "Never trust the truss" in a fire. [26] The Twin Towers open floor design, greater height (wind and structural loads), their supporting columns and fireproofing being compromised by the initial impact; is significantly different from all the notable high-rise fires used as comparisons in the documentary.

It's still an interesting movie that raises some good points though.