Kinda funny how no journalists were allowed at the Gitmo detainee hearings for Khalid and others.

So you think Khalid had something to do with getting explosives inside the towers?

First, it's a military tribunal, not Judge Ito's circus. That they are getting any hearing at all is a tribute to our sense of justice. If we were like the terrorists, we would just chop their heads off and throw them into the Bay.

Second, why would the military allow another set of enemies into the hearings?

The great thing about conspiracy fantasies is that all new evidence somehow can be shown to support them, and nothing ever refutes them, either. No wonder the simple minded, the intellectually pretentious and the pathetically gullible are drawn into them.

Khalid was in the back seat with Mary Jo.

Raoul:
The funny thing about conspiracy theories is that they will usually will turn out to be true long after their detractors will have to feel ashamed about ignoring certain obvious, lingering questions; like the deliberate destruction of 95% of the steel beams (i.e. evidence) from the towers, or the inexplicable destruction of building 10, the failure of fighter jets to scramble in time after they had done so over 100 times the previous year, and a multitude of other questions that you will probably say don't matter.
If you think that two airplanes alone brought down the two towers, plus about a half dozen other structures, than there probably are a whole host of other myths that I really don't have the time to dispel for you.

It was 93 in Phoenix today, but probably hotter wherever this guy is writing from.

If the two jets didn't pack the punch to knock down the towers, then what did? And why didn't they fall immediately, if explosives were used? Why weren't these "explosions" seen on TV? Were agents running through the towers, pouring nitric acid on the steel?

And, the piece de resistance, were the passengers on Flight 93 off-loaded in Cleveland and murdered?

Or was it Cincinnati? Or Columbus? Or Charleston? Or Cancun?

So now we see phase two of the conspiracy fantasy procedure. When challenged, spew out a disconected laundry list of "obvious, lingering questions". Operate from the assuption that because those questions are inexplicable to the fantasist, they must be inexplicable to everyone else, including experts in the fields in question. (Or, the experts are in on it...) Add in an avoidance of the proper application of Occam's Razor, biased toward favoring the improbable. And most importantly, require those who disagree to prove a negative.

The fallacy here is that just because something might seem to be hard to explain or understand does not mean it cannot be explained or understand. Or to put it another way, "never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence." (Or in this cases, natural phenomena.) Might as well be blaming evil spirits.

Here, I'll even give you an example. The tensile strength of steel is dependent on its temperature. Warmer steel is "softer" than cold. Jet fuel doesn't have to be hot enough to reach the melting point, only hot enough to weaken it, even slightly. Eventually the strength decreases to the point where it is no longer able to withstand the loads it was designed for and naturally withstands. At that point a cascading failure occurs, overloading other steel, especially those compromised by other damage. It's a failure which only stops when all stress has been removed from the entire system. That some people can't comprehend this is what some people should "have to feel ashamed about".

(If nothing else, I've seen those Discovery Channel documentaries on building demolition, and what I find amazing is how the gov't can do in minutes, with no one noticing, what takes professional experts weeks to set up in abandoned, gutted buildings. Heck, I remember news reports for weeks in advance of the King Dome coming down detailing the progress ileading to its demise.)

The funny thing about conspiracy theories is that they will usually will turn out to be true long after their detractors...

Cite just one that you believe has turned out to be true.

People like Gupta believe idiotic theories like that not because there is evidence, but because they want it to be true. The scenario where 'Bush did it' fits in with his world-view.
It's truly sad, but the U.S. has come to the point where a significant fraction of its population despises its traditional values and principles so much that they are driven to such dementia.

Actually, folks like gupta need to believe the State is in control of such things. That's why they are of the Left in the first place. There's security in a world where things only happen because the government dictates them.

Note too the near psychoses in the insistence that the planes couldn't bring down the buildings, despite engineers repeatedly explaining why it was so easy.

Conspiracy theories provide order to the universe and remove scary things like chance or luck.

Posted by: Mikey at March 15, 2007 7:29 AM

As people, we can't help looking for signs and symbols and evidence of things unseen. So as religion dies for certain people, other obsessions rush in to fill the vacuum.

The funniest thing about conspiracy theories is that it is invariably the CIA that manages to pull off these incredible feats -- the same CIA that couldn't find Russia on a map.

Wait. . . that wasn't parody? Oh, that is rich indeed. Now I have to go back up and re-read it with conviction.

curt commented: "The funniest thing about conspiracy theories is that it is invariably the CIA that manages to pull off these incredible feats -- the same CIA that couldn't find Russia on a map."

Ah, but you don't understand that the ineptness is the necessary cover for the diabolical skill needed to implement disasters. See?

This Kahlid chap is a bad, bad guy, who has sone sone bad, bad things. He's going.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070315/D8NSMGQ80.html