America’s favorite piece of human debris is now officially in the business of pushing September 11th conspiracy theories, and his isn’t any more believable than anyone else’s:

The 9/11 Commission Report says that “at some time between 10:10 and 10:15″ Dick Cheney ordered the Air Force to shoot down the plane, which had turned east towards Washington. The plane had already crashed at 10:03. But the regional air traffic control center in Cleveland asked the FAA whether military fighter jets should be dispatched at flight at 9:36, giving the Air Force more than enough time to intercept before the fatal plunge into the field at Shanksville. Was United 93 shot down, despite the official story?

Local media accounts offer some evidence of that possibility. The September 13, 2001 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, for example: “In a morning briefing, State Police Major Lyle Szupinka confirmed that debris from the plane had turned up in relatively far-flung sites, including the residential area of Indian Lake [two and a half miles from the crash site].”

Flight 93 “headed down…rolled onto its back,” and crashed, leaving a smoldering crater. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette again: “[Indian Lake marina employee John] Fleegle said he climbed on the roof of an abandoned cabin and tossed down a burning seat cushion that had landed there. By Wednesday morning, crash debris began washing ashore at the marina. Fleegle said there was something that looked like a rib bone amid pieces of seats, small chunks of melted plastic and checks.” Seats and bones don’t fly two and a half miles from a crash. Their location could indicate an initial explosion, such as that from a missile hitting a plane.

I can’t say for sure, but apparently Rall failed to read the entire article, or maybe he’s just selectively quoting the article. Either way, the same article that the above-referenced quotes above come from also says this:

Szupinka said that lighter, smaller debris probably shot into the air on the heat of a fireball that witnesses said shot several hundred feet into the air after the jetliner crashed. Then, it probably rode a wind that was blowing southeast at about 9 mph, Crowley said.

“According to the NTSB, not only is that possible … it is probable that this stuff is debris from this crash,” he said. He and Szupinka said additional debris may be submerged in the lake, as well as in a drainage pond near the crash crater, and may have to be retrieved later by divers.

Responding to questions about recurring rumors that Flight 93 might have been shot down by a military aircraft in order to prevent it from reaching a strategic or more-populated target, Crowley said that no possibility was being ruled out at this early stage of the investigation. Yesterday afternoon however, he took pains to do just that — trying to stamp out any notion that military planes were in any way involved with the end of Flight 93.

“There was no military involvement in what happened here,” Crowley said. “I hope that ends that line of questioning and we can move forward with other issues.”

Crowley also said that NTSB data showed that two other aircraft were within 25 miles of the crash. He said that he did not know if either was a military aircraft but he repeated that neither played a role in the crash.

Editor: All emphasis mine

Amazing how all of your questions get answered when you actually read the entire article. I guess this is what happens when a hack cartoonist whose greatest ambition is to offend every person on the planet on every level tries to pretend he’s a journalist. Really, Ted, it only took me 2 minutes to find the article on the web, and another two minutes to read it. I even put a link to the article in my post so people could read it for themselves. Why didn’t you do that Ted? Is it because you knew that if people read the actual article that your bullsh*t theory would crumble into dust?

Rall ends his ramblings with this:

The passengers did try. The only thing that takes away from their heroism is Bush’s lies. So. Now that Zacarias Moussauoi has been convicted, where’s that tape?

Oh, it’s President Bush who lied! It isn’t Ted Rall twisting a local newspaper article into supporting his delusional conspiracy theories.

Seriously, Ted, go back to cartooning. You aren’t any good at it, but you’re a worse journalist, and journalism doesn’t need yet another black eye from someone who rather than presenting the facts is only trying to push his political agenda.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 10th, 2006 at 8:16 pm by Nick, and is filed under Conspiracy, Politics, War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.