An otherwise laughable hit piece against Jesse Ventura has one very bizarre paragraph

I was reading the following hit piece against Jesse Ventura by Fox News, and as I was thinking that this has got to be the most ridiculous hit piece I've ever seen (so over-the-top that it almost reads like something out of the Onion, such as when he says he was there and saw with his own eyes WTC7 fall "silently"), I did a major double take when I read this part:

Shortly before the building collapsed, several NYPD officers and Con-Edison workers told me that Larry Silverstein, the property developer of One World Financial Center was on the phone with his insurance carrier to see if they would authorize the controlled demolition of the building – since its foundation was already unstable and expected to fall.

Now, of course, the author's claim is that the building just so happened to collapse before any controlled demolition could actually take place.

I don't think the 911blogger community needs to be reminded that a controlled demolition could not have been set up in the few hours after the attack.

More importantly, though, here we have an article, a venomous hit piece no less, actually defending the premise that Silverstein was indeed speaking with others of bringing the building down in a controlled demolition. There has been much debate over the "pull it" remark, with OCT defenders claiming that Silverstein was speaking of the squadron of firefighters, not the building itself.

Mr. Shapiro, thanks for the ammo!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOXNews.com: Shame on Jesse Ventura!

The former Minnesota governor has discredited himself, and dishonored and defamed his country by promoting the mistaken view that our government was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Jesse Ventura should be ashamed of himself and embarrassed.

The former Minnesota governor recently lent his political credentials to the discredited 9/11 “Truther” movement by alleging that the Sept. 11 attacks were either planned or permitted by the United States government.

This recent admission was only a small part of Ventura’s new book, “American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies and More Lies the Government Tells Us,” which echoes a revisionist account of American history that holds the Bush administration responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks by implying that the Bush administration either knew about the attacks, did nothing to stop them or actually participated in them.

During a March 10 interview with Barbara Walters on “The View,” Ventura implied the Bush/Cheney administration used 9/11 as a pretense to start the Iraq War under false pretenses. Ventura apparently developed this theory after former Kennedy/Johnson adviser Robert McNamara visited him at Harvard and allegedly admitted to him that the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which escalated the Vietnam War, never actually happened.

Perhaps what Ventura is missing is that there is probably more incontrovertible evidence and more witnesses who have already established what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 than most major historical events. To dispute the conventional historical account is intellectually dishonest and nonsensical.

I know this because I was working as a journalist for Gannett News at Ground Zero that day, and I remember very clearly what I saw and heard.

Although I arrived at Ground Zero shortly after the Twin Towers fell, I was in the danger zone created by Building 7 from the moment it collapsed in the afternoon, an event that is one of the key cornerstones of the 9/11 conspiracy theory.

Governor Ventura and many 9/11 “Truthers” allege that government explosives caused the afternoon collapse of Building 7. This is false. I know this because I remember watching all 47 stories of Building 7 suddenly and silently crumble before my eyes.

Shortly before the building collapsed, several NYPD officers and Con-Edison workers told me that Larry Silverstein, the property developer of One World Financial Center was on the phone with his insurance carrier to see if they would authorize the controlled demolition of the building – since its foundation was already unstable and expected to fall.

A controlled demolition would have minimized the damage caused by the building’s imminent collapse and potentially save lives. Many law enforcement personnel, firefighters and other journalists were aware of this possible option. There was no secret. There was no conspiracy.
While I was talking with a fellow reporter and several NYPD officers, Building 7 suddenly collapsed, and before it hit the ground, not a single sound emanated from the tower area. There were no explosives; I would have heard them. In fact, I remember that in those few seconds, as the building sank to the ground that I was stunned by how quiet it was.

(continued at the hyperlink above)

Thanks for finally getting this entry up...

But I would urge you to go further and please front page it.

This absolutely needs to be on the front page for obvious reasons (i.e. wider readership)

I'll be very interested to

I'll be very interested to see the reaction of the "debunkers" to this one.

So we have an anti-truther author, trying to debunk us, actually confirming the notion that Larry Silverstein WAS speaking to people about taking the building down with controlled demolition, albeit under the guise of "we knew it would obviously fall anyway, so we hoped to bring it straight down to minimize the damage, and it just happened to naturally and silently collapse before we had the chance."

And...

In case they realize their faux pas, and edit the article or delete it down the memory hole, here is a screenshot:

How prophetic I was!

I was just doing my google news search on 9/11 truth/conspiracy, and was interested to see if there were any late-arriving reader comments and guess what:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/04/21/jeffrey-scott-shapiro-jesse-ve...

Page up at new link

Adam, the page is actually up at http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/04/22/jeffrey-scott-shapiro-jesse-ve...

For some reason the first page was deleted and this one substituted. The two articles appear to be the same tho. Why would they have done this?

That's weird, yeah

They changed the date of the article from April 21 to April 22, including in the URLs.

Good catch Alison and I appreciate your posts on 911blogger. :)

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Thanks for saving the quote

Whether intentionally or not, Jeffrey Shapiro misleads and misdirects. He claims to have studied 9/11 "conspiracy" theories. And yet, he omits crucial evidence. Note the following paragraph:

"During a March 10 interview with Barbara Walters on “The View,” Ventura implied the Bush/Cheney administration used 9/11 as a pretense to start the Iraq War under false pretenses. Ventura apparently developed this theory after former Kennedy/Johnson adviser Robert McNamara visited him at Harvard and allegedly admitted to him that the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which escalated the Vietnam War, never actually happened."

If the writer were sincere and educated in 9/11, he would have referenced the paper, "Rebuilding America's Defenses for the 21st Century." That paper--while not establishing 100% proof of who was involved in 9/11--does establish two things: 1) persons of interest (including Dick Cheney and the paper's numerous other authors), and 2) MOTIVE.

The *motive* was to hurry up the "process of transformation," which involved fighting "multiple simultaneous wars in the Middle East." That includes Afghanistan, Iraq, (potentially) Iran, and (potentially) Syria. To isolate the Iraq War in regards to 9/11 (even if quoting Ventura accurately), misdirects away from the larger picture, namely that 9/11 served, and serves, to "justify" attacks on the MIddle East more generally.

There's also a yet-to-be-though-perhaps-never-to-be-debunked paper about thermitic material.

And, thanks Adam. The quote you've saved about Silverstein and controlled demolition of building 7 is valuable. It's interesting to juxtapose those words with Silverstein's admission of deciding to "pull it".

Silverstein saved on 9/11 by dermatologist's appointment

Check out this recent CBS interview with Larry Silverstein, in which Silverstein claims he should have been in the WTC on 9/11, but his wife saved his life by insisting he go to an appointment with his dermatologist:
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/video/?pid=dCJDTFzLiEO_a32xTRfMdMMYQd1nHV1N

It is indeed heartening to

It is indeed heartening to read a majority of the reader comments at the fox news site.

-I think he can read just fine. Since Silverstein asked if the building could be brought down by demolition, then the building would have had to been already wired since it takes weeks to wire it. It's called critical thinking folks. This idiot reporter spilled the beans without even knowing he did it

-Good afternoon Mr. Shapiro, I run a multinational demolition company. We are very interested in your unique knowledge. We understand that you know of people who within 60 minutes can do the following: - rig a 47 story building floor by floor - find the exact points to place the explosives to bring the building down at free fall speed - Perfectly time each charge so the building falls into it's very own foot print with no damage to the surrounding buildings Please contact us. Our last building demolition was a 32 story office building that took us 2 months to setup and finish working round the clock. We are in dire need of the talented people that you know of. Thank you for your incredible investigation.

-This is probably one of the most poorly written "investigative reports I have ever read". You a practically begging your readers to not look into any aspect of 9/11. Seems like you know if they did, they would see government involvement at every turn. Even the 9/11 commission chairs said on record it was set up to fail. How do you have a job as a professional reporter? Oh that's right, you a corporate sellout who has no concept of what your job should provide to the people: TRUTH everyone should go to ae911truth.org to look at the shocking evidence for yourselves.

-What does Jeffrey Scott Shapiro know about 9/11? Run along back to your handlers and get your treat and pat on the head.

-You know, Im not a journalist, nor even that educated, but even I have found hundreds of government documents through their own sites that prove without a doubt 9-11 was an inside job. SHAME ON YOU Mr Ventura is a rare breed today, a STATEMAN We all know how Fox and their republican arm love to shove their views and hate down our throats, but come on. YOU HAVE KARL ROVE WORKING THERE My moms husband is one of the many lawyers for Silverstein. WHY NOT DISCUSS THE SITTING $4MILLION IN INSURANCE MONIES FOR WTC#7 HE HAS YET TO CLAIM, NOR WILL HE EVER! You people think we dont know whats going on? We do. Have fun trying to SPIN your way outta the admission in this piece. Its been fun watching you guys destroy our nation piece by piece

-So, part of your evidence that WTC 7 was not demolished is that Larry Silverstein discussed it with his insurance brokers. So, who was going to wire the burning building? Your logic is very, very flawed. If anything, it makes me support Gov. Ventura's position of a new investigation.

-Nice job at trying to debunk 9/11 Truth. But one question, why would anyone believe you when you are so careless regardless the truth of the Gulf of Tonkin incident? It was only an NSA Historian who wrote: "[I]t is not simply that there is a different story as to what happened; it is that no attack happened that night. [...] In truth, Hanoi's navy was engaged in nothing that night but the salvage of two of the boats damaged on August 2." This was published in the NSA's Cryptologic Quarterly magazine and later the NY Times. So the US 100% lied about the reason we got into the Vietnam War which resulted in 60,000~ US deaths. As for WTC7, for years people said that the kerosene tanks are what caused the collapse. However, FEMA and/or NIST has said that the initial collapse started elsewhere and have ruled out the kerosene tanks as a cause. It's clear there is more to know about 9/11 and your horrible article does nothing more than justify the theories people come to believe.

-So the Gulf of Tonkin DID happen MR Shapiro? Check the NSA documents. Even Geraldo knows this.

Why Isn't this big news????

I have never heard this piece of news that Silverstein and officials were discussing a demolition of 7 with the insurance company.

To me this seems to be a huge revelation yet for the most part not much reaction so I am puzzled. Can someone fill me in why this reporter is not being called before a grand jury to explain who, what, when, where and why? His report is a complete contradiction of the official story.

Yes

If the movement cannot capitalize on *this* - combined with the obvious CD of WTC 7, destruction of the debris without investigation, Silver$tein's earlier comments and so on - *then* I'll be worried.

More on Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

From Slate this week:

The Bush Restoration Project
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is on a mission to rehabilitate the former president's reputation.

By Jordan Michael Smith
Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010, at 3:01 PM ET

Jeffrey Scott Shapiro talks about George W. Bush the way Buddhists talk about the Dalai Lama. "He stands for truth, compassion and freedom," he says. "Bush instinctively sees the global picture that every living person has the right to be free." It's hardly surprising, then, that Shapiro founded Honor Freedom, an organization devoted to restoring Bush's reputation. And Shapiro may actually succeed—especially since Bush, too, will be working on the same project, if not the same organization.

On its Web site, Honor Freedom proclaims its three-part mission: "UNITE BUSH SUPPORTERS by building a national network" of supporters; "CORRECT THE HISTORICAL RECORD by dispelling fallacies about President Bush"; and "TEACH AMERICA the truth about the Bush foreign policy doctrine" (all capitalization in original). Through a nationwide public education program consisting of op-eds, media appearances, and free public seminars, the nonprofit group intends to teach Americans that George W. Bush was actually a great president and an even better man.

[...]

Shapiro also claims the support of Bush, though the former president is not involved in Honor Freedom. Shapiro recently stayed for a week at the ranch of Bush's nephew, Pierce, who introduced the two. "You're doing good work," Shapiro says the former president told him. Shapiro says he regularly exchanges e-mail with Karl Rove, and Blakeman says he's had conversations with other former members of Bush's staff who are excited about Honor Freedom.

[...]

After leaving the media, Shapiro went to law school and worked for Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election—and then worked for the Bush administration as a federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia.

Here's an interview from 2008:

Shapiro even tries to spin as "conspiracy theory" facts which are acknowledged even in the mainstream.

QUOTE
During a March 10 interview with Barbara Walters on “The View,” Ventura implied the Bush/Cheney administration used 9/11 as a pretense to start the Iraq War under false pretenses. Ventura apparently developed this theory...

Yes, he actually calls that a "theory," even though...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/04/...ain520830.shtml
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/10/oneill.bush/
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0314/p02s01-woiq.html

QUOTE
...after former Kennedy/Johnson adviser Robert McNamara visited [Ventura] at Harvard and allegedly admitted to him that the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which escalated the Vietnam War, never actually happened.

"ALLEGEDLY"? He has admitted this publicly:

"Events afterwards showed that our judgement that we'd been attacked that day was wrong. It didn't happen." - Robert McNamara

I think that what this shows us is:

something went wrong with WTC7 since it was still standing after the collapse of the twin towers etc on 911. People were working behind the scenes trying to fix "the problem". Thus, a cover story was in place for the Fire and Police department which eventually Shapiro gets wind of. The public was never informed only those with a need to know. Police, Fire, Responders, the Mayor, etc. Nonsense about structural failure etc. Thus, no big surprise to those informed when the building does eventuall come down. Police have moved people away, firemen have moved away, the mayor is nowhere in site. The media are told not to replay the story after that day. But this idiot Shapiro thinks he's got the inside story and tries to debunk Ventura not realizing what he is really saying makes no sense. Now the real insiders will want this story to "go away fast."