While I agree completely with Jed, the question remains, "Did the
administration know that 9/11 was going to happen and did nothing to
prevent it?" The whole conspiracy approach is based on a profound
distrust of this government. While they could not go so far as to plant
explosives, how far would they go to gain an advantage by such an event?
Would they make sure the planes were not stopped? Such questions were
not explored by NIST.
Ed
Jed Rothwell wrote:
Jones Beene wrote:
> The release of the recent NIST coverup . . .
This conspiracy theorizing is nonsense. NIST would NEVER cover up
anything as big as this. It is inconceivable. (They make minor
transgressions of course, being human.)
My father worked at NIST. I know people who work at the CDC and NIH and
other government agencies. Professional scientists at places like that
would no more lie or cover up the facts about a disaster of this
magnitude than I would. There isn't enough money in the world to bribe
them to do such thing. And if they were to do it, there is no chance a
cover up could be maintained. Someone would blow the whistle. In real
life, dozens would.
What you are suggesting is as unrealistic as the skeptics' version of
cold fusion history: that the ~2000 researchers who claim they have
observed cold fusion are lying, or lunatics, or horribly incompetent.
They have made thousands of errors and yet strangely enough not a single
skeptic has ever discovered one of these errors.
It is true that from outside a field such as cold fusion often make
spurious and unsupported claims about the research. The 2004 DoE Review
is a good example. They do not believe a word of the reports, so they
invent nonsensical reasons to dismiss them. It is also true a small
number of cold fusion researchers make unfounded claims, and I suspect a
few have even lied. But the vast majority are telling the truth, because
that is what professional people in all walks of life do: they act
responsibly and tell the truth. They do their job. They might make
irresponsible claims about other people's research, but they seldom make
absurd claims about work that they themselves had devoted years of
effort to. If the people at NIST were to lie about their 9/11 findings,
it would be by far the worst betrayal of professional ethics in the
history of health & safety research. The notion that they would do that
resembles the insane claims that the CDC or the NIH invented AIDS and
then deliberately infected the black population with it. It is like
suggesting that teachers in public schools routinely rape, kill and
cannibalize small children, and the parents haven't noticed or they are
afraid to protest. Or the idea that the moon landings were fake and
everyone in NASA is on the conspiracy.
Steve Jones does not believe cold fusion is real. He has seen
incontrovertible evidence that it is real, and he has met for many days
with people such as Miles and Storms, who have told him about their
results in detail. But, like Robert Park, Huizenga and Arata, he is
convinced that all of the results are wrong. They have turned their
backs on rationality and the scientific method. They believe only what
they want to believe; only what appeals to them. Jones and Arata cling
to the notion that they, and they alone, discovered cold fusion, and all
other published results are "amateur mistakes" as Arata puts it. Park
cannot bring himself to admit he is wrong. These people will ignore any
amount of evidence, both scientific evidence and common sense proof,
such as the fact that thousands of professional scientists do not
simultaneously go insane or start telling lies that will destroy their
reputations and ruin their field for a generation.
Furthermore, the supposed reasons for these imaginary conspiracies are
completely irrational and without foundation. That should tell you that
the conspiracy theories do not hold water. The skeptics think that cold
fusion researchers are trying to scam the public for research funding.
Anyone familliar with the researchers and with academic funding levels
knows this is absurd. The people who claim that the second set of
buildings to collapse in 9/11 say, for example, that the CIA had offices
in them which they wanted to destroy. This hypothesis is ludicrous. If
the CIA has files or objects it wants to destroy, it can easily
transport them by armored car to an incinerator. It can destroy things
without attracting attention or incurring large expenses. Deliberately
burning objects in a building in Manhattan is the worst imaginable
method of destroying information!
Because Steve Jones has turned his back on rationality, he rushes to
embrace things like the 9/11 conspiracy theories, which are every bit as
daft as his notions about cold fusion. To paraphrase Lord Chesterfield's
remark about God, a man who stops believing in experimental evidence
will believe any damn thing.
- Jed
