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27. oktober 2006
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BBC editors set the record straight on an old 9/11 story which has been misused by conspiracy theorists ever since.
A five-year-old story from our archive has been the subject of some recent editorial discussion here. The story, written in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was about confusion at the time surrounding the names and identities of some of the hijackers. This confusion was widely reported and was also acknowledged by the FBI.
The story has been cited ever since by some as evidence that the 9/11 attacks were part of a US government conspiracy.
We later reported on the list of hijackers, thereby superseding the earlier report. In the intervening years we have also reported in detail on the investigation into the attacks, the 9/11 commission and its report.
We’ve carried the full report, executive summary and main findings and, as part of the recent fifth anniversary coverage, a detailed guide to what’s known about what happened on the day. But conspiracy theories have persisted. The confusion over names and identities we reported back in 2001 may have arisen because these were common Arabic and Islamic names.
It speaks volumes about the muddy thinking of 9/11 conspiracy theorists that the simple explanation, that the supposedly 'alive hijacker' was simply a different guy with the same name, still doesn't occur to them!
The Norwegian conspiracy nut I debated some time back, Emil Andre Røyrvik, propagated this story heavily in his writings, along with a load of other "arguments" that you'd expect a child to see through.
The true believers will only see this is evidence that the BBC, too, is part of the conspiracy. Read the comments and weep. All caps, bad spelling, you recognise them everywhere.
PS: The good guys at Screw Loose Change has a nice video of a real expert explaining the collapse of the twin towers, also demonstrating clearly how thorough the investigation was. You know, the investigation the troofers claim never happened at all, since the steel was immediately recycled.
PS 2: They also point to a great article by Matt Taibbi about how 9/11 conspiracy theories are really Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy theories recycled. I linked his hilarious Rolling Stone article on the same topic some time back.
Great line:
Conspiracy theories are always full of this kind of "it's just common sense" rhetoric, i.e. you can't throw an ice cube through the side door of a Buick, so clearly the Titanic was not sunk by an iceberg... Similar appeals can be found throughout 9/11 literature.
I have to remember that one!
9:59:46 PM 
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South Park, which essentially has mocked everything and everyone, invites some serious Aussie rage:
The cartoon series "South Park" has never been shy of courting controversy, but its latest episode has caused outrage by featuring the recently deceased Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin.
Swearing and random death and destruction are staples of the cartoon, which has been broadcast since 1997. Irwin, killed by a stingray's barb while snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in September is the latest celebrity to be lampooned by the show.
The episode, aired in the U.S. earlier this week, shows Satan preparing to host a Halloween fancy dress party. Other guests include Princess Diana, Hitler and rapper Notorious B.I.G. Critics have been appalled by the Irwin character's depiction in a bloodstained shirt and with a stingray still attached to his chest.
Well, I posted a picture making fun of Irwin's crocodile baby stunt back when he was alive and well, and when he died two years later, it happened to be very prominent on Google image search. I got loads of hits, obviously, and the comments filled up quickly by angry Aussies attacking me for mocking their dead hero.
This is like making a lewd Mother Theresa joke in the Vatican. I don't think that episode will ever air in Australia.
Hot Air has the video.
9:48:18 PM
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In an article in Foreign Affairs, Colin H. Kahl concludes that despite a few serious incidents, the US armed forces has a good record on avoiding civilian casualties in the Iraq war.
And yet, despite some dark spots on its record, the U.S. military has done a better job of respecting noncombatant immunity in Iraq than is commonly believed. Over the past year, I have conducted dozens of interviews with commanders, judge advocates, and others who have served in Iraq; investigated operational "lessons learned" during a recent trip to Baghdad; observed the predeployment training of forces; and extensively reviewed unclassified Pentagon documents, official and unofficial histories, troops' memoirs and blogs, and human rights reports. I have found not only that U.S. compliance with noncombatant immunity in Iraq is relatively high by historical standards but also that it has been improving since the beginning of the war.
It would be a dangerous development if the military gets the impression that no matter what steps are taken to avoid civilian casualties and violations of the rules or war, the same negative impression is created by the press and among the local population in the war zones.
12:42:37 PM
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The four young thugs undoubtedly thought British expat Douglas O'Dell was an easy target. The 70-year-old grandfather was on his way to his home in Bielefeld, Germany, when one of the four grabbed him from behind and demanded his money.
The first mistake came when one of the teenagers grabbed him around the throat and said in German: "Give my your money, grandad, if you don't want to get hurt."
"Bad move," said Douglas. "The only part he got right was grandad. If you're gonna grab someone from behind take their arms and pin them to their waist.
"This joker, I was able to grab his elbow, crouch down and throw him over my shoulder. He landed on his back on a fence and squealed like a stuck pig."
Before his retirement, Douglas served nearly nine years with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and received advanced combat training with the SAS, the first and the best special forces unit in the world.
After a second of the four thugs had attacked and received a serious beating for his efforts, the whole gang decided they had had enough and made a run for it.
The only sad thing about this incident is nobody caught it on film. It would have been such a hit on YouTube.
Link via Fark.
11:37:25 AM
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I finally got around to installing Internet Explorer 7. Quite a few small improvements, as noted by others, and no major headaches (yet). What I noticed immediately, however, was the new font technology called ClearType. All web pages look notably better, and the text is so much better on the eye.
PS: Yes, I've tried Firefox. It doesn't work with my blog software, it doesn't work well with Visual Studio, so I don't want to join that sect, thank you very much. But the competition has clearly made Microsoft improve, and that is a great thing.
10:55:28 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.11.2006; 20:05:25.
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