Note: This is the conclusion of a 5-part commentary that has run each morning this week.
Begin reading the series with Part One HERE.  Read Part Two HERE.
Read Part Three HERE.  Read Part Four HERE.

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Betraying Our Trust

Firefightersfor911truth.org’s call to action is wrapped in phony patriotic blather and emotional rhetoric replete with a revelation referring to Mr. Lawyer’s recent “awakening.”  I, for one, would prefer that he simply stayed asleep. When I read such sentences as “Now I am asking FOR YOUR HELP TO SAVE OUR BROTHERS, SISTERS, AND OUR COUNTRY!”, I begin to wonder about the motivation of such people, ten years after 9/11. 

At the very least it is evidence of a wildly inflated ego (SAVE OUR COUNTRY!) and it also expresses a profound and cynical lack of faith in democracy and our ethical systems. It is especially pernicious in that it exhorts firefighters to expend our hard earned public trust to further propaganda that is poisonous and hurtful.

It is also emblematic of our 21^st century fame-obsessed culture where everyone lusts for their moment in the spotlight. (Until you have a website with a YouTube video where you speak at a press conference you haven’t really made it.) In addition, the ubiquity of the World Wide Web and the ease with which a site can be constructed now allows those with nothing substantive to say to do so loudly and with fervor. Christopher Hitchens refers to this vacuous dialogue as the “exhaust fumes of modern society.”

The most damning aspect of what Lawyer and his conspiracist-truther-cronies are doing involves the children of 9/11. Adults like you and me, and yes, eventually the spouses and adult relations of those who died can ignore or tune out the poison and filth but children cannot. In a culture exemplified by the non-stop and all but inescapable barrage of (dis)information, these young children, thanks to 9/11 conspiracists are doomed to deal on a daily basis with the anxiety and fear posed by the lies they hear about the deaths of their parents and close relations. (Your parents were murdered and their killers are all around you:  nice message for a ten-year-old.)

Yes, we should be outraged all right, but not at the supposed secret and nefarious forces controlling our country. Our anger should be directed instead at those who, in their destructive quest for self-worth and frenzied self gratification, will stop at nothing including the intentional infliction of pain on families who deserve the right to heal in peace. That’s a conspiracy worth fighting.

……………… Eric Lamar

Sources:
Wiki
NYT
9/11 Commission Report
Scientific American

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Note: This is Part Four of a 5-part commentary that is running each morning this week. Begin reading the series with Part One HERE.

Conspiracists: Prosecutor, Judge and Jury

9/11 Truthers set themselves up as the final arbiters of the factual relaibilty of all information. While clothing themselves in the American flag they recklessly disregard a fundamental tenet of our democratic culture: the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. In this case, all prior investigators of 9/11 regardless of their societal relationship are automatically tainted and suspect. Anyone and everyone who has taken on or been assigned the task of investigating or evaluating 9/11 has consciously failed to provide true and accurate information. Investigators are “called out” on alleged discrepancies with the thinly veiled suggestion that perceived omissions are strictly by design.

In the court of conspiracists normal rules of evidence do not apply. Neither does logic. In this inverted world hearsay is the coin of the realm and the most solid conclusions are refuted with pseudo-science, wacky assertions and quotes taken out of context.

Firefightersfor911truth.org largely hang their helmets on the alleged fact that NIST and others failed to follow relevant portions of NFPA standards during investigations and that the results are suspect or willfully incorrect and deceptive. They ignore the logic that one could complete an investigatory goal using any number of methods. The NFPA argument is essential to them because it is their niche within the greater “fill-in-the-blank-profession for 9/11 truthers” community. Is there a hairdressersfor9/11truth? How about linepaintersfor9/11truth? Or, perhaps the perfectly apt septictankhaulersfor911truth?

By their logic, all firefighter line-of-duty-deaths (LODDs) are conspiracies resulting from the failure of fire departments to effectively implement NFPA standards. After all, we can say with near certainty that if all NFPA standards were strictly adhered to, firefighter LODDs would be very few and far between. Failure to perfectly implement them is, therefore, prima facie evidence of a willful conspiracy to kill firefighters.

For example, under the “Erik Lawyer Rules” the January 5, 1995, Pang Fire in Seattle where four firefighters were killed is a string of conspiracies where leaders of the department purposely failed to prepare for or conduct firefighting operations in a manner designed to ensure the safety of members. We know this because the department suffered state penalties for unsafe operations and they also agreed to changes stemming from lawsuits initiated by relatives of those killed. They admitted their culpability and this proves that they are guilty. In the Pang incident the Fire Department knowingly kept from responding companies the crucial fact that the business had been the subject of arson threats. They conspired to place their own firefighters in a position where they would be fatally compromised.

These conspiracies are obvious and apparent for all to see.

Answer these questions:

-Why wouldn’t a modern fire department in such a large city follow basic safety rules?

-Why did they fail to fully implement NFPA standards?

- Why did they withhold key information from responders?

Finally, responding fire companies did not even have building plans, further evidence of a deliberate plot to cause the deaths of firefighters.

It is well past time to reopen the Pang fire investigation as the original one was full of false facts and scapegoating. Let’s go where the truth takes us—our country is at stake.

Had enough? This is how it looks (and feels) when firefighters are judged by the very standards that 9/11 conspiracists are using against honest, caring professionals who approach their mission with the same integrity and zeal as we do. The notion that “truthers” are doing so as firefighters and judging others by a standard they would themselves declare outrageous is proof positive of their disconnection from reality and their willingness to engage in character assassination on a broad scale for specious purposes. But that, my friends, is not the worst thing they are doing.

 Conclusion:  Betraying Our Trust is HERE.

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