9/11 Truth will out: The Vancouver Hearings I

Mon Sep 10, 2012 1:48 am » by **Harbin**

http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=218884

“And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” — the motto of the CIA, taken from the Gospel according to St. John, which was inscribed on the facade of its Headquarters Building in 1959.

The array of ongoing attacks on the 9/11 Truth movement has reached astonishing proportions. A “10th anniversary 9/11 Truth ‘Hit Piece’ Roundup” published on 12 September 2011, a year and a day after 9/11, included excerpts from and links to no less than 32 attacks, where the majority emphasize the psychological needs of those who embrace “conspiracy theories” to give meaning, coherence and security to their lives—as though the belief that your government has perpetrated crimes of such magnitude could enhance your sense of security! But logic and reason are not their strong suits, where these articles are largely bereft of considerations about photographic, witness and physical proof substantiating the conclusions that many within the movement have drawn, where those who study the evidence tend to become truthers themselves.

Attacks upon the movement from the outside, however, pale in comparison with those that arise from groups that are within the movement itself. Richard Gage, head of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, reportedly tried to convince 9/11 Vancouver that it should not support the hearings that would be held there on 15-17 June 2012. Rob Balsamo, the head of Pilots for 9/11 Truth, has denounced “No Plane Theory” (NPT), virtually without regard for the evidence that supports it, to which Pilots itself has made major contributions. And the Judy Wood clique (which displays the behavioral characteristics of a cult), denounces anyone who has even the least doubt of her theory of the destruction of the Twin Towers, while paradoxically denying that she even has “a theory”!

In spite of efforts to undermine them, which even included a death threat directed against those who organized the conference, The Vancouver Hearings have made a powerful contribution to understanding the events of 9/11. The quality of the 19 presentations was uniformly excellent—clearly organized, well-reasoned, and thought-provoking—where the most controversial issues within the 9/11 Truth community were addressed— and effectively settled—in an effort to expose falsehoods and reveal truths. The most important outcome was the resolution of several of the major 9/11 controversies that have divided the research community, which represents an enormous step forward in bringing these factions within the movement together—provided that reason and rationality are going to prevail in lieu of ego-centric and defensive attempts to save face when confronted with overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The Vancouver Hearings were designed to compensate for perceived weaknesses in The Toronto Hearings, which were held with great fanfare across the continent nine months earlier. As Joshua Blakeney explained, there was a noticeable failure in Toronto to address who was responsible for 9/11 and why. And as I accented in my critique of those hearings, alternative theories about the destruction of the Twin Towers, including the possible use of mini or micro nukes, much less directed energy weapons, were not even considered, which meant that no comparative judgments could be rendered about which among the alternative accounts provides the best explanation of the available data because no alternatives were discussed. That is not a scientific attitude. The desire to avoid controversial questions, such as whether a Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon, whether all four of the crash sites had been fabricated or faked, much less who was responsible and why, were not addressed, even though there is a powerful and growing body of evidence that makes their resolution possible. The Vancouver Hearings were intended to compensate for those shortcomings.