An Open Letter to the Editor of The Progressive

Earlier this month, The Progressive ran an article by Matthew Rothschild dismissing conspiracy theories about the attacks of September 11, 2001. ("Enough Conspiracy Theories, Already," October 2006, p. 39) Rothschild lauded the work of Popular Mechanics's editors James Meigs and David Dunbar and the computer simulation of the Pentagon crash made at Purdue University.

On September 11, 2006, Democracy Now aired a debate pitting Meigs and Dunbar against Dylan Avery and Jason Bermas. Avery and Bermas created the film Loose Change, which examines many of the questions surrounding 9/11. Meigs's and Dunbar's performance was telling. They did not present a single photo, video, audio file, chart, or transcript in support of their position. They didn't even show any of the pictures from their website, no doubt because of the problematic nature of those pictures. The Purdue simulation was seriously flawed. It did not take into account any of the six exterior walls penetrated on 9/11. Worse, it depicted two physical impossibilities — treating the wings of American Airlines Flight 77 as essentially rigid bodies moving into the building at the same angle they presented when attached to the plane.

I sent a letter to the editor of The Progressive. Of course, I could not address all the mistakes in the article; but I could rebut a central premise. Thus far, The Progressive has not acknowledged receipt of my letter. I have reproduced it below.


Pooh-poohing 9/11 conspiracy theories, Matthew Rothschild (October 2006) quoted Napoleon to the effect that malice should not be construed where incompetence is likely, thereby declaring a host of federal agencies incompetent.

Enough coincidence theories already. The truth is that large conspiracies are usually not kept secret. They are merely kept safe from prosecution.

In 1995, the U.S. declassified critical documents on Pearl Harbor. They prove beyond peradventure of doubt that the U.S. cracked Japan’s codes a full year before the day that will live in infamy. The U.S. intercepted and decoded nearly all of Japan’s attack related messages — including the Imperial order sending the First Air Carrier Fleet to Hawaii. Indeed, in October of 1940, the U.S. began planning to provoke just such an attack. The U.S. knew to the day and to the hour when the bombs were going to fall. In the opinion of the high command, Pearl Harbor was a small price to pay for future U.S. interests in the Pacific.

George Bush, Jr., Henry Kissinger, and others declared 9/11 the new Pearl Harbor because it was the new Pearl Harbor.


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