Posted on 06/29/2002 10:42:42 AM PDT by Paul Atreides
A web site with ties to the Democratic Party and ex-President Bill Clinton is charging that President Bush is most likely "personally and directly responsible for the deaths of 37 passengers and 7 crew members on Flight 93," claiming that evidence shows Bush and Vice President Cheney ordered the plane shot down on 9-11.
The left-wing web site Democrats.com goes so far as to contend that the famous photo depicting President Bush talking on the phone that morning aboard Air Force One was likely taken as Bush was authorizing Cheney to give the order to have Flight 93 blown from the sky.
"Here is a very likely scenario," says the web site. "Bush was approving the shooting down of hijacked airliners, which led Dick Cheney to order the shooting down of Flight 93 - with all of the Heroes on board."
The photo, offered earlier this year for $150 as part of a GOP fundraising package, has the Democratic web site complaining that sale of the picture was "a huge insult to the victims of 9-11 — who died never knowing they were helping raise big bucks for the Republican party."
The report, by Democrats.com co-founder Bob Fertik, blames Bush - and not the terrorist hijackers - for killing the Flight 93 heroes:
"A careful analysis of all available evidence points to a shootdown as the most likely cause of the crash of Flight 93 - thus making George W. Bush personally and directly responsible for the deaths of 37 passengers and 7 crew members on Flight 93."
Democrats.com accuses the Bush administration of perpetrating a massive cover-up by going along with the convenient cover story that it was the battle between Flight 93's passengers and the plane's hijackers that caused it to crash into a rural field in Shanksville, Penn.
"Certainly, the White House has every reason to lie," says the Democratic Party's web promoters. "After all, it would look pretty horrible if Bush and Cheney were responsible for the deaths of the crew and passengers about Flight 93, even if the planes were shot down to protect Washington DC."
"Unfortunately for the White House" says web site continues, "there is overwhelming evidence that Flight 93 was shot down - and no evidence at all that the Heroes succeeded in taking control of the cockpit."
In fact, no one has ever claimed that Flight 93's heroes "succeeded in taking control of the cockpit." Otherwise the crash might have been prevented. The question is, did their failed efforts to regain control distract the hijackers long enough to foil their ultimate plans to attack Washington, D.C.
Given their public comments to date, the families of Flight 93's heroes seem to have no doubt about the cause of the crash.
Last April, after hearing the in-flight recording of the plane's final 30 minutes in a special session arranged by the FBI, family members seemed convinced that their relatives' heroic effort to storm the cockpit - and not a missile from an F-16 - was what brought the plane down.
"I felt incredible pride," said Deena Burnett, whose husband, Tom, died on the United Airlines plane, told reporters after hearing the tape. "It was obvious they all acted heroically."
"I never doubted that there were specific individuals who worked together, and the tape confirmed that," said Alice Hoglan, mother of Flight 93 hero Mark Bingham. "I never doubted that the cockpit had been taken over by terrorists who were thwarted, and the tape definitely confirmed that."
Hoglan, who along with the other Flight 93 relatives was asked by the FBI not to discuss specifics, described the tape as "wonderful in a strange and odd way" - hardly the words of someone reacting to evidence that her son was killed on orders of the president.
Further proof of a shootdown, Democrats.com argues, comes from reports that debris from Flight 93 was discovered eight miles away from the actual crash site, a detail the continues to perplex those on both sides of the political aisle.
But if Flight 93 did explode in midair, there are other plausible explanations, such as the bomb the hijackers said they had and threatened to detonate, according to several passengers who relayed the news in cell phone calls to relatives.
But Democrats.com doesn't let details like that get in the way of accusing President Bush of responsibility for the crash and the ensuing "cover-up."
"The FBI has stated that there was no evidence of a bomb at the crash site," the web site argues. "If the hijackers detonated a bomb, it is hard to imagine a reason why the FBI would cover it up."
Democrats.com has at least nominal connections to ex-President Bill Clinton.
Former Clinton pollster Stan Greenberg sits on the web site's advisory board.
And last August, Democrats.com boasted it had "arranged with the office of former President Clinton for birthday greetings sent by e-mail to be delivered to him personally," adding, "Please join us in thanking the last legally elected President of the United States for his dedication to public service."
On its "Community" page, the left-wing web site explains:
"Democrats.com is the largest online community of Democrats. We have created a unique space where Democrats can meet, discuss, and work towards building a stronger Democratic Party.... Take our Voter Pledge to sweep all Republicans out of office."
If this is actually true, which I don't think it is, I would applaud Bush for making this kind of tough decision. The jet had to come down...one way or another. There was simply no option.
And Bush wouldn't have suffered, in the view of the citizenry, at all if he had given the order for 93 to be downed. Only a complete and truly uncaring idiot would have held that action against him.
What's confusing about it? A 757 or 767 in a full-throttle dive can break the sound barrier. Doing so, however, will put stresses on the airframe well beyond rated limits. Any structural failure on the plane will substantially increase drag in and around the failed area, causing forces that will very effectively tear the plane completely apart.
So why is it 'confusing' that the debris was scattered over an 8 mile area?
Well, if it's written in the Idaho Observer then it has to be the real deal -- I apologize for any skepticism. In the November issue they proved that a freemason standing on a grassy knoll fired a pristine bullet into the cockpit to keep the jet from crashing into Trilateral Commission HQ, where the government is hiding Vince Foster, Ron Brown and Bruce Lee (all alive and well, I assure you).
I'm stunned that some Freepers are toeing the Democrats.com line. Unbelievable.
Having gone to this site, www.Democrats.com and scoped out the referenced (?) article(?), I can report the following:
1.) After each "eyewitness" account, there immediately follows a qualifying statement ("...or so I heard.."; "...I was told by others...").
Conclusion: This easily makes a Nat'l Enquirer, Star or Globe article look like a well-research and footnoted effort.
2.) Every accusation starts out speculatively, with one overriding concluding statement that has obviously ignored any other evidence presented in the accusation.
Conclusion: The author of this scree wanted very much to sound objective, but threw the objectivity out the window in broad daylight so as to make his conclusion the focus of paragraph. Cheap propagandist trick.
If you want to sniff out the truth, send in woofer.
In deed they were. It was almost an established fact here that it was shot down. Bush was probably preparing to explain it to the American people as they uncovered those cell phone calls.
You have heard the flight recorder? Can you link me to a site.(snicker)
I hope you don't overdose on your drugs. The DEA is just following orders and doing what's tactically necessary to save the citizens from being shot on the street for drug money. You, sir, are in the wrong country.
The signals from the tinfoil on their heads are making it hard for them to concentrate?
LOL! It sounds as if they interviewed the customers of a hair salon.
No, not really....some of us just refuse to drink the Bush/Republican Kool-aid.
That was a well rationed post. It all DOES come down to the disarming of the people.
LOL!! Thats funny, some other poster said it was fact that it is run by the DNC. Maybe you two should get your propaganda straight.
I've never been to the web site myself, but all this party-line kool aid gulping is just funny.
The former inquisitive practitioners of this art, have, apparently, decided to nolonger practice it. ;-) See HOLY SEE ADHERES TO CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE ;-)
Bush did not disarm anyone.
Those rules about guns on planes were made by the airlines. Wilber and Orville made that rule.
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