... by armchair theorists with enormous egos who refuse to accept the proof of the video itself and the lighting direction of the setting sun that proves a vertical plume created by an object headed north-west. They deny this in part by way of a pretend "optical illusion."
Kopp, you had me fooled for a little while that you were approaching this in real seek-the-truth, objective curiosity via investigative reporting. The reality: You went into your interviews with Gil Leyvas WITH YOUR MIND ALREADY MADE UP that no matter what he told you, you were going to "discover" that he was mistaken, that he was fooled, that he was too dim to understand that he was shooting footage of a common airliner condensation trail instead of a missile.
From YOUR article, words Leyvas said TO YOU: I did zoom into that portion to see if I could see a craft of some kind (at the time I thought that there was a chance the object was still making condensation/exhaust) but there was nothing there creating that segment. Had there been, I know I would have been able to see it with the high-powered lens I was using. Add to that - if it was traveling toward us, the closer it would come the easier it would be to see it, but there was nothing there.
You're a phony-baloney as non-agenda reporter, Kopp, and your contempt for Leyvas' intelligence and competence is disgusting.
But even before your WND article was published, and you had mentioned here on FR that it was "in the works," and I was still under the illusion that you had no agenda, no fore-gone conclusion to confirm, you slipped up in a FReeper post somewhere on these thread, when discussing that Levyas had INDEED told you (what some of us knew he would) that he only saw the object creating the plume for two or three minutes before it disappeared, not ten minutes, though he shot video for about ten minues, mostly of the lingering plume.
That's when you mentioned that there was another person you were hoping to interview, another "expert" who could explain how/why Levas (the poor dumb bastard!) was fooled by optical illusions into thinking it was a missile launch. *sigh* In other words, you went into it determined to prove Leyvas didn't know what he was doing, and by gosh and by golly, THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK YOU PROVED.
I never was a fan of WND, and now I see why. YOU are a perfect representation of WND's flaws.
On the contrary, I thought it was a missile from the very beginning. The appearance of the video was compelling in that regard.
Then I stumbled on a quote from an article that said Leyvas filmed the object for ten minutes, which seemed to indicate it was not a missile.
Then someone here on FR said Leyvas only witnessed the object for 2 to 3 minutes. Which brought my opinion back into the missile camp.
So I contacted the photographer Warren. He was convinced it was an airliner because the contrail was being formed for almost five minutes in his photos.
Given the discrepancy, I tracked down Leyvas himself, and we spoke by phone for almost an hour, and subsequently exchanged about a dozen emails.
When I got off the phone with Leyvas, I was convinced he had the best explanation, but even then there was this glaring discrepancy between Leyvas' view (wasn't sure what it was, could have been either a contrail or a missile) and Warren's view (was a plane, definitely stayed in view too long to be a missile.)
So I went back and compared Leyvas' video and stills from his video to Warren's photos.
That's how I came to my conclusion:
One of them thinks it might have been a missile, but he's not sure. One of them said it definitely was not a missile, based on the fact it was in view for almost five minutes in his photos. My contention all along has been that SLBMs do not create an exhaust plume for 5 to 10 minutes.
No one has proven Leyvas' main point, that the object disappeared from view after 2 to 3 minutes.
On the contrary, the opposite view has been established: the object creating the contrail continued creating a contrail throughout Leyvas' video as well as throughout Warren's photos, which represents a time frame of over ten minutes.
Missiles do not create exhaust plumes for over ten minutes.
Airliners do create contrails, given the right atmospheric conditions, as long as they are flying in those atmospheric conditions.
Every possible scenario that could "prove" this was a missile has been dismissed. There's nothing left to debate.
If your opinion differs from mine, that's fine.
But I'm not going to ascribe nefarious motives to the reasons you formed your opinions the way you did. We simply disagree, and I hope you would refrain from ascribing nefarious motives to the reasons I arrived at my conclusions.
I see now you've continue down the line from ascribing motives to personal insult with your subsequent post.
So be it. It does not help you build your case in this debate.