Conspiracy theorists, unite!
Posted: Thursday, September 04, 2008 5:03 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC's Mike Levine
ST. PAUL, MN -- Get your facts straight.
That's what the dozens of Ron Paul supporters shouting outside of the Xcel Energy Center yesterday afternoon were telling Americans to do. They said the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, were an inside job.
"The Trade Center was never even hit by a plane. It was a 47-story skyscraper that would've dominated the St. Paul skyline," one of the protesters screamed into a megaphone. When a bystander shouted back that the Twin Towers were more than 100 stories tall, the protester insisted: "I don't have the exact numbers. I'm sorry I'm not an Encyclopedia Britannica." (In fact, 7 World Trade Center, which was near the Twin Towers, was 47 stories tall.)
Then the protester got back on message: "Where's the footage of the Pentagon being hit? Why's the government hiding that from us? America wake up!"
The crowd -- carrying signs saying "Reinvestigate 9/11," "Bush: Liar. Murderer. Terrorist" and "Ron Paul" -- broke into cheer: "9/11 was an inside job! 9/11 was an inside job!"
"I don't believe Osama bin Laden did the attacks," said 21-year-old Geoff Dittberner, of South St. Paul. "I think the American government was behind it. Did you hear about the meeting Dick Cheney had … [where he] discussed 12 different ways to incite a war with Iran? Sy Hearse reported that, and he’s a pretty renowned journalist," he noted, referring to the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh.
Protesters handed out literature with "11 Remarkable Facts About 9/11," including claims that "some of the alleged 9/11 ‘'suicide hijackers' are still alive and well" and "the sudden, vertical, explosive, and total collapse of the Twin Towers at near freefall speed can only be explained by controlled demolition."
So why are Ron Paul supporters, many of them Republicans themselves, protesting the Republican convention? "We want to bring the GOP back to its roots," insisted 24-year-old Adam Gross of Kansas City, Mo, who said he’s a registered Republican. He had slapped a bumper sticker onto his Ron Paul sign that read, "9-11 was in inside job."
Twenty-five-year-old Melissa Miles, an Idaho native, expressed similar disappointment in the Republican Party. "[John] McCain doesn’t exactly vote constitutionally every time," she said. "We actually have a candidate who voted constitutionally every time. But he didn’t exactly get fair play."
Neither did the facts of Sept. 11, according to the crowd. "The mainstream media refuses to cover these facts," shouted one protester. "They refuse to ask why the victims' families only had 30% of their questions answered by the 9/11 Commission report."
The protesters then marched peacefully to the set of MSNBC, in a park just outside of the Xcel Energy Center.
As MSNBC host and NBC political director Chuck Todd wrapped up his telecast, another protester shouted, "We’re sick and tired of sex, drugs and rock and roll. We want real news!"
Todd signed off with this: "You’re watching MSNBC, the place for politics… and megaphones."
