why not release videos?

[praeclarus]

This has probably been discussed before so apologies
if it is an old topic.

Apparently a gas station near the Pentagon had a
surveillance video seized and, I think, at least one
hotel nearby had a surveillance video seized.

1) Is it accepted that these videos exist and are now in
the hands of some law enforcement agency?

2) If answer to 1 is yes, why wouldn't those be made public?

Thanks.

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Both have been released.

Do a search for Citgo and Doubletree Hotel.

Neither show the plane that hit the Pentagon.

[praeclarus]

2. right you are ...

... thanks.

They don't show much of anything do they?

What's the rationale for withholding them for so long?

[Bolo Boffin]

3. The same rationale that made Bush clamp down on everything in his administration

The Unitary Executive Theory.

Also, for a while, those tapes were part of the Moussaoui trial. The government wouldn't release them because of that reason. Idiotic, yeah. Moussaoui had pled guilty. After that excuse played out, they drug their heels again because the FOIA requests kept asking for tapes that showed the Pentagon. Once the requesters got wise to that, they began requesting specific tapes. Finally pinned down, the government started releasing the tapes.

It's not just the 9/11 stuff that got this treatment. The Bushies really put the clamp on FOIA requests, regardless of the subject. Once we get a Democrat into the White House, he (or she) can reverse a lot of foolishness like this.

[victordrazen]

4. because

there is no plane.

[Bolo Boffin]

5. Tell that to the parents of the National Geographic field trip that got back coffins

instead of children.

The ignorant belief that there were no planes at any of the attack sites on 9/11 is one of the most offensive imaginable. Shame on you for spreading it.

[victordrazen]

6. Pentagon "plane" witnesses

This is a list I saved on notepad a long time ago, I don't have a link. Yes, many government/military/media people live in DC, but this is proportionally overly representational.


• Gary Bauer: Talking head and former Republican presidential candidate who has been linked to the notorious Project for a New American Century.
• Paul Begala: Democratic Party operative and nominally liberal punching bag on CNN's "Crossfire."
• Bobby Eberle: President and CEO of GOPUSA, a portal of right-wing propaganda.

• Mike Gerson: Director of George W. Bush's speech writing staff.
• Alfred Regnery: President of Regnery Publishing, another portal of right-wing propaganda -- one that has seen fit to bestow upon the world the literary stylings of Ann Coulter, the Swift Boat Veterans, and numerous other accomplished liars.

• Greta Van Susteren: Nominally liberal legal analyst for Fox News.

• Dennis Clem is a Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
• Penny Elgas sits on the FDIC Advisory Committee on Banking Policy, alongside of Jean Baker, who just happens to be the Chief of Staff at the Office of President George H.W. Bush.
• Albert Hemphill is a Lt. General with the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
• Captain (now Major) Lincoln Leibner is a communications officer for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

• Stephen McGraw is a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney reborn as an Opus Dei priest.
• Colonel Mitch Mitchell serves as a CBS News war spinner military consultant.
• Patty Murray is a United States Senator (D-Washington).
• Rick Renzi is a United States Congressman (R-Arizona).
• James Robbins is a contributor to National Review, a national security analyst, and a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council (I, by the way, have decided that I should refer to myself as a Senior Fellow at the Center for an Informed America).
• I'm not sure exactly who Meseidy Rodriguez is, but his name appears in legal filings concerning Dick Cheney's top-secret energy policy meetings, which probably isn't a good sign.

• Vice Admiral Darb Ryan is the Chief of U.S. Naval Personnel.
• Elizabeth Smiley is an intelligence operations specialist with Civil Aviation Security at FAA headquarters -- which means that she is one of the people who inexplicably failed to perform their jobs on September 11, 2001, possibly because she was busy watching phantom jetliners crashing into the Pentagon.
• Brig. General Clyde A. Vaughn is the deputy director of military support to civil authorities -- which means that he is another one of the people who inexplicably failed to perform their jobs on September 11, 2001, possibly because he was also busy watching phantom jetliners crashing into the Pentagon.

• Bob Dubill was the executive editor for USA Today.

• Mary Ann Owens was a journalist for Gannett.

• Richard Benedetto was a reporter for USA Today.

• Christopher Munsey was a reporter for Navy Times.

• Vin Narayanan was a reporter for USA Today.

• Joel Sucherman was a multimedia editor for USA Today.

• Mike Walter was a reporter for USA Today.

• Steve Anderson was the director of communications for USA Today.

• Fred Gaskins was the national editor for USA Today.

• Mark Faram was a reporter for Navy Times.

[Bolo Boffin]

7. How exactly did they get all of these people to lie?

You've got Republicans, you've got military (imagine that! military people who witnessed the plane hitting the Pentagon!), and you've got reporters.

How did they get all of these people to lie?