Rebunking the Debunking

Heheh, I got a laugh out of that comment in this interview (MP3) between Michael Woolsey of 9-11 Visibility and the two guys over at the Debunking the Debunkers blog. Sounds like they need to research the word "Bunk":

noun Informal.
humbug; nonsense.

Origin:
1895–1900, Americanism; short for bunkum

Synonyms:
baloney, rot, hogwash, applesauce, bull, hooey.

So rebunking would be putting the baloney back in, which is accurate, if not exactly what I think they intend to admit.

I have not listened to it all as yet, but they say that they are not interested in hearing debunking of Steven Jones' latest paper (Active Thermitic Material...). Nope, if we are going to debunk that laughable attempt to claim that bits of red paint and rust amount to Thermite we have to do it with a peer-reviewed paper.

He also mentions the PDB (he calls it a PDF) of August 6, 2001 and claims it is not talking about history. Just for fun, I will reproduce here the memo, with the parts that are a history lesson in red and the parts that are talking about possible future plots in green:

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."

After U.S. missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a -- -- service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told - - service at the same time that bin Laden was planning to exploit the operative's access to the U.S. to mount a terrorist strike.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of bin Laden's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the U.S.

Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that in ---, Laden lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own U.S. attack.

Ressam says bin Laden was aware of the Los Angeles operation. Although Bin Laden has not succeeded, his attacks against the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Laden associates surveyed our embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

Al Qaeda members -- including some who are U.S. citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks.

Two al-Qaeda members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our embassies in East Africa were U.S. citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a bin Laden cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ---- service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full-field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.

Note in particular that the two paragraphs which do not appear historical in nature are also not very accurate in predicting 9-11; federal buildings in New York were not attacked and the attacks were not done with explosives. Note as well that these are the last two paragraphs; every writer knows to put the important information at the beginning of a memo. It's also remarkable that there is no mention of the USS Cole; did they not know that was an Al Qaeda operation at the time?

I'll append further thoughts if I listen to the end of the show.

Update: Stew mentions that he did a "documentary" called "The Proof" a few years ago on 9-11. As I have never heard of this particular movie, I searched for it on Google Video. And on YouTube. Turns out it's only available via snail mail for $10, and it sounds more like a "docudrama":

Shot in Lancaster city, this full length digital movie is part documentary, and part campy action thriller. It was produced without any budget or any professional actors but with hopes of sounding an urgent wake up call to the American people!

I also like that his company is called Bradley Infotainment; at least he's honest that he's just giving the rubes a show.

Here's the trailer, which I'd say is a single-wide: