Allen Forkum of Cox&Forkum writes:

If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend the new History Channel documentary debunking the 9/11 “truth” movement: 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction. The show airs twice more this weekend: Saturday, August 25 at 8:00 PM and Sunday, August 26 at 12:00 AM.

Troofers (click on image):

For nearly six years now, we have witnessed the lies and profiteering of the 9/11 “truthers.” In additon, a menagerie of misfits, mentally ill people, and the willfully ignorant have, either completely or in part, bought into their garbage. The most recent converts to the “truther” cause are apparently two Ohio State University professors. Luke Sheahan, of Family Security Matters wrote of them Wednesday:

The two professors, John Mueller and John Quigley, are both well respected in their fields and both hold endowed chairs. Mueller holds the Woody Hayes Chair for National Security and published the book Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them, which argues the simple thesis that there is no terrorist threat. Quigley, a Harvard-educated scholar, published an article on how Osama bin Laden is really just an anti-colonial activist. Empathy for Osama’s type is thus not hard for those residing in the hallowed halls of academia.

The panel was sponsored by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Ohio and Columbus 9/11 Truth. The Ohio chapter of CAIR contributed two members to the panel, Abukar Arman and Ahmad Al-Akhras [emphasis added mine. More about these two in a moment]. Arman published an article last December in the California Chronicle in support of the Islamic Courts Union’s takeover of Somalia. Arman subsequently lost his place on the Central Ohio Homeland Security oversight board. We’ll ignore for now the obvious question of what he was doing there in the first place. Al-Akhras, Vice Chair of the national CAIR, has spoken out in support of convicted terrorists. And of course, CAIR’s dubious connections with Islamic “charities” are well known.
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What would make distinguished professors at a major American research university fall for the patently absurd ideas propagated by the likes of Columbus 9/11 Truth? Or even allow themselves to be associated with such clearly unsavory fellows as Abukar Arman and Ahmad Al-Akhras? This isn’t just your run of the mill anti-Americanism, its full blown crazy black helicopter conspiracy theories. However, there is a connection. The vision that makes some academics anti-American also lends itself to making them conspiracy theorists.

Professors sitting in their Ivory Towers imagine that a perfect order is attainable in this world. Of course, America falls short of that order, but, comparatively speaking, not far. Historically, most countries are far worse, and few can boast even one or two of the many benefits America has granted its citizens and the world. But that’s neither here nor there.

The dream for a perfect order can never be consummated. In this imperfect world it is impossible; it must forever remain a dream. Those who hold this belief, like Professors Mueller and Quigley and their Communist sympathizing predecessors, must develop an explanation for why their purposes are continually frustrated. Why did the Soviet Union and not the United States fall? It must be that the leaders of the Soviet cause were corrupt and fascist in nature. With the right leaders, perhaps the experiment could one day succeed. As long as corrupt, fallen human beings are at the helm of such enterprises, and they always will be, then I suspect the results will only be more of the same…

9/11 family member Peter Gadiel weighed in about the two professors, CAIR, and a leading “truther”:

The granddaddy of these “the U.S. government did it” fairy tales is a film called “Loose Change,” manufactured by a fellow by the name of Dylan Avery, a film he admits was inspired by the film “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” and conceived while he was “high.” The fastest way anyone can debunk this film is to read the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s interview with Avery.

In that interview, Avery admits lack of foundation or proof for his assertions, and admits the existence of reliable opposing scientific opinion, admits that much of what he says is speculation, and backtracks when confronted with facts (e.g. after saying NORAD intentionally sent planes in the wrong direction in the search for the hijacked planes he then says: ”I don’t want to implicate anybody without hard evidence, but it seems that NORAD and the FAA and a lot of key institutions of our government simply dropped the ball.” (Most of us understand that “dropping the ball” is quite different from intentionally allowing 3,000 people to die.) You can see for yourself the logical gaps (actually they’re logical canyons) in this man’s reasoning.
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In short, with his ludicrous claims of “the government did it,” Mr. Avery is diverting the attention of the American people from the true causes of 9/11 which are Islamist hatred and U.S. government incompetence and corruption. That is the real danger of the “9/11 Truthers.”

Under the circumstances, CAIR would be foolish if it didn’t join this bandwagon; any scheme that will shift blame from Islamists to someone else is okay by them. “Hey dumb Americans,” says CAIR, “don’t believe your own eyes. Islamists didn’t do it, you did.” And Mr. Avery and those Ohio State professors are carrying their message.

Ohioans Abukar Arman, Ahmad Al-Akhras, and third member of CAIR recently accosted a former Marine late one evening outside of his home because they did not like a bumper sticker on his car.

On at least two occasions, Mr. Al-Akhas has expressed his support for accused and suspected terrorists.

In April, Columbus resident Christopher Paul was arrested for terrorism related charges after being under surveillance for four years. Yet the Associated Press quotes Al-Akhras as saying of Paul:

“From the things I know, he is a loving husband and he has a wife and parents in town. They are a good family together.”

AP added that Al-Akhras said his group will work to make sure Paul’s constitutional rights are granted.

In November 1999, two men were removed from an American West flight from Phoenix to Columbus and detained after landing because they had made repeated attempts to enter the cockpit area of the plane during the flight:

“…the 9/11 Commission Report (page 521, footnote 60, pdf reader required) explains that the FBI now considers the incident as a “dry run” for the 9/11 hijackings. And the two men involved? As the 9/11 Commission Report explains, Hamdan al-Shalawi was in Afghanistan in November 2000 training at an Al-Qaeda camp to launch “Khobar Tower”-type attacks against the US in Saudi Arabia, and Mohammad Al-Qadhaieen was arrested in June 2003 as a material witness in the 9/11 attacks. Both men were friends of Al-Qaeda recruiter, Zakaria Mustapha Soubra, who drove them to the airport that day in Qadhaieen’s car. Another friend of Shalawi is Ghassan al-Sharbi, another Al-Qaeda operative that would later be captured in Pakistan with high-level Al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaida.
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“Their current silence and website purge notwithstanding, immediately after the November 1999 “dry run”, CAIR was not shy about publicly speaking on the incident. “It seems like they single out some individuals because of their name, the way they look or their national origin,” huffed current CAIR National Vice Chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras (who was then president of the CAIR Ohio chapter) in an interview with the Egyptian daily, Al-Ahram. That same article quoted Nihad Awad, Executive Director and Co-Founder of CAIR, who explained, “the hysteria around [the crash of] EgyptAir [Flight 990] has created a negative atmosphere that leads to such incidents.”

As thousands of 9/11 family members and friends gathered last September 11 at Ground Zero in remembrance of those we lost six years ago, a crowd of perhaps 250 “truthers” collected nearby (see image below) like slime in a cesspool.

As the 9/11 “truthers” have no shame, it is about time we starting judging them all for the company they keep.