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Copyright:Gerard Holmgren. Jan 1 2006. This material may be freely reproduced as long as it is not for commercial purposes. Please cite the authors name, the date, the web address where you found it, and the copyright notice.

 

HOW MARK RABINOWITZ AND JIM HOFFMAN LIED ABOUT  THE BTS DATABASE

 

In Nov 2003, I published an article on Sydney Indymedia, revealing records from the US bureau of transportation statistics, which say that the allegedly hijacked American Airlines flights 11 and 77 did not exist, not having been scheduled to fly that day.

 

The full article with some updates was later reposted on my site.

 

I suggest that you read the article to become fully conversant with the facts, but here is a summary.

 

With records dating back to 1995, the US bureau of transportation logs and publishes details of every scheduled domestic US flight from carriers accounting for more than 1% of domestic air traffic. The database, which is available on the web, includes flights which are cancelled or diverted. It gives details such as airline and flight number, date, scheduled origin and destination points, tail number of aircraft, scheduled and actual  departure and arrival time, taxi out and in time, whether it was cancelled or diverted  etc.

 

The database lists the two allegedly hijacked UA flights that day as scheduled, taking off and diverted, but says that AA11 and 77 were not scheduled that day. Thus the official records say that no such flights took place or were even scheduled. These are the facts. I simply found the database, linked to it, and reported what it said.

 

From that fact, I drew the conclusion that the flights did not exist—i.e. that the database is accurate. This is a logical conclusion, although not proven fact.

 

One could consider the possibility that the database is inaccurate and that such flights might have actually existed. I don’t have a problem with the idea of exploring such a possibility, but if such a claim is to be made, there should be evidence or logical argument for such a position, rather than simply assuming it as a default truth.

 

To my knowledge, no one has ever presented any coherent argument for such a claim, nor presented anything new in relation to the alleged flights which might add weight to the story which we were told about them by the media and Govt. The failure of the flights to appear in the official BTS flight logs is not particularly surprising, given the number of other falsehoods, unexplained anomalies and contradictions surrounding the alleged flights.

 

Consider the following

 

Independent of any other evidence, the passenger lists for the alleged flight 11 are proven fakes.

 

The story of the alleged hijacking of Flight 11 is implausible and contains internal contradictions.

 

Different media reports cite AA11as taking off from  different gates.

 

Video evidence and forensic evidence shows that it did not crash where it was alleged to have.

 

Different media reports have AA77 hitting the WTC or alternatively not even taking off until about 1/2 hour after the 2nd WTC strike, leaving it something like 7 to 12 minutes to fly all the way to Ohio and back again to hit the Pentagon.

 

AA 77 obviously did not hit the pentagon  1  2  3  4  5 as alleged.

 

This doesn’t prove that the BTS database is accurate, but it does add weight to that assumption - which is already reasonable in its own right. This places the onus on those who claim the flights to have existed to treat the question with some respect and try to address the issue in a serious tone. The argument should start from the point of acknowledging that according to official records no such flights took place.

 

If possible counter-arguments had merit, why then would anyone choose to simply lie about what the database contains  - as the basis of their argument?

 

This is what Mark Rabinowitz has done in the attack quoted below. On a page dedicated to “bogus” websites about Sept 11, Rabinowitz writes: as his entire comment on the issue:(scroll almost to the bottom of his page)

 

[[This site is maintained by Australian writer Gerard Holmgren, whose standards of evidence seem to be exceptionally poor. Holmgren makes much of the alleged fact that a government database didn't show the hijacked flights as completed flights -- so therefore, the planes didn't actually exist. Of course, for anyone familiar with computer records, the fact that an inaccurate database does not determine the nature of external reality is embarrassing to those with higher standards of forensic evidence. An obvious rebuttal to Holmgren's assertion is that since the planes didn't complete their flights, it might not have been appropriate to include them in a database of completed flights. Why would someone who claims to be motivated to expose official US government complicity in 9/11 make such shoddy claims? Is this explainable by an incompetence theory, or is it deliberately designed to discredit? ]] (Original emphasis)

 

Let’s examine the core of Rabinowtiz’s attack. It is dependent on a claim that the database only records  “completed flights”.

 

[[Holmgren makes much of the *alleged* fact that a government database didn't show the hijacked flights as *completed flights* ...since the planes didn't complete their flights, it might not have been appropriate to include them in a *database of completed flights.* ]]

 

If the core claims as emphasized above were true, then Rabinowitz would have a logical argument. However, a quick check of the database shows these claims to be factually incorrect and to have falsely represented a matter of proven public record as merely “alleged” . It also misrepresents my article as seizing on the flights as not being shown as “completed”, when in fact the point I made is that were not scheduled. It also shows that Rabinowitz must have been aware of the falsehood he was writing even if he only briefly skimmed my article.

 

Let’s examine what Rabinowtiz would have seen when reading my article (assuming that he did read it).

 

[[click on "detailed statistics" where one can search records of scheduled and actual departure times, arrival times, diversions and cancellations by departure airport, arrival airport, airline and flight number.

 

Searches for Sept 11 2001 reveal that the flights AA 11 and AA 77 did not exist. They were not scheduled that day. Here are the search results which I encourage everyone to check for themselves.]]

 

Nowhere do I use the term “completed’ flights as attributed to me by Rabinowitz. I refer only to scheduling.

 

On the question of what the BTS database includes, Rabinowtiz makes no attempt to explain how a database which  includes “cancellations“ and “diversions”  can be described as a database of “completed flights”.

 

Perhaps Rabinowtiz didn’t trust my description of what the database says –which is fair enough. If so, he would only to have clicked on the link I provided to find this at the introduction to the database.

 

[[Summary Statistics - All and late flights (total number, average departure delay, average taxi-out and average scheduled departure) and late flights (total and percent of diverted and cancelled flights)….

 

...Detailed Statistics - Departure and arrival statistics (scheduled departure time, actual departure time, scheduled elapse time, departure delay, wheels-off time and taxi-out time) by airport and airline; airborne time, cancellation and diversion by airport and airline. ]]

 

Note the reference to “cancelled “ and “diverted” flights. How can this reconcile with a claim that it is a database of “completed flights” ?

 

If Rabinowitz didn’t trust what the BTS itself summarized about its own database, then he could have followed the links to the legal definitions of the database.

 

[[For the purpose of this part:

    Cancelled flight means a flight operation that was not operated, but was listed in a carrier's computer reservation system within seven calendar days of the scheduled departure.

    Discontinued flight means a flight dropped from a carrier's computer reservation system more than seven calendar days before its scheduled departure.

    Diverted flight means a flight which is operated from the scheduled origin point to a point other than the scheduled destination point in the carrier's published schedule.]]

 

And to details of the reporting requirements, also showing that cancelled and diverted flights are as much a part of the data as completed flights.

After checking all of this,  Rabinowtiz could have also noticed that the allegedly hijacked UA flights, which obviously didn’t complete their flights that day, are listed in the database, as scheduled, taking off and diverted –i.e. not completing their flights.

He could have also noted - by following the links I provided - that although every flight in the air that morning was diverted, he can still find them in the database for that day as scheduled, taking off and diverted—i.e. not completing their flights.

He could have also scrolled through the very lists which I suggested and have seen the long lists of scheduled flights that day which didn’t take off. They didn’t even start their flights , let alone complete them, but were still listed as scheduled and cancelled—as required by the reporting regulations.

So its not possible for Rabinowitz to have made an honest mistake is speculating

[[it might not have been appropriate to include them in a database of completed flights. ]]

 

He lied. This is the true meaning of “disinformation”.

 

CONTINUE