September 21, 2008

David Griscom: 'All Hijacked Passengers Survived' Theory



David Griscom Promotes: 'All Hijacked Passengers Survived' Theory

By Arabesque

An article by David Griscom promotes the theory that "All Hijacked Passengers Survived." His website includes several articles with the introduction, "How could they have pulled it off? Check out Dave's carefully researched hypotheses." The first visible article is entitled, "Towards a Comprehensive 9/11 Conspiracy Theory: The 'All Hijacked Passengers Survived' Hypothesis":

...An underlying postulate, or working hypothesis, of my earlier Pentagon model was that the passengers on AA-77 volunteered to feign their deaths in return for cushy “witness protection” programs...

So, here I extend my “all passengers survived” postulate to all four 9/11 “hijacked” flights on the notion that this small number of passengers might have been considered by conspirators as the minimum number for public credulity, while at the same time not exceeding the maximum number of “true believers in the cause” willing to accept long separations from their loved ones (sweetened by handsome Swiss bank accounts)... the plane that actually struck WTC2 was captured on film and digital video cameras by many dozens of individuals – and widely-published frames from these films (some even appearing on magazine covers) show the impacting aircraft to have unmistakable external modifications...

For the sake of argument, let us assume for a moment that the passengers did die... Thus, I arrived at a quandary: I had concluded that both AA-11 and UA-175 must have been unmodified airliners that took off from Boston Logan with real (though relatively few) passengers – and I hypothesized that these passengers survived... IF what you saw in these videos was the actual UA-175, where would it have landed with its still-safe (but terribly shaken) passengers? ...In my "all passengers survive" hypothesis, it is easily surmised that AA-11 with its transponder turned off could have landed safely at Griffiss AFB after having been replaced over Amsterdam, NY, by a transponder-less drone attacker out of Griffiss.
For the sake of argument, let us assume that Griscom is falling for the pod theory. Aside from this, what about these DNA reports at the World Trade Center?
Others argue plane substitution in the attacks. But then, what to make of these reports of DNA identification at the WTC?

“DNA extractions were done on every one of the 19,906 remains, and 4,735 of those have been identified. As many as 200 remains have been linked to a single person. Of the 1,401 people identified include 45 of those aboard the hijacked planes - 33 from Flight 11, which struck the north tower, and 12 from Flight 175, which hit the south tower.”...

Although about half of the victims at the WTC have not been accounted for... reports continue to surface to this day in which passengers from the flights that hit the World Trade Center Towers are identified...
The Screw Loose Change blog predictably highlights Griscom's paper for ridicule saying:
Dr David L. Griscom... thinks the passengers on board the four planes were all paid off and are living in Tahiti, drinking Pina Coladas.
There are a number of articles by Screw Loose Change attacking Griscom for his "all passengers survived" theory. According to the document, the current version of the "passengers survived" article dates from April 18, 2007 (update: he has since revised the article). Interestingly, the Screw Loose Change blog first noted the article on April 29, 2007, about two weeks after the current version was originally published on Griscom's website. Mr. Griscom noted to me that he does not receive many visitors to his website and that he was unaware of the comments by Screw Loose Change who have been using the theory to ridicule Griscom and the 9/11 truth movement by association ever since it was first published.

This article by Griscom can only serve to discredit the 9/11 truth movement and his judgment for writing it should be questioned. Many family members support the 9/11 truth movement but many false claims and hoaxes discredit real questions about the event itself. The 9/11 commission itself was only created after intense pressure from family members. After submitting a list of hundreds of questions, the Family Steering Committee received answers to 30% of their questions.

Update: September 28, 2008

Upon contacting Griscom, I suggested that he remove his article from circulation and offer an apology for its content. After some debate he has not retracted the article from circulation at this point in time. Instead, he has published a revised version which still contains many of the statements that I marked as objectionable above. As well, his newest version does not mention or account for the DNA reports that I have cited above.