Bin Laden is from a family of billionaires and had CIA training in the 1980's back when her was on our side, "living in caves" all while he was assisting the United States to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan with the ultimate goal of bankrupting the Soviet Union.

To dismiss him as a "caveman" is to make a very deliberate and conscious decision to ignore his vast wealth, his family ties to the Saudi Royal family and his extensive CIA training and involvement in one of the *real* greatest geopolitical conspiracies of all time: the successful dismantling of the USSR.

He may have hid out in caves, but he was no caveman.

Liggio says he will not do the research for us - but in fact, like most conspiracy theorists, he actually requires that we do all the research all along. He spouts out claims without any reference and we're the ones who are supposed to go verify - or find the fault - in his claims.

Let's break down his post:

1.

"On September 11th, 2001, 19 men armed with box cutters directed by a caveman on dialysis in a caved fortress halfway around the world using a satellite phone and a laptop directed the most sophisticated penetration"

- So far, all correct, while making the deliberate decision to omit the context that this caveman is a billionaire CIA operative. The word "caveman" implies uneducated, backward and incapable and this is exactly the assumption that he is hoping will stand. Let's move on.

2.

"of the most heavily defended airspace in the world,"

- False. As there had been no attack on this scale at any time in US history, armed response was not contemplated prior to 9/11. In Liggio's mind perhaps, AFB's across the country keep armed fighters on scramble stand by in the event of a domestic hijacking, but this was not in fact the case pre-9/11 - which is easily, independently verified.

3.

"overpowering the passengers and the military combat-trained pilots on 4 commercial aircraft"

- Most employees even at domestic businesses are taught to co-operate with armed robberies, hijacking, etc. -hijacking was actually common in the 1970's and the policy then was ALWAYS to co-operate with the hijackers rather than risk any conflict that could lead to the whole plane going down. Again this is easily verified.

4.

"before flying those planes wildly off-course for over an hour without being molested by a single-fighter interceptor."

- False. The time between Flight 11's hijacking and the crash into the first tower was just 32 minutes. Again, if Liggio really did "do the research" he says he has done, it is staggering he could make such an obvious error. It is likewise ridiculous to believe that, pre-9/11, planes which have been off course for 32 minutes would regularly be shot down as a matter of policy.

5.

These 19 hijackers, devout religious fundamentalists who liked to drink alcohol, snort cocaine, and live with pink-haired strippers managed to knock down 3 buildings with 2 planes in NYC. Now THAT sounds like a conspiracy theory."

- In a conspiracy theorists' mind, everything works exactly the way it should all the time, and people's stated motives are unassailable. For example, if Oswald said he was a Patsy, then he's a patsy...simple as that. Likewise, if this guy is a religious fundamentalist then it is therefore irreconcilable that he would consume drugs and/or alcohol. This is despite plenty of examples of outwardly religious men doing decidedly unreligious acts; Jimmy Swigert? Benny Hinn? Hundreds if not thousands of molesting Catholic priests? It hasn't occurred to Liggio that they might be outwardly religious but inwardly hypocritical.

Al-Qaeda had already hit the tower in 1994 and failed. Then everybody is shocked that they would try it again. What was so shocking about it? The US Government used bin Laden for a decade then completely fucked him over. I wonder why he would want revenge??

In the end, what were the motives for the conspiracy? Who benefitted? Travel became a pain in the ass for everyone - so unless the TSA was behind it, it certainly wasn't the airlines. Maybe you'll say "Carlyle Group/Halliburton" etc. OK. If we follow that thread, explain to me why the hijackers weren't all Iraqi? Bush wanted Iraqi oil so badly that he filled four planes with maniacal Saudis in order to convince the American public that they should attack Afghanistan, only then to go to Iraq after claiming weapons of mass destruction - which were never found, even though this is supposedly the leadership group that was able to pull off a controlled demolition in the middle of Manhattan but somehow couldn't plant a few fake WMD's in Iraq during a war.

How does that plan work?