Review of Hardfire debates between Mark Roberts and Loose Change crew

Two weeks ago, I met Ron Wieck in a diner, where he lent me a DVD containing two episodes of his “Hardfire” show, containing two parts of a debate between Mark Roberts and two members of the Loose Change crew, Dylan Avery and Jason Bermas. Today, I have finally finished watching and reviewing the two shows.

Email debates, and more about Mark Roberts

I just now ran across this post by Gravy (Mark Roberts) in the JREF forum. He says about me, “I asked her twice if she could name a single significant claim that the truth movement gets right. Like every other truther I’ve asked, she couldn’t or wouldn’t.”

What actually happened was that I refused to get into a debate with him via email and told him that if he wanted to get into an online debate with me, he was welcome to do so in comments here on my blog.

Obviously, this blog contains plenty of examples of claims that I think the 9/11 Truth movement gets right, although it also contains plenty of examples of claims which I think many people in the 9/11 Truth movement get wrong, or at least overstate, or which I think need further analysis or research.

Debates and such – further reply to some JREF folks

I’ll now reply to various points in the thread Diane’s Question for Mark in the JREF forum, beyond the points already discussed my posts Reply to debate invitation from Ron/pomeroo on JREF and My decision about Ron Wieck’s show and the subsequent comment threads.

• Mark Roberts vs. Jon Gold
• Apology and further clarification to Mark Roberts
• More about me

My decision about Ron Wieck’s show

In the JRFF forum, ref (a.k.a. ref1 here) says, about the possibility of me appearing on Ron Wieck’s show:

I think she will be the toughest opponent as of yet. Dylan & Jason were easy, Fetzer… crazy. Diane has good argumentation, she is thorough and polite, it’s not going to be a walk in the park like dismissing some “no plane” or Loose Change claims. She’s by far the nicest truth movement representative I have ever had any interaction with. And she seems sincere. Although we very much disagree on almost every topic.

Thanks for all the compliments. But I’ve decided, as per my initial reaction, that I’m not yet ready to participate in a televised debate because I’m too new to the 9/11 Truth movement and too new at studying various topics pertaining to the events of 9/11. (I’ve been at it only since this past summer.) There are too many topics I haven’t yet researched in enough detail – even regarding just WTC 7 (to which the proposed debate would be limited) for me to participate adequately in a televised debate about it.

He oughta know better: Mark Roberts and the iron spherules

On Mark Roberts’s site, a page titled They oughta know better: critiques of the inept work, absurd claims, and deceitful practices of Richard Gage, David Ray Griffin, Jim Hoffman, Steven E. Jones, Gordon Ross, Kevin Ryan, and others includes the following claim by Mark Roberts:

The “mysterious” iron spheres in WTC dust that are cited by Jones as possible evidence of thermite or thermate use, are in fact expected to form in a hot office fire.

In support of this claim, Roberts cites the very interesting paper WTC Dust Signature Report: Composition and Morphology: Summary Report, Prepared for: Deutsche Bank (PDF), prepared by the RJ Lee Group, available on an archived version of the website of the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project. But, as we shall see, this report does not actually support Roberts’s claim at all.

(P.S.: After I notified Roberts about this post, he changed the wording on his website. Below, I’ll leave my reply to the original wording intact, and then I’ll reply to the revised version in a P.S.)