PHASE ONE: FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLE-THEORIES

One of the earliest explanations for the attack to surface was presented by Carol A. Valentine, the Seattle-based operator of Public Action, Inc. and curator of the “Waco Holocaust Museum.” There are at least hints of anti-Semitism in her “historical revisionist” Public Action website, which warns of “the American Coup d’Etat And the War for Jewish Supremacy” and the machinations of the “Imperium Judaicum.” [1] After 9/11, Valentine also became a Truther who specialized in remote control theories; on October 6, less than a month afterwards, she issued a piece called “Operation 9/11: No Suicide Pilots.” In March 2002 she expanded the thesis, passing on the “Flight of the Bumble Planes” theory. Perhaps the most intricate explanation yet, this was laid out to her by a mysterious expert code-named “Snake Plissken.” Snake urged Valentine and her readers to:

“Go visit a bumblebee hive some time, and try to keep your eye on just one bee. You can't do it. You get confused. Think of the 9-11 jets as bumblebees. […] I've worked in cryptology and there are many ways of hiding the truth. Substitute information, omit information, scramble the information out of sequence, and add nonsense (random garbage). All four methods were used on the 9-11 incident. Let me lay out the clues and show you where they lead.” [2]

This introduction sounds intriguing, and it was compellingly tied in with the reports of as many as thirteen possible hijackings, cluttered radar screens, "phantom" flights, and other apparently incidental confusion that helped mask the attack and cripple the defense. but Plissken cited among the clues leading to his/her conclusion such questionable claims as “no Boeing 757 debris at Pentagon crash site,” explaining that “the aluminum wings of the plane should have been ripped off and left outside the building,” just laying there intact with their fuel pouring peacefully out. Of course there have been photos of debris, including metal scraps bearing portions of an American Airlines paint job found on the lawn, and of various discs and turbines from the engines, and even matching landing gear found inside, though people still debate whether these were really from a 757.

In the end analysis, this theory allows for no Arab suicide pilots, obviously, and only one 767-sized remote control drone. This was the “pseudo-Flight 175,” the one so widely seen hitting the South Tower. The unseen “Flight 77” was actually “a remote controlled commuter jet filled with incendiaries/explosives - a cruise missile if you like.” Incredibly, even the first attack plane, Flight 11 that hit the North Tower in numerous public photos and videos aired as early as the evening of 9/11, was also “a small remote controlled commuter jet filled with incendiaries/explosives - a cruise missile, if you like.” This point in particular is a remarkable charge to be making any later than September 12 2001, but one Valentine has maintained through several updates of the Bumble Planes piece up through 2004 at least. [2]

In this construct, the original planes with their passengers were landed under terror threat, swapping radar tracks with drone replacements on the way in (the telltale transponders having been switched off for “security” reasons). The only non-remote controlled plane, of course, was Flight 93, onto which the passengers from the other three flights were crammed. She adds “if you've put some of your own agents aboard, they stay on the ground, of course,” which is important since 66 of the total passengers, not to mention three of the four missing flight crews, would have to be left behind to fit the rest on board that single 757. Once well filled and airborne, the plane was then of course “shot down or bombed - makes no difference which,” Valentine summed up. “Main deal is to destroy that human meat without questions,” yet another holocaust in which “no mass graves will ever be discovered.” [2]

If we’re going to bother pondering such convoluted and unsubstantiated nonsense, we may as well speculate further that the “cruise missile if you like” headed to the Pentagon was then radar-swapped with an actual cruise missile, while the explosives-laden plane it replaced was used to blow up Flight 93, which was filled with nobody, all the original passengers having been flown to Area 51 and vaporized in a secret underground nuclear “test” carried out a month later. The F-15 originally sent to shoot down 93 was then sent back in time via a government-designed wormhole, and became the plane that hit tower one at 8:46, all a sinister plot of the Jewish Empire to be blamed on the Arabs.

Despite its profound weaknesses, the Bumble Planes construct has woven its way into the many revisionist accounts in one form or another, though it’s gradually taken on a generic quality seldom cited back to Valentine. The basic concept is in fact a cornerstone of the most prominent conspiracy theories, figuring in the final cut of Loose Change for one, with Flight 11 now admitted as another drone like 175, and with the Flight 93 passenger transfer done at Cleveland International Airport.

The main point of interest in Valentine’s work to me is that the cartoonishly complex Bumble Planes theory is just one among many, a field of possibilities itself akin to a swarming hive. The methods Snake cited for hiding the truth – especially “add nonsense” - are in fact evident in the theory itself as well as in the wider field. Many have tried locating the truth in that swarm, but few want to admit that our radar screens are simply jammed with too many fake possibilities to zero in on the real mechanics with any certainty.

Sources:
[1] Public Action, Inc. A News and News Analysis Service operated by Carol A. Valentine
http://www.public-action.com/
[2] “Flight Of The Bumble Planes.” By Snake Plissken, as told to Carol A. Valentine. March 2002.
http://www.public-action.com/911/bumble.html