MORIN: THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

MORIN: THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
Adam Larson / Caustic Logic
The Frustrating Fraud
June 14 2008 3am
edits update 11pm

Pentagon attack witness Terry Morin, September 2001 at the Navy Annex/FoB #2:

“Approximately 10 steps out from between Wings 4 and 5, I was making a gentle right turn towards the security check-in building just above Wing 4 when I became aware of something unusual.”
According to this graphic, the larger structure to his right here is the bus stop and the smaller one security (thanks CIT). These sit astride the high-traffic crosswalk to the parking lots across the Pike, including, according to this graphic, lot 3, to which he said he was headed (thanks Bobloblaw).

“I started to hear an increasingly loud rumbling behind me and to my left. As I turned to my left, I immediately realized the noise was bouncing off the 4-story structure that was Wing 5. One to two seconds later the airliner came into my field of view.”

Where exactly and how far out? Officially, southwest, about straight ahead if facing the bus stop. The distance is far from clear, but given that it was traveling at near the speed of sound, it couldn't be much behind its noise, perhaps passing the Sheraton hotel. In the below graphic, the “official” flight path is placed approximately based on all available data, and is a general fit for Morin’s description, below:
“The aircraft was essentially right over the top of me and the outer portion of the FOB (flight path parallel the outer edge of the FOB).”

The use of ‘essentially’ in conjunction with his otherwise detailed account shows he means it was very nearly over him but not quite. “Parallel” I take as an accurate observation but not necessarily 100% precise. The real path of Flight 77 does in fact run about parallel to the building’s edge, as seen here. Also, parallel is a word describing two different lines. He did not say “along the edge,” so it was probably centered either north or south of that line, and if north, his failing to describe it as over the building is curious.

“I estimate that the aircraft was no more than 100 feet above me (30 to 50 feet above the FOB) in a slight nose down attitude. The plane had a silver body with red and blue stripes down the fuselage. I believed at the time that it belonged to American Airlines, but I couldn’t be sure.”

Seeing stripes indicates, as he said, that it was not directly over him (unless in a severe sideways bank, which neither he nor anyone mentions). It was either some combination of south and banking left (and he’d see the left/port side), or north and banking right (in which case he’d see the right side). The former seemed to fit his continued line-of-sight, nearly up to impact, and of course also fits with where the plane actually was and where Morin said in 2001 that he was. He describes his continuing view thus:

“Within seconds the plane cleared the 8th Wing of BMDO and was heading directly towards the Pentagon. Engines were at a steady high-pitched whine, indicating to me that the throttles were steady and full. I estimated the aircraft speed at between 350 and 400 knots. The flight path appeared to be deliberate, smooth, and controlled. As the aircraft approached the Pentagon, I saw a minor flash (later found out that the aircraft had sheared off a portion of a highway light pole down on Hwy 110). As the aircraft flew ever lower I started to lose sight of the actual airframe as a row of trees to the Northeast of the FOB blocked my view. I could now only see the tail of the aircraft. I believe I saw the tail dip slightly to the right indicating a minor turn in that direction. The tail was barely visible when I saw the flash and subsequent fireball rise approximately 200 feet above the Pentagon.”

His lateral line-of-sight would be set by the edge of the 8th wing’s SE corner. This would completely block his view of anything too far north, and this path does have something of a north trend. His approximate line-of-sight then is represented by the yellow line in my second graphic, above. Note that the last stretch of the path and the impact itself would be invisible from his angle, unless he moved significantly south.

He also specifically mentions a vertical line-of-sight, defined by a row of trees running along the crest of the hill east of the FoB. In the analysis below, descent rate again approximated, the point where he’d lose sight of the plane appears to work out to about the same location – that is, it went too far north to see at about the same time it went too low, all at around the yellow line. I'd venture from these rough renderings that it would disappear below the horizon just before passing behind the building. So in two ways he would absolutely not see the plane all the way to impact. The reason I explain this is to defuse the importance of Rob Balsamo’s neat little video using 3-D graphics to show the same thing I decided with my graphics, so it's a useful visualization (scene below) – it shows the plane shrinking to the corner, disappearing vertically just before it was about to do so laterally.
This revelation fits with the placement above and with Morin's first losing it behind "a row of trees," not the building. It only appears damning and contradictory when contrasted to this line, sometimes misused by ‘de-bunkers’ and here misused by a re-bunker:

“The tail was barely visible when I saw the flash and subsequent fireball rise approximately 200 feet above the Pentagon.” [emph. mine]

First, “when” cannot be taken too literally when micro-second time differences are at work. Second, the flash may be a light pole being “planted,” catching a glint of sunlight as it “danced” in the air. It may have been a glint off the plane itself as it banked, depending on the angles, which I haven’t analyzed. But clearly it occurred in his line-of-sight, and southwest of - before - the “subsequent fireball.” His narrative does put enough detailed emphasis on seeing tail, and “believing” to have, that it appears he’s embellishing a bit. Vagueness of language aside, he is clearly supplementing his memory with additional info (time: "call it approximately 9:36 AM"), and it would seem embellishing some gaps - tiny, tiny gaps. Perhaps it seemed to him that the “official facts” lined up with what he saw and heard, and if so such synergizing is only natural.

So this is the conventional wisdom, or rather my understanding (which is just a notch above that), of Terry Morin’s account. It corroborates the "official story"/real flight path so well in fact, that he's been strenuously dismissed by critics like CIT's Ranke, who back in November rattled off a huge list of perceived inconsistencies and stated paradoxically “due to all of these extreme contradictions with the official story and explicit exaggerated details meant to support it [...] it's clear that Morin is either relaying a completely fabricated or else wildly embellished account.”

Well, if Ranke today is to be believed, simple embellishment is out the window at least, and Morin himself proves that Morin was fabricating virtually everything in his account, possibly in cahoots with the planners who knew how it should look. Ranke says Morin affirmed, in a private, off-the-record discussion recently, that he was actually “between” the wings rather than “from between,” (see first graphic). This is just as CIT had always reasoned against all reason, giving him the view of a toaster pastry that completely invalidates everything above and any reason to believe what he says now.

If Ranke today is to be believed… and that’s an if alright… then Morin the proven fabricator who was likely complicit now helps prove the truth seven years later and “most definitely should go on the list of people to subpoena once the hearings begin.” Once again the mighty CIT has shown us how much we all know. I have some things to say about this ridiculous turn, but I’m taking it steady right now, and will report more fully as soon as it seems reasonable.