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Confiscation of Citgo video
Summary
There's a Citgo gas station right near the West Wing of the Pentagon, and it has security cameras that would have caught whatever crashed into the building. But we haven't seen the video, because the FBI showed up "within minutes" of the crash and confiscated the tape. Even the owner of the gas station, Jose Velasquez, has not seen the tape.
Source: Bill McKelway, December 11, 2001. Three Months On, Tension Lingers Near the Pentagon. Richmond-Times Dispatch.
Analysis
It does sound pretty odd at first blush that the FBI was on the ball enough to think, within minutes of the attack, ohmygod the Pentagon has been hit, hey look, a Citgo station, I know, let's go confiscate their security film. Sounds like they planned to grab it ahead of time, as if they knew what was coming and were prepared to destroy all evidence that might undermine the Flight 77 theory.
On the other hand, maybe it's not so weird. Maybe these guys are trained to think that way. Crime on the street, look for any security cameras. Crime at the Pentagon, same thing.
What's weirder is that they haven't released the footage. If it's a 757 and they have it on film, why not show it and dispel all these crazy theories? If the film didn't catch anything, why not show it, for the same reason?
I'm going to play this one conservatively and say it's not really very suspicious.
On the other hand, maybe it's not so weird. Maybe these guys are trained to think that way. Crime on the street, look for any security cameras. Crime at the Pentagon, same thing.
What's weirder is that they haven't released the footage. If it's a 757 and they have it on film, why not show it and dispel all these crazy theories? If the film didn't catch anything, why not show it, for the same reason?
I'm going to play this one conservatively and say it's not really very suspicious.
Bottom line, me, I give it:
Discussion
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People's Court
Quotes
"I've never seen what the pictures looked like. The FBI was here within minutes and took the film."-- Jose Velasquez, owner of Citgo station across from the Pentagon
Currently showing comments 1 through 3 of 3 total comments.
1. cybrarian 21 Dec 2007 02:19:17 PM
I imagine that the FBI keeps a list of all relevant security cameras as standard ops. Did they confiscate any other tapes? Wouldn't you expect them to grab up tape after a bank robbery? And would them showing you the video after it's been in their custody actually prove anything either way?
2. john 22 Dec 2007 06:09:06 PM
Yeah, it's just the "within minutes" part that sounded a bit funny. But I agree, it's pretty plausible that checking for video cameras in the vicinity would be standard procedure. In fact it would be surprising if it wasn't standard procedure.
And no, I probably wouldn't trust the video if they released it. But you'd think -- assuming a 757 really did hit the Pentagon, and they had it on video, and they wanted to squash the government complicity theories...they'd release the flipping video. But who knows -- it's still not enough information for me to think it's very suspicious.
3. tnt 11 Jan 2008 06:16:32 PM
If there's a video that conclusively shows a 757, they'd have released it. The video must not support the official version.