Loose Change (film)

Loose Change is a series of films released between 2005 and 2009 which argue that the September 11, 2001 attacks were planned and conducted by elements within the United States government, and base the claims on perceived anomalies in the historical record of the attacks. The films were written and directed by Dylan Avery, and produced by Korey Rowe, Jason Bermas and Matthew Brown.

The original film was edited and re-released as Loose Change: 2nd Edition (2006), and then subsequently edited a third time for the 2nd Edition Recut (2007), each time to tighten the focus on certain key areas and to correct some inaccurate claims and remove copyrighted material. Loose Change: Final Cut, deemed "the third and final release of this documentary series" was released on DVD and Web-streaming format on November 11, 2007. Another version of the film, Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup, released on September 22, 2009, is narrated by Daniel Sunjata and distributed by Microcinema International.

The film's main claims have been refuted by journalists, independent and 9/11 Truth researchers, and prominent members of the scientific and engineering community.

History
In May 2002, when researching for a fictional screenplay based on the 9/11 attacks, writer Dylan Avery felt there was enough evidence to support the 9/11 conspiracy theories that the attacks were orchestrated by members of the United States government, and started working on a non-fiction version.

In April 2005, the first edition of Loose Change was made available for free on the Internet and was given a limited DVD release to certain video stores. It cost around $2000 to make, and was made primarily on Avery's laptop computer, featuring a distinctive soundtrack produced by DJ Skooly. Avery's childhood friend, Korey Rowe, left the service of the United States Army in June 2005 to assist with the marketing of the movie. Soon after Avery decided that "there was new information that needed to be added and improvements made", and so began creating Loose Change: 2nd Edition. Korey Rowe assumed the role of producer, and Jason Bermas, a graphic designer, worked as production assistant. This edition cost around $6,000. It was originally released in December 2005, but was re-released in June 2006 as Loose Change: 2nd Edition Recut. Before the release of this edition, Avery, Rowe and Bermas set up an independent movie production company called Louder than Words, an organization that identifies with the 9/11 Truth Movement. In April 2009 the rights to Loose Change were bought by Microcinema International DVD.

In August 2006, Korey Rowe was featured in an article admitting to the inaccuracy found in Loose Change. "We don't ever come out and say that everything we say is 100 percent. We know there are errors in the documentary, and we've actually left them in there so that people discredit us and do the research for themselves". In 2007 there was speculation that media entrepreneur Mark Cuban would distribute Loose Change, and that Charlie Sheen would narrate.

The third edition of the movie, Loose Change Final Cut, was released in November 2007. According to the Loose Change website, this edition "is substantially different from Loose Change and Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut in the way it presents the information surrounding 9/11/2001. However, it remains true to the spirit that has made Loose Change what it is today." Professor David Ray Griffin was brought on as script consultant, and radio host Alex Jones and Tim Sparke of Mercury Media served as executive producers. Due to an estimated cost of $200,000, this version is the first not to be available for free online, although it is in fact available for free on Google Video and YouTube in a lower quality version. This edition is also substantially longer than previous versions, at over 2 hours in length.

Director Dylan Avery and producers Korey Rowe and Matthew Brown released a new film through their production company, Collective Minds Media Company, entitled Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup on September 22, 2009. The film is distributed by Microcinema International. It is narrated by Rescue Me star Daniel Sunjata, and explores historical events leading to 9/11 and its aftermath. It was financed by Joel Bachar and Patrick Kwiatkowski of Microcinema International, and its world premiere was on September 9, 2009 at the 9/11 Film Festival at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California.

Recut contents


Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut (2006) opens with a brief description of past suspicious and questionable motives in the history of American government. This discussion includes mention of Operation Northwoods, a plan put forward during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 to create and utilize bogus terrorist attacks against the United States which were to be blamed on Cuba as a pretext for invasion of the country. Focus is particularly directed at the previously proposed plans to substitute real commercial airliners with pilotless drone aircraft in order to investigate the plausibility of covertly using them as weapons whilst maintaining the cover of an accident.

Attention is also given to the Project for the New American Century, a neo-conservative think-tank which released a report in 2000 titled "Rebuilding America's Defenses". In particular the film points out a line from that report which states "the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor" -Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It also highlights the fact that during the same year the report was released the Pentagon conducted the first of two training exercises which simulated a Boeing 757 crashing into the building. There is also mention that from September 6 to September 10 an unusual amount of put options were placed on the stock of American Airlines, Boeing and United Airlines.

This is followed by an examination of the attacks on the Pentagon. The film opposes the official story of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon, alleging that the path of destruction does not match that which a 757 would leave. In particular it points out the size of the hole in the Pentagon caused by the crash, examining a lack of debris and landscape damage seemingly inconsistent with prior airliner crashes. It is also alleged that too few parts were recovered from the crash site to reliably ascertain that they were of a Boeing 757 and that certain flywheel observed at the site seemed too small to have been part of the aircraft's engine turbine. The wheel was officially declared to have been part of the APU but disputed by some experts as not to have come from the APU of a 757 but likely from an E-3 Sentry aircraft. It is also claimed that the alleged hijacker-pilot Hani Hanjour had difficulty performing basic controls on a small Cessna at a flight school where he rented, and that perhaps not even an experienced pilot could have maneuvered the reflex angle of turn at the airspeed and altitude at which the aircraft approached without going into a high speed stall. Mention is also given to three cameras on nearby buildings that allegedly caught the entire incident at the Pentagon on film, which the government confiscated and has refused to release in full.

The next section focuses on the destruction of the World Trade Center itself. The film comes out in favor of the controlled demolition theory of the destruction of World Trade Centers 1, 2 and 7. Cited as evidence are eyewitness reports from a janitor, firemen, and other people near the buildings who heard bangs, many of them describing them as explosions as well as videotapes showing windows far below the burning floors blow out during the collapse and seismograph results recorded during the collapse compared to the collapse of other similar buildings. The film claims that WTC 1, 2 and 7 were the first steel frame buildings in history to collapse due to fire. Another allegation centers on an audio recording in which it is claimed two distinct explosions can be heard at the time of the impact. The film also posits that the official story of the collapse ignores the laws of physics.

In particular, the video alleges that the fires inside the twin towers were not hot enough to bring the buildings down. An audio tape is presented in which the Captain of Ladder 7 claims that the fires can be brought under control by two lines and it is mentioned that building 7 had taken only minor damage before its own collapse. These allegations follow a listing of buildings that burned longer than the Twin Towers and did not fall.

For Flight 93, the video ignores the more mainstream theory of the plane being crashed by passengers to instead allege it was landed safely at Cleveland Hopkins Airport where it was evacuated by government personnel into an unused NASA research center. Evidence cited included photographs and eyewitness reports of the crash site as evidence, media reports of a corresponding and bizarre evacuation at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, oddities in the transcripts of cell-phone calls supposedly placed from the plane during the hijacking, and the sighting of the tail number of Flight 93 on an aircraft in use at a later date.

This is then followed by a more miscellaneous listing of allegations. It is claimed that cell phone calls could not be made from American Airlines flights at the time of the crash, asking why American Airlines had to install a system in their own airplanes to allow the reception of cellular signals within the planes if they could do this regardless on September 11. It is suggested that the calls from passengers and crew were faked using sophisticated voice-morphing technology developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and that the December 13, 2001 video of Osama Bin Laden claiming responsibility for the attacks was also faked, featuring what appeared to be an overweight lookalike version of Bin Laden. Finally it is alleged that of the list of hijackers initially released by the government, many were not in the planes and therefore survived September 11, 2001 and may even be alive today.

In the end, the film gives financial motives for people who would have benefited from launching the attacks themselves. Mention is first made of Larry Silverstein, who stood to receive a substantial insurance payout after the attacks due to a specific anti-terrorism clause. Other allegations of insider trading and Halliburton's benefiting from the subsequent launch of America's "War on Terror" are made.

Presentation
Loose Change: 2nd Edition Recut is one hour and 22 minutes in length. The film consists of Dylan Avery narrating over photographs and news footage relating to 9/11, with an underscore of hip hop and other urban style music. Avery does not appear in the video itself, though is shown in the bonus features. Video and still footage used includes considerable video content from CNN, MSNBC NBC, and Fox News Channel, as well as a number of other sources. The end of the film shows a clip from The American Scholar's Symposium that was aired on C-Span on June 25, 2006 at the Sheraton Hotel in Los Angeles. Jason Bermas, wearing the signature "Investigate 9/11" t-shirt that he designed, is describing their plans to peacefully demonstrate at Ground Zero on September 11, 2006.

Revisions
Although each version of the film asserts that the events of 9/11 were essentially an "inside job", there were significant revisions between the particular theories that different editions posited. For example:


 * The first edition, Loose Change, suggested that there was an unusual device (which the filmmakers refer to as a "pod") under the fuselage of the plane that struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The "pod" was presented as evidence that the planes involved in the attack were replaced with remote-controlled drones. Official flight records were also presented as evidence that the aircraft involved are still in active service, though it is stated that the producers do not know what happened to the passengers of the flights. This information is omitted from all subsequent versions.
 * While the first edition asserted that United Airlines Flight 93 was shot down over Pennsylvania, Loose Change 2nd Edition and Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut theorize that Flight 93 was actually flown to and landed at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. The third edition states less information about Flight 93, but maintains that it is impossible that it crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

On May 26, 2006, a letter was sent to Dylan Avery regarding copyright and trademark infringement in Loose Change 2nd Edition resulting from the use of footage from French filmmakers the Naudet brothers. The letter states that Avery used copyrighted images from the film 9/11 and that those images violate the Lanham Act "by suggesting that the Naudet brothers or Mr. Hanlon have endorsed or sponsored the controversial views in your film." The letter concludes: "Accordingly, we hereby demand that you confirm to us within three (3) business days of the receipt of this letter that you have removed all footage taken from our clients' 9/11 film from your Loose Change film, including from the version of your film that can be downloaded on the Internet, the DVD version of your film and anywhere else you have used or are using our clients' footage." Dylan Avery announced that the recut version of the 2nd edition would omit some of the infringing material.
 * The statement that New York's Empire State Building was hit by a B-52 bomber "sometime during the 1950's or 1960's" was corrected; the Empire State Building was hit by a much smaller plane, the B-25 Mitchell, in 1945.
 * References to the rumors concerning the amount of gold stored beneath the World Trade Center (such as one claim of $167 billion in gold) were removed, leaving only confirmed statements, including that of the "$230 million in precious metals".
 * The implication the film makes that Flight 77 had Pratt & Whitney engines made of steel and titanium alloy, was corrected; in fact the engines of Flight 77 were Rolls-Royce engines.
 * Multiple instances of Wikipedia articles being shown as source material were removed and replaced with news articles containing the reported information.
 * Throughout the film minor changes in talking points, images and language were made.

Reception
An August 2006 Vanity Fair article suggested that Loose Change "just might be the first Internet blockbuster." Millions more have viewed the film via unaffiliated websites. More than one million copies of the DVD have been sold, and many more have been given away.

The film has been broadcast on state media outlets in Belgium, Ireland and Portugal. According to Broadcast magazine, the video was to have a special screening at the UK Houses of Parliament on June 14, 2006. Michael Meacher, the British MP who had considered sponsoring the screening, decided against it. On September 11, 2006 Dylan Avery and Jason Bermas appeared on Democracy Now! the War and Peace Report, to debate with James Meigs and David Dunbar, two of the editors of Popular Mechanics and the book Debunking 9/11 Myths.

Criticism
Journalists,  researchers,  as well as scientists and engineers, and members of the 9/11 Truth movement have spoken out against the film's claims about the September 11 attacks.

Loose Change has been subject to criticism from a variety of different sources. In March 2007, the United States Department of State published an article called "Loose Change Debunked" in which it says that the movie makes "sloppy mistakes". The article is highly critical of the evidence cited to support the claim that Flight 77 did not hit the Pentagon, and it criticizes the controlled demolition hypothesis of the World Trade Center claiming that "Demolition professionals say controlled demolition of the Towers that day would have been impossible." The article goes on to say:

"It treats statements made at this time as if they represent reasoned judgments, not impromptu, often poorly thought-through misimpressions and uninformed speculation... In sum, Loose Change is researched very shoddily, making numerous mistakes of fact and judgment. Nevertheless, this has not prevented it from becoming extraordinarily popular."

It goes on to note that Loose Change has also been criticized by other members of the 9/11 Truth Movement, referencing the critique entitled Sifting Through Loose Change. Michael Green, a member of the 9/11 Truth Movement, has analyzed the film and is critical of many of its claims and methods. Several independent researchers have also written critiques of the film. The Loose Change Guide, created by Mark Roberts, features the whole transcript of the show, along with his comments and criticisms. Roberts also compiled a lengthy selection of interview quotes in which the Loose Change creators elaborate on the claims made in the film.

In May 2006, the blog Screw Loose Change was created to criticize the claims in the film. In collaboration with the creators of the blog and drawing upon the work of Mark Roberts, Mark Iradian prepared an edited version of Loose Change which he subtitled with criticisms. Another analysis of the film has been created by the Internet Detectives. Many of the critiques argue that Loose Change quote mines, uses unreliable or out-of-date sources, and cherry-picks evidence to claim that there are serious problems with official accounts of the events of September 11.

One of the many aspects focused on by these critiques is Loose Change's analysis of the collapse of the World Trade Center. The comparison to other notable high-rise fires which did not lead to collapse ignores differences in building design, significant WTC structural damage and compromised fireproofing; as most steel loses over half its strength at 600°C (1112°F). The comparison with Madrid's Windsor Tower fails to note its steel-supported perimeter floors that collapsed during the fire. Kevin Ryan, described by Loose Change as working for Underwriters Laboratories (UL), was actually employed in a water-testing subsidiary. Furthermore, UL does not certify structural steel, and ASTM E119 certification is not meant to predict performance in real uncontrolled fires. The NIST found no evidence of any firm having conducted tests on WTC materials in the past. Another expert quoted, Van Romero, has clarified that he was misquoted by the Albuquerque Journal; he had actually said that it "looked like" explosives took down the WTC. When the misquote was printed, he felt his "scientific reputation was on the line."

On September 11, 2006, Democracy Now! broadcast a discussion between the Loose Change creators and editors from Popular Mechanics, where they debated various aspects of the documentary. Jason Bermas claimed flight 93 did not crash into the field, calling Popular Mechanics a Hearst yellow journalism lie publication. "There’s no plane in this open field at all. There’s a ten-foot crater by 16-foot, and there’s just smoke there. So where is this plane?" Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone wrote that the 9/11 Truth Movement: "gives supporters of Bush an excuse to dismiss critics of this administration. I have no doubt that every time one of those Loose Change dickwads opens his mouth, a Republican somewhere picks up five votes."

George Monbiot, political activist and columnist for the Guardian, wrote an article on the improbability of the conspiracies cited in Loose Change, and then wrote a follow-up article in response to negative comments from some of his readers. On SModcast, Kevin Smith discussed Loose Change and other conspiracy videos about aliens and various things. However, he maintains that he enjoys the film purely as entertainment, and does not believe or agree with the theories presented in the film. Popular satirical site, The Best Page in the Universe, parodied the movie with a short video "Unfastened Coins", which "exposed" a Titanic-sinking conspiracy, and an article mocking the logic of conspiracy theories in the film. The History Channel aired a two-hour episode on August 20, 2007, entitled "The 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction?" featuring interviews with the creators of Loose Change.

In Britain, BBC's documentary television show Conspiracy files aired two documentaries focused on 9/11 and the conspiracy theories surrounding the collapse of WTC7. Several claims made by Loose Change were investigated and specifically rebuked. Dylan Avery was interviewed for the program, which cast him in a negative light. Contained on the DVD boxset of the TV series Lost's fourth season is a mockumentary called The Oceanic Six: A Conspiracy of Lies. Edited in a manner similar to Loose Change, this faux documentary attempts to expose the truth behind the official story presented by six characters who survived the crash of Oceanic flight 815. Expert testimony is used to argue that the wreckage found of Oceanic Flight 815 is not the real plane and that the "Oceanic Six" are involved in a vast cover up.

Release
In North America it aired on Fox TV affiliates, but received further screenings internationally. On September 10, 2006 BNN (Bart News Network) Nederland 3 and Portuguese public TV Station RTP aired Loose Change in prime time hours. RTP aired it again on 2: for September 17, 2006. FreeLooseChange.com is an initiative in Berlin, Germany. 100 shops, galleries, theatres and a daily newspaper office so far distributed 50,000 free DVDs featuring the documentaries Loose Change and Terrorstorm by Alex Jones in German language versions.