Thank you, Mark, for the caution not to fall in love with theories.
My own introduction to 9/11 theories was in the spring of 2002 when I walked into a bookstore in Lower Manhattan and saw that prominently displayed was a book called "Why Buildings Fail" with a chapter on the structural demise of the WTC. It was probably $14, very expensive for me (I was living in my car), but I grabbed it and devoured it. It put forth MIT's zipper/pancake theory that the floors truss "clips" failed, that the floors unzipped, and an unstoppable chain reaction was initiated.
My reaction (based on reading in vernacular engineering and experience in construction) was that the theory seemed pretty strange but, hey, it was MIT. So who was I to argue?
So I dallied with the Zipper/pancake theory. No, I can't even say I dallied with it. I admired it from a distance. A very lazy distance.
By 2004 Richard Clarke and Dr. Benjamin DeMott and Dr. Griffin and Dr. Paul Rea and the ridiculous performance of 9/11 Commission Executive Director Dr. Philip Zelikow at Stanford had convinced me that there was a lot more to 9/11 than I was willing to admit. On my own I had recognized the shortcomings of the FEMA report about the towers, and I eagerly awaited the 2005 issuance of the NIST report, which I hoped would explain the collapses. They did not. NIST's dishonesty was obvious on the face.
In 2006 I met Richard Gage. In 2007 I ran into conflicts with my fellow Palo Alto activists over their endorsements of William Rodriguez and Dr. True Ott and Dr. Kevin Barrett. This caused conflicts, and I started working for Mr. Gage's group.
Mr. Gage was barnstorming at university campuses all over the USA and Southern Canada. Whenever he appeared, I would email every professor of structural engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering, journalism, and criminal justice to invite them to come to Mr. Gage's presentation. This was hundreds of emails every time. I was begging someone in the academic community to come and slap down Gage so I could quit this 9/11 truth stuff and go back to writing novels.
When Structural Engineer Kamal Obeid spoke in Fremont, CA, I invited 400 structural engineers from the South Bay Area to attend his talk. I think I spotted a couple in the audience (it was a film series that usually had about 70 in attendance, so I recognized when there were new people). They didn't say a peep.
The counterarguments to the controlled demolition theory are just silly. I wish I could discard it. I can't. I don't advocate it beyond the hypothesis level, because I am not convinced. I think it needs investigation, and I think I need better counterarguments before I can agree that it doesn't.
As to the current controversy, it was careless of me to formulate the issue as an hypothesis (Attack on WTC was Formulated to Limit Deaths) instead of as a fact (WTC Attack as Formulated Limited Deaths). It's only in an august forum such as this that such distinctions are recognized.
In my 9/11 activism I try to stick to facts and avoid theories. The facts are damning enough, and in presenting the facts you are inviting the clients to solve the mystery for themselves--instead of trying to sell them a conspiracy theory.
I learned this lesson while tabling with a well-known Palo Alto activist when a client invited me to explain how explosives could have been planted in the towers without being noticed. I then very enthusiastically launched into my perception that most of the 47 core columns of the towers were accessible from the elevator shafts, and that by using the top of an elevator car as a mobile scaffold, an explosives technician would have had extraordinary access to the main supporting columns. My client's eyes clouded over and he walked away. I interpreted this as an indication that I should quite theorizing and stick to facts. (It's only just now that I realize that his eyes clouding may have been not because, as I assumed, he rejected my theory but because I had delivered a knockout blow to own theory that it was impossible for incendiary/explosive charges to be covertly installed.)
In any case, I am very thankful that we have such a rational, respectful, and honest forum here where these issues can be discussed among friends.