Did the U.S. government plan and execute the 9/11 attacks?

Does one internet video hold the shocking evidence?

What does this man...

...Have to do with this man?

If you own a computer, odds are you have seen Loose Change, a slickly-produced viral internet video making the case that the U.S. government planned and executed the 9/11 attacks. No, I don't know why it's called "Loose Change."

If you haven't seen it yet, you will soon. The Loose Changers will make sure of it. They sell this thing like they're getting a commission. In a single day I had four different people on four different forums try to get me to watch it.

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How viral videos are spread

And most of the people who watch it, come away convinced.

The film is a rapid-fire collection of video clips set to techno music, attempting to prove that:

No plane hit the Pentagon - it was a cruise missile; The hijacked planes didn't bring down the World Trade Center, the buildings were wired with explosives ahead of time; Flight 93 didn't crash in Pennsylvania and in fact landed safely elsewhere. The passengers were in on the conspiracy.

They've sold more than 100,000 copies of this thing on DVD. It's been downloaded millions of times.

But is it bullshit?

There are basically two views on the subject, and I intend to provide both equally. You can make up your own mind. One side says...

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1. The 9/11 Conspiracy guys are liars.

Here's how it started.

There was a teenager named Dylan Avery.

According to his own site, when he was 18 he was doing construction work on a bar owned by James "Tony Soprano" Gandolfini. No, I didn't make that up.

Anyway, Avery wanted to be a movie director. At a party he seized the opportunity to buttonhole Gandolfini, and the two had this conversation:

Avery: Mr. Soprano! I'm a huge fan!

Soprano: That's great, kid.

(Glances at bodyguards)

Avery: You know, I want to be a director...

Soprano: Like I give a shit. The deformed kid who cleans my fuckin' gutters wants to be a director. You got an idea for a movie?

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Avery: Well, no...

Soprano: Then what the fuck are you comin' up to me talkin' about bein' a director?

Avery: I've always wanted to-

Soprano: Shut up. Listen to me...

(Nods toward bodyguards, who approach from across the room)

Soprano: ...Let me tell you the problem with kids like you. You don't wanna direct. You don't wanna tell stories. You wanna be a director. You wanna walk down red carpets with a fuckin' starlet on your arm. You ain't got nothin' to say to the world. For you, the movies, the work, it's just a means to an end. Limousines and cocaine, right?

Avery: Yes! That sounds great!

Soprano: People like you are a cancer. You're the most dangerous people in the world because you'll do anything for the spotlight. You'd tattoo a Swastika on your head if you thought it would get you a movie deal. The people who make it, the people who deserve to make it, the ones who get respect... they're the ones who got something to say to the world.

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Avery: I don't under- Ooomph! My crotch!

(Soprano's bodyguards deliver several vicious blows to Avery's body, then dump him into an alley).

That's pretty much how Avery tells the story, if you read between the lines. Dylan Avery wanted fame. Badly. How far would he go to get it? With Loose Change, we would find out.

He sat down and started writing a FICTIONAL SCREENPLAY about he and his buddies finding out 9/11 was a government conspiracy. Fictional. Sort of an The X-Files episode. Avery mentions this in every interview he does.

Since he had no money to film his own movie, he started cutting together video and photos off the internet, creatively editing them to make them scary and ominous, cutting the visuals to fit the story, making a fake documentary. Like Spinal Tap, only about mass murder.

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So, for instance, in his screenplay, the Pentagon was hit with a missile and then was covered up for the public as a plane crash. Avery sifted through photo after photo of the Pentagon attack, all showing hunks of airplane scattered everywhere...