CIT, Craig Ranke, Aldo Marquis, and the PentaCon Flyover Theory: Origin, Debate, and the ‘Smoking-Gun’ Anti-Controversy
Craig Ranke (a.k.a “Lyte Trip”) and Aldo Marquis (a.k.a “Merc”) are part of Citizen Investigation Team (CIT), a group of researchers primarily devoted to investigating the Pentagon attack on 9/11. Significantly relying on their original eyewitness testimony research, their Pentagon flyover theory formed the basis of their PentaCon ‘smoking gun’ documentary. In late August 2006, Craig Ranke and Aldo Marquis along with the Loose Change Filmmakers and Pentagon researcher Russell Pickering visited Arlington and the Pentagon on a research trip which included interviews of 9/11 witnesses. After the trip, Ranke commented in a thread about the many cameras pointed at the Pentagon, “great work Russell. It's looking more and more like a ‘fly-over’ scenario every day.” A few days later a thread by Ranke explained, “We've Narrowed It Down To 2 Possible Scenarios... Impact or Fly-over?” While Dick Eastman was the original creator of the Pentagon flyover theory and his name appears in the credits of the PentaCon documentary, Ranke explained the origins of their theory: “We were trying to figure out if people REALLY saw a plane in Arlington and where it flew. We figured it out. As a result of THAT investigation we established the fly over theory. Not the other way around. We did not believe in a fly over until we had evidence for it.” However, the CIT researchers apparently began their research trip with the built-in assumption that no plane hit the Pentagon.
As Ranke explains repeatedly while dismissing evidence that is presented to counter his theory, “the north side claim is not a theory. It is evidence. In fact it is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt and is therefore proof.”
What is the basis for this “proof”? Craig Ranke correctly explains the value of evaluating evidence through corroboration:
“Everyone knows that eyewitness accounts are fallible but as they become corroborated the claim becomes exponentially validated. With enough corroboration, ALL claims can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. When we are talking about a simple right or left claim of this magnitude this is particularly the case. To get the side of the station wrong for people who were literally on the station's property would be a ridiculously drastic and virtually impossible mistake to make that would require hallucinations. For all of them to hallucinate the same exact thing is simply not a viable consideration.”
Corroboration of witness accounts is clearly important for determining their validity, but Ranke completely contradicts his own argument for corroborating statements when he claims that the plane approaching the Pentagon was “used as an instrument of deception during a perfectly timed military sleight of hand illusion.” So much for not believing in mass hallucination!
This was not the only video evidence to contradict the theory accused of video manipulation; the CITGO gas station video revealed a possible shadow of the plane with the expected time, location, speed, approximate height, and distance away from the Pentagon on the South side of the CITGO gas station. This elicited a similarly predictable reaction from Ranke, “EVEN IF they did not have to manipulate the data… you are scrutinizing data in an investigation to determine if the official story is fraud or not it makes no sense to accept this data as valid AT ALL… No legitimate investigator would accept data controlled and provided for solely by the suspect as valid evidence in support of the suspect's innocence.” While I agree with Ranke that the US government is hiding data on the Pentagon strike, his claim that the CITGO video was manipulated appears to be in contention since as Caustic Logic observes, “the findings of Russell Pickering, John Farmer, and CIT ally ‘Interpol’ are said to support this finding, though Farmer and Pickering have both lodged complaints with CIT, both during the course of Dylan’s thread, for using their findings to imply this.” Russell Pickering asked the CIT investigators, “can you please show me where I have ever claimed to believe the Citgo video to be altered? I documented a missing camera, that is true… Please do not try and deceive people that I have ever claimed the video to be altered. The more you do this kind of stuff - the more interesting this becomes.”
