# Moussad Agents and 9/11 - Debunk **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 22, 2005, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moussad-agents-and-9-11-debunk/322853 "2005-09-22T08:10:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moussad-agents-and-9-11-debunk/322853/1 "2005-09-22T08:10:50Z")
I was having a fairly normal conversation with a co-worker who is from the middle east. We were discussing how America is perceived overseas. Then he trotted out an anecdote about how a woman noticed a bunch of men sitting on top of a van cheering as they looked at the WTC in flames. She jotted down the license plate of the van and called the police. The van had left, but the poice traced the van to a warehouse full of PCs with the hard drives removed. The person the car was registered to was a known Moussad agent and he had hastily left the country. This was supposedly reported on 20/20 but never mentioned again. This sounds like the worst kind of BS urban legend “blood libel”. Anyone heard of this? Has it been debunked? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moussad-agents-and-9-11-debunk/322853/2 "2005-09-22T13:01:58Z")
How would anybody know a car would be registed to a “Moussad agent”? Secret agents are just that–secret! Why would you need a van full of computers to be a spy? Especially when a cellphone with a digital camera would do just as well, in this case? A van full of computers would be _dangerous_ to a spy, because one traffic accident would expose him. Why would you need a group of people to watch a building burn? Historically, most spies are loners. Point these thing out to her, & tell her that she shouldn’t spread rumors that don’t even make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moussad-agents-and-9-11-debunk/322853/3 "2005-09-22T13:02:16Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I was having a fairly normal conversation with a co-worker who is from the middle east. We were discussing how America is perceived overseas. Then he trotted out an anecdote about how a woman noticed a bunch of men sitting on top of a van cheering as they looked at the WTC in flames. She jotted down the license plate of the van and called the police. The van had left, but the poice traced the van to a warehouse full of PCs with the hard drives removed. The person the car was registered to was a known Moussad agent and he had hastily left the country. This was supposedly reported on 20/20 but never mentioned again. > > This sounds like the worst kind of BS urban legend “blood libel”. Anyone heard of this? Has it been debunked? Has it been proven? Burden of proof lies there, not in debunking. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moussad-agents-and-9-11-debunk/322853/4 "2005-09-22T13:09:23Z")
I’ve heard this mentioned several times on shows about 9/11 but don’t know how it turned out. I don’t know anything about this site but they seem to go into quite a bit of detail. [http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html](http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moussad-agents-and-9-11-debunk/322853/5 "2005-09-22T21:33:41Z")
One of the sources cited in yojimbo’s article is this [http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0622-05.htm](http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0622-05.htm) Which says at the end: > [@](#): > > Sources also said that even if the men were spies, there is no evidence to conclude they had advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. The investigation, at the end of the day, after all the polygraphs, all of the field work, all the cross-checking, the intelligence work, concluded that they probably did not have advance knowledge of 9/11," Cannistraro noted. > > As to what they were doing on the van, they say they read about the attack on the Internet, couldn’t see it from their offices and went to the parking lot for a better view. But no one has been able to find a good explanation for why they may have been smiling with the towers of the World Trade Center burning in the background. Both the lawyers for the young men and the Israeli Embassy chalk it up to immature conduct. > > According to ABCNEWS sources, Israeli and U.S. government officials worked out a deal — and after 71 days, the five Israelis were taken out of jail, put on a plane, and deported back home. > > While the former detainees refused to answer ABCNEWS’ questions about their detention and what they were doing on Sept. 11, several of the detainees discussed their experience in America on an Israeli talk show after their return home. > > Said one of the men, denying that they were laughing or happy on the morning of Sept. 11, “The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event.” There’s no word of ‘dancing’ in their actions. That seems to be the creation of 9/11 conspiracists. The most can be said of them is that one person said their expressions “seemed happy”. That’s not much to go on. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moussad-agents-and-9-11-debunk/322853/6 "2005-09-22T22:30:34Z")
Thanks. Seems like much to do about nothing, but stuff like that makes the rounds unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moussad-agents-and-9-11-debunk/322853/7 "2005-09-22T22:48:14Z")
That’s just what they _want_ you to think.