I was quite surprised to see John Spiri's June 17 Zeit Gist article, "Lawmaker takes 9/11 doubts global," because, despite Yukihisa Fujita's credentials as a Diet member, he is simply repeating the tired intonations of completely discredited theories regarding the events of 9/11.

Additionally, Spiri's assertions of the "growing number of individuals," the "many" who are "convinced" that we are not being told the truth about the 9/11 attacks, and so on makes it clear that Spiri sympathizes with these embarrassing claims.

Just take one example: World Trade Center Building 7. Located near the Twin Towers, it collapsed later on Sept. 11, 2001, after sustaining major damage from debris and internal fires. Spiri writes, "Between the videos showing the way it fell and the numerous reports of explosions, many are convinced that this building was demolished."

What reports of explosions is Spiri talking about? If we imagine for a moment that it would even be possible to wire such a building with explosives without anyone noticing, we would have seen and -- heard -- explosive charges traveling up the building as in any standard controlled demolition.

Why does Spiri ignore the overwhelming accounts of firefighters, including that of Chief Firefighter Daniel Nigro, who have repeatedly said it was obvious the building was coming down hours before it actually did? The minority of witness accounts that claim to have heard explosions are dwarfed by the direct accounts of survivors in these buildings who heard nothing other than the sounds of the building collapsing around them as they raced down to survive. Are we really expected to believe that these explosions were so quiet?

Spiri also treats us to the testimony of Akira Dojimaru, author of a book on the WTC collapses. We are supposed to take his word over structural engineers and demolition experts who investigated the site. Dojimaru's e-mail comment on the "horizontal" collapse is hilariously wrong if not a mistranslation.

The Flight 77 crash at the Pentagon and the Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, Penn., were unprecedented in modern airplane disasters simply because airliners are not often driven directly into a building or the ground at full speed!

I hope that the Japanese take advantage of their knowledge of science to see through these conspiracy theories and the logical fallacies that undergird them.

jonathan rodgers