Debunking Lefty Myths: Todd Beamer Did Indeed Say “Let’s Roll” Before Storming the Cockpit
There is a myth out there that Todd Beamer did not say “let’s roll” before passengers stormed the cockpit of United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. He did. He said it at the end of a conversation with GTE supervisor Lisa D. Jefferson, who also recited the 23rd Psalm with him.
The myth that he didn’t is apparently based on the fact that, according to the 9/11 Commission, the cockpit voice recorder captured one of the passengers (some think it was Beamer) yelling “Roll it!” — possibly referring to a cart used to ram the cockpit door. That is a separate statement from “Let’s roll,” which Beamer said to other passengers at the end of his conversation with Ms. Jefferson.
The myth conflating the two (along with numerous other myths) appears to have gained wide circulation because of the Loose Change video, which — based on an array of misstated facts like this — makes the vile, disgusting, and appallingly ignorant charge that the Bush Administration was behind the 9/11 attacks.
Memo to rational people: just because some idiot who made the Loose Change video said something doesn’t mean it’s true. Actually, I’d consider that prima facie evidence that it’s false.
That is all.
UPDATE: Post edited to clarify that he said the phrase to other passengers “at the end of his conversation with” Ms. Jefferson, and not, of course, directly “to Ms. Jefferson.” Thanks to Don.
Erm. I don’t get it; why would whether or not he said “Let’s roll” be a subject of partisan wrangling?
*puzzled look*
aphrael (e7c761) — 9/13/2006 @ 12:15 amAsk the lefties.
Patterico (de0616) — 9/13/2006 @ 12:23 amaphrael:
Think of it as chipping away at credibility.
If Beamer didn’t say “Let’s roll,” then what else might be false? Maybe that was a made-up lie by the Bushies, and thus the heroism of the people on Flight 93 is overblown.
And if that’s true, then maybe Flight 93 was brought down by the US Government itself (a staple of the government conspiracy types like the makers of “Loose Change”).
And then it’s a small step to believing that everything about 9-11 is a lie. (Or, more precisely, it fits into their mosaic view that small discrepancies presage huge lies.)
It’s the same sort of thing that leads some folks to conclude, frex, that we never landed on the Moon. A combination of lies, falsehoods, deliberate misunderstandings, actual misunderstandings, all whipped together to form an armor to protect ignorance and preconceived notions.
Lurking Observer (2447ca) — 9/13/2006 @ 3:51 amCourage frightens them.
Pablo (efa871) — 9/13/2006 @ 5:14 amNot to quibble – I have no doubt that Beamer said “let’s roll – but my understanding is that he didn’t say it directly to Ms. Jefferson. She overheard him say that to some of the other passengers after he dropped the airphone he was speaking to her on. I thought that’s what she later described, and what was depicted in some of the movies about Flight 93.
Lisa Beamer also said that “let’s roll” was one of Todd’s frequent sayings, and Lisa Jefferson overhearing him say that would be entirely consistent with who this man was.
Don (9076ca) — 9/13/2006 @ 6:36 amI honestly don’t think it’s lefties so much as it is the full-time conspiracy loons.
The conspiracy loons just happen to latch onto whatever party is out of power. The nutters who were talking about Vince Foster and Waco are now talking about 911.
Sure, there is some element that buys into whatever bad thing anyone says about the other side, but that tends to fall under a general psychological phenomenon than any ideological banner.
Geek, Esq. (3c9308) — 9/13/2006 @ 7:22 amIt’s the lefties.
The image of the aggressive brave American male taking on the terrorists with his bare hands and preventing them from carrying out their mission of destruction is the exact opposite of what lefties desire in their world view.
They will justify the smearing and lies about others to meet their ends. This is just one of many examples. Lefties are not to be trusted, let alone believed.
Horse (b52440) — 9/13/2006 @ 10:42 amI visit a lot of lefty sites, admittedly not Loose Change, and the first I ever heard of this is on Pattericos site. This is not a lefty myth. If it is a myth at all it is a Loose Change myth.
You say this myth appears to have gained wide circulation but the only lefty site you can name who circulated it is Loose Change. Where is your evidence for wide circulation? Desperate much?
How about this “Debunking the Patterico Myth that lefties care at all Todd Beamer said Lets Roll”.
Paul (c496e2) — 9/13/2006 @ 1:43 pmPatterico: I *am* a lefty, and this makes no sense to me.
I’m not particularly wedded to the idea that he definitely said “let’s roll”; as far as I know, what we have are secondhand reports (the witnesses having all perished) via the phone — and such reports are not reliable enough in general for me to ascribe certainty to them. On the other hand, the reports are not reliable enough in general for me to ascribe falsehood to them; I cannot know what was really said. At best, i can know what people who were listening on the phone thought they heard.
So why make an issue of it? I don’t care what words he used, and I can’t know for certain in any event. If some people believe he said [x], and other people believe he said [y], what earthly difference does it make? The words he used changes neither the important parts of what happened nor the myth which is inevitably going to grow up around what happened; they’re utterly irrelevant ot the plot.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 9/13/2006 @ 5:55 pmHorse: I find it ironic that you decry lefties for “smearing and lies about others” in a post in which you claim that Mr. Beamer’s actions on Flight 93 “is the exact opposite of what lefties desire in their world view”. That’s not consistent with my world view, or that of my leftist friends.
Mr. Beamer was a hero; and I haven’t heard anyone who isn’t a conspiracy nut claim he wasn’t. I’m not sure why you think leftist world views would lead one to deny that.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 9/13/2006 @ 5:57 pmnor the myth which is inevitably going to grow up
Why in the year 2006 should we accept that a “myth” is going to grow? We are rational Westerners, not superstitious pagans, recently unfrozen cavemen, or confused middle-easterners. We have the recorded witness of a rational observer, the GTE supervisor corroborated by the man’s wife.
This “cannot know” stance is the same avoidance of ‘truth’ that characterizes so much of the left. One cannot know anything, there is no basis for “knowing”. Still there is some basis for taking political positions that will lead to the ebb of freedom.
Well cross the street against a red light and get hit by a car, is there any way of knowing that that took place?
gogipper (e07f43) — 9/13/2006 @ 6:36 pmOh my, I’m going to agree with geek, esq., at least partway.
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 9/13/2006 @ 7:37 pmThere are conspiracy theorists who are non-partisan, they just like to think the main way of understanding of something is a lie and cover-up.
On the other hand, there probably were more on “the Right” about Vince Foster and more on “The Left” saying 9/11 was a government plot. But one person I know who thinks it is possible the WTC was blown up (not by the planes) is an equal-opportunity grumbler/non-conformist.
With the depths that the Iraq/Terror conversation is descending into, I am very concerned that an important part of the citizenry is not starting to tune-out of the entire thing. Along with myself, many are probably wondering if what we have become is worth saving.
Another Drew (758608) — 9/13/2006 @ 7:41 pmAnother Drew-
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 9/13/2006 @ 7:56 pmThe United States of America is far from perfect, but there do not appear to me to be too many better options.
That said, a lot of people do tune things out, and I hope they do so completely or pay close attention. I don’t believe anything until it has had a bit of the test of time and withstood the back and forth scrutiny of responsible bloggers. Newspapers and news magazines can print what they want, what letters to the editor they want, and withold what they want, so with TV. Unless you have real give and take with at least a few people moderately interested in getting the facts right it’s pretty difficult to know what to believe.
Once it became clear that Walter Cronkite purposefully mislead America concerning major aspects of the Vietnam war it is hard to have confidence in any of them.
Gogipper: i’m sorry; I’m unable to take everything a witness says as “truth”, because I know that people often misremember things, and that the brain is very good at filling in gaps in our perception, causing us to believe we have seen or heard things we have not.
As for myth: I believe myth will grow because myth has grown. Because the cost of investigating the truth, in time and energy, is more than most people are willing to pay when their neighbor tells them a story which is plausible enough to be believed. This is true regardless of how rational we are; because in the end, believing the plausible story is, for most people, a more rational allocation of the resource of time than is doing the investigation themselves.
aphrael (e7c761) — 9/14/2006 @ 12:22 amWhat’s this “Lefty” shit? I’m a lifelong Conservative Republican (with a big “C”) and I know damn well the official story is complete bullshit. Anyone with a brain in their head who’s taken the time to look at the evidence knows this country’s been hijacked by Junior and his NEO-con thugs. The entire 9/11 story stinks to high heaven. I suspect Todd Beamer and all the rest never even existed. Bush, Cheney and the rest at the very least knew what was going to happen that day and they’ve used it to the max to get support from brain-dead so-called Americans to have their way with us. They never gave a shit about you or me or anyone else in this country. They’ve used us to push their middle eastern agenda and that’s all they’ve ever cared about. Lefty! Sheesh… get a frickin’ clue, dude.
Bill Bradley (bf3b2d) — 4/22/2008 @ 12:23 amThanks for the update from the terminally deranged Bill Bradley. Tool.
Stashiu3 (460dc1) — 4/22/2008 @ 5:14 am