One would be hard-pressed to find a book published in 2015 that's as poorly researched or gut-wrenchingly offensive as Jim Fetzer's Nobody Died at Sandy Hook.
The author's absurd notion that the 2012 massacre of 26 children and teachers was actually staged as a "FEMA drill to promote gun control" is not only an obscene defamation to the memory of those slain but is also an insult to the intelligence of anyone capable of conducting the most basic online research.
Not once does Fetzer or any of his so-called "students and scholars" provide a shred of direct evidence or anything even remotely circumstantial to support the ludicrous claims that are riddled throughout this 425 page work of fiction-proffered as-fact. Instead, the conclusions are almost entirely reached on the basis of thoroughly debunked theories, grossly misrepresented facts, unsubstantiated rumors, and an abundance of armchair analysis proffered by those lacking the requisite training or experience in the fields they're critiquing.
Though Fetzer goes out of his way to boast about his academic credentials, it does nothing to lend credibility to his asinine assertions or gloss over his history of flip-flopping. Over the last three years, the prolific conspiracy theorist has modified his interpretation of what he thinks happened at Sandy Hook multiple times. For instance, not less than a week after the shooting occurred, Fetzer was quoted by the Iranian media as saying that children had been slaughtered but that the killings were likely the work of the Persian nation's arch-nemesis.
"The Sandy Hook massacre appears to have been a psy op intended to strike fear in the hearts of Americans by the sheer brutality of the massacre, where the killing of children is a signature of terror ops conducted by agents of Israel," reads a Press TV article, entitled Mossad death squads slaughtered American children at Sandy Hook.
Today, Fetzer has turned that theory on its head by insisting that no children died and that "the events in Newtown, CT, on 14 December 2012 were an elaborate [U.S. government-sponsored] hoax--for which there was a rehearsal the day before."
"It stipulates that everyone must register and that refreshments and restrooms will be provided," writes Fetzer. "Some participants did not realize that the official event was not until the 14th:"
Despite Fetzer's enthusiastic claim, the document in question has never been authenticated nor found to exist on any government website. In fact, it first surfaced as a PDF file hosted by Tony Mead, administrator of the Sandy Hook Hoax Facebook group. Beyond that, the document's origin can not be traced.
Mead's connection to this document makes it even more suspect, not only because he is a Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist, but primarily due to his history of promoting fabricated evidence. In mid-2014, Mead and his colleague, Bridget Norris, widely disseminated an email the latter allegedly received from Flexfit, a California-based hat manufacturer. According to the email, the "bucket hat" shown in crime scene photos was not produced until a year after the massacre took place, making it impossible for shooter Adam Lanza to have worn it.
To verify the authenticity of the email, this writer contacted Flexfit VP Brian Yang, who not only confirmed that the hat in question was manufactured long before the shootings--but even more importantly--that a crucial portion of the aforementioned email had been fraudulently altered.
"What Bridget Norris put on the website is not in accordance with the actual email that was sent out," Mr. Yang told me over the phone. "She manipulated and changed the whole thing."
As with the FEMA document, Fetzer promoted the fraudulent email as if it had merit, even going so far as to devote an entire article on the subject for Veterans Today. What's more disturbing is that Fetzer refused to change his position after I sent him an audio recording of my conversation with the VP of Flexfit.
To ascertain the authenticity of the FEMA document, researcher Mike Flagg of Sandy Hook Tragedy: Focus on Facts conducted his own independent investigation and found that that too was manufactured. After an exhaustive search, Flagg discovered that a generic "fill-in-the-blanks" template for creating a document exactly like the one cited by Fetzer is--and has been--freely available on a Massachusetts state government website.
"The person who made the fake document simply filled in the highlighted areas of the template with information that would lead one to believe that a drill had been planned for Sandy Hook, then uploaded it as a PDF file." said Flagg. "They also made a number of careless errors that stand out such as a misspelled email address and confusing FEMA--a federal agency--with Connecticut's own Department of Emergency Management."
Aside from relying on manufactured evidence, Fetzer also taps into a rumor mill of extremely dubious sources in a lame attempt to provide third party confirmation that Sandy Hook was a hoax. Infowars reporter Dan Bidondi, for instance, is quoted as saying "The school's been closed down for God knows how long. [Neighbors] can't understand why there were kids in that building because it was condemned."
Similarly, Agenda21 Radio talk show host Paul Preston claims to have a source in the U.S. Department of Education who allegedly "confirmed to him on the basis of their own personal knowledge that: (1) it had been a drill; (2) no children had been killed; and, (3) it had been done to promote an anti-gun agenda."
Of course neither man can divulge their sources and both have notorious reputations as fanatical Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists. That hardly makes their information reliable. Yet this is as close as Fetzer can get in producing a counter-witness capable of impeaching the testimony of the countless eye-witnesses, family members, emergency workers, medical personnel and others that can attest first-hand to the stark reality of this very palpable tragedy.
Throughout the book, Fetzer serves more as a narrator than a contributor and basically parrots content he found in YouTube videos and conspiracy blogs over the past three years. Some of those claims and myths have been addressed and debunked in two previous OpEDNews articles, entitled Debunking the Latest Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theories and Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theorists Continue Getting it Wrong.
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