Independent Research

by Stephanie Schorow
The Boston Herald
September 5, 2002

Is your e-mail box filling up with 9/11 theories? Here are some tips for separating fact from X-File fiction:

Do your own research on the Web; remember repetition does not a fact make. Check the online versions of mainstream media, plus various independent news sources. Check such official debunking sites as www.snopes.com. Most of all, use basic common sense.

Take the following tidbit, widely circulated via e-mail, that "proves'' the federal government had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks:

"FEMA sent the Urban Search and Rescue Team to New York City THE NIGHT BEFORE the attacks occurred! One FEMA official, Mr. Tom Kennedy, told Dan Rather on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 'We're currently one of the first teams that was deployed to support the city of New York in this disaster. We arrived late Monday night and went right into action on Tuesday morning.''

If you do a Web search on key words in the story, you'll find various versions, including an audio of Rather's interview indicating that, indeed, "Kennedy'' did say he arrived Monday.

But if you search further, you'll see Tom "Kennedy'' is actually Tom Kenney, an officer from the Massachusetts Urban Search and Rescue Task Force; apparently Rather got the name wrong. Likewise, common sense dictates Kenney simply said Monday when he meant Tuesday.

To confirm, the Herald called the Kenney home on Cape Cod and spoke to Kenney's wife, who said that her husband did go to New York on Sept. 11, not Sept. 10. She explained that he was under extreme stress when Rather interviewed him, and added wryly that it was typical of her husband to confuse dates.

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