September Clues - Addendum - Deceptions - Part One
An Independent Analysis of Simon Shack's Disinformation & Deceptions
By Mark Conlon
This analysis and article was first published on 5th July 2017.
In this analysis I’m going to study claims made by Simon Shack in his September Clues – Addendum film, where he claims all of the live network television footage depicting the South Tower’s destruction is “fake”. Simon Shack bases his claims on the presence and movements of a helicopter (PAT) flying in the vicinity of the South Tower, prior to the South Tower’s destruction. I will also study Simon Shack’s methods which he uses to support his claims.
Reference: You can find Simon Shack’s Addendum film here on his official YouTube channel: (No Longer Available) Which I have used and referenced as part of my analysis.
Analysis of September Clues - Addendum:
At 1:00 into the film, Simon Shack attempts to establish the presence and movement of (PAT) the helicopter using three different videos from three different views. The first video he uses is an amateur video taken by Devin Clark, which was taken from 1 Penn Plaza, Suite 2401, 34th Street. See the screen-shot below where I have circled in red (PAT) the helicopter.
Note: This was not live news footage
Below: At 1:14 to 1:19, Simon Shack uses Devin Clark’s video footage to establish ‘PAT’ the helicopter’s position and the direction as the helicopter flies away during the South Tower’s destruction.
At 1:30 to 1:46, Simon Shack uses a second video, known as the Spiegel video, which was located at: 1 Plaza Street, Brooklyn, which shows an “Eastern View” of the towers and establishes the helicopter's location 5 seconds before the South Tower’s destruction. Note: This was not live footage.
In the screen-shot below at 1:52 in the film, Simon Shack uses a third amateur video taken by Ilse Fernandez. Her video was taken from the north and establishes the helicopter’s location, before the South Tower’s destruction.
So far, Simon Shack has used three amateur videos (which were not live video footage) to demonstrate ‘PAT’ the helicopter’s location and movements around the South Tower before the destruction and also during the destruction of the South Tower. If we look at all three videos they appear to correspond with each other regarding ‘PAT’ the helicopter’s location and movements.
At 1:57 into his film, Simon Shack uses the Ilse Fernandez video "zoom-out" sequence to make his first point to challenge the authenticity of the Ilse Fernandez video footage by showing ‘PAT’ the helicopter disappearing during the “zoom-out” sequence in her video. See below:
In the series of screen-shots above it shows the Ilse Fernandez video as she is “zooming-out”. Simon Shack claims that ‘PAT’ the helicopter disappears during the “zoom-out” sequence in her video, thus implying that her video is fake? He highlights this by freezing the video frame and inserting the word “gone”. See the bottom right hand corner image above.
In the video ‘PAT’ the helicopter does seem to disappear, however this is Simon Shack’s version of the Ilse Fernandez video which is a copy and not the original source video.
I checked this first point that Simon Shack makes in his film at 2:01 by finding Ilse Fernandez’s original video which was uploaded on her YouTube channel on the 20th September 2007. See screen-shot below:
Note: The Ilse Fernandez “original” video was uploaded to her YouTube channel before Simon Shack’s version of her video appears in his September Clues - Addendum film uploaded to his YouTube channel on the 23rd March 2009. This is 18 months after Ilse Fernandez uploaded her original video to her YouTube channel on 20th September 2007.
Below: Simon Shack's video uploaded 23rd March 2009
The first point I analysed was where Simon Shack claimed ‘PAT’ the helicopter disappears in the “zoom-out” sequence in the Ilse Fernandez video. I have used the Ilse Fernandez “original” video to compare “identical” video frames. See Below:
See below: Enlargement of 'PAT' the helicopter visible in the Ilse Fernandez video on the right, but "missing" in Simon Shack's version on the left.
The question is: Why is ‘PAT’ the helicopter “missing” in Simon Shack’s version of the Ilse Fernandez video, yet visible in Ilse Fernandez’s “identical” frame “original”?
I decided to check further-on into the “original” Ilse Fernandez “zoom-out” sequence to see if ‘PAT’ still remained in the video. See below:
As we can observe in the screen-shot above, ‘PAT’ the helicopter is still visible in the continued "zoom-out" sequence well after the “identical” frame by frame comparison analysis, however ‘PAT’ the helicopter is “missing” at a much earlier time in the “zoom-out” sequence in Simon Shack's version?
Does this indicate that ‘PAT’ the helicopter has been removed from the video footage in Simon Shack’s version in his Addendum film, because in the “original” version ‘PAT’ is visible for a much longer time period in the “zooming-out” sequence, which cannot be accounted for by mere copying of the Ilse Fernandez video, or even the video quality loss because of compression, thus strongly suggesting a “deliberate” removal of the helicopter from the video by someone or Simon Shack himself.
Important technical facts and laws of optics which Simon Shack ignores which should be discussed and understood.
In reality we would eventually expect ‘PAT’ the helicopter to disappear when the camera’s lens is fully “zoomed-out” especially when videoing from faraway distances like Ilse Fernandez was on Thompson Street.
In the screen-shot above taken from the Ilse Fernandez “original” video, we would expect ‘PAT’ the helicopter to disappear from view as the video camera’s lens fully “zooms-out”. This is completely normal. At faraway distance the camera’s lens cannot register the small object (‘PAT’ the helicopter), which is correct with laws and principles of camera optics, and is nothing to do with ‘video fakery’ as suggested by Simon Shack.
To demonstrate “laws of optics” I have included a video example of a police helicopter disappearing in some video camera footage, demonstrating how smaller objects like helicopters cannot be registered from faraway distances when the video camera’s lens is fully “zoomed-out” reaching its threshold limit, thus not being able to register the small object (helicopter) at distance. See short video below:
In the short video below, I show an example where a news video camera reaches its "zoom-out" threshold limit during the "zooming-in" sequence in the Fox News 11 'Chopper 5' video footage on 9/11. This demonstrates how smaller (Police helicopter) objects do not register in the video camera's lens when "zoomed-out" at a far distance, which can give the distinct impression that the Police helicopter just disappears or appears during in the 9/11 Fox News 'Chopper 5' video footage, which has been "exploited" by many 9/11 researchers' who claim this is evidence for "video fakery", when in reality it is not, and is basic "laws of optics", and is legitimately explainable. See below:
My reasons for exploring this important technical information (laws of optics) is to expose how Simon Shack has chosen to “ignore” and "exploit" this technical information (laws of optics), which allows him to continually use this “false” point throughout his film and make false statements such as the one below in the screen-shot from his film at 3:49 - (“Note: on 9/11 TV, choppers are always visible at great distance”.) See screen-shot below:
Simon Shack’s statement above is completely false, as choppers are "NOT" always visible at great distances, as I have demonstrated in my two video examples above. This demonstrates Simon Shack’s willful neglect to include or consider vital information pertaining to video camera optics and technical factors which allows Simon Shack to promote a “false” explanation as evidence of ‘video fakery’.
At 3:20 in his film Simon Shack uses a comparison split-screen between two videos, with the video on the left hand side of the screen showing where ‘PAT’ the helicopter is located as the South Tower is destroyed, and the other video (NBC Live) on the right during the South Tower's destruction, which Simon Shack claims, does not show ‘PAT’ the helicopter in the NBC live news shot. See screen-shot below:
Note: Simon Shack attempts again to exploit the video camera's lens "laws of optics" in the NBC live news coverage "distance" shot above, where the video camera was not able to register the small object ('PAT' the helicopter) when the video camera is "zoomed out" at such a faraway distance from the Twin Towers, thus allowing Simon Shack to exploit and promote "false" evidence for 'video fakery'.
The question is, what video evidence is Simon Shack "NOT" showing to the viewers of his film, when he asks the question “where is PAT on Live TV” at 3:31 in his film.
It is revealing the methods used by Simon Shack to convince the viewers that ‘PAT’ the helicopter is "missing" in the NBC live coverage.
Below is a series of screen-shots and video clips taken from the NBC live news coverage 42 seconds prior to the South Tower’s destruction, which Simon Shack has completely omitted, which shows 'PAT' the helicopter. Screen-shots below:
Clearly ‘PAT’ the helicopter is indeed visible in the “zoomed-in” shot in the NBC live news coverage as ‘PAT’ the helicopter approaches the North Tower moments before the South Tower’s destruction. See video clip below:
As the video camera is slowly “zooming-outwards” and as the video camera continues to “zoom-outwards” the video camera’s lens struggles to register ‘PAT’ the helicopter at a faraway distance, thus giving the impression of ‘PAT’ simply disappearing in the video footage. Again this is perfectly normal and is not attributed to ‘video fakery’ as Simon Shack “falsely” promotes and exploits again here in his film.
Serious questions have to be asked why Simon Shack didn't show this “earlier” piece of important video evidence showing ‘PAT’ the helicopter in the NBC news footage? This video evidence was broadcast live on NBC, so there is no excuse Simon Shack can make as to why he didn't include it in his film. This is either at "best" shoddy research, or at "worst", a conscious effort to deceive his viewers, thus allowing him the opportunity to once again promote a "false" explanation of the video being fake.
Below, in the next set of screen-shots they show a sequence shown at 4:02 through to 4:23 in Simon Shack's film. Simon Shack again claims that ‘PAT’ the helicopter is “missing”. This is again "false", as the camera is quite some distance away from the Twin Towers, so the video camera would not be able to register ‘PAT’ the helicopter from the faraway distance when the camera’s lens is “zoomed out” as I have discussed earlier-on and demonstrated in my earlier two video examples above with the police helicopters.
At 4:23 in the screen-shot located in the bottom right hand corner, Simon Shack cuts-away from the NBC live news “play-back” of the South Tower’s destruction. Simon Shack does not pursue or investigate any further to try and locate the NBC live news video feed footage to see if we would see ‘PAT’ the helicopter as the camera starts to “zoom-inwards” towards the South Tower.
I was able to ascertain that it was ‘Chopper 4’ who was delivering the live video feed for the NBC news stations, and I was able to locate a complete live feed version which was broadcast live in full through NBC 4 - New York’s news station, which showed the full “zoom-in” sequence shot which Simon Shack decided to cut-away from at 4:23 in his film, giving up his search for further video evidence which might have proved PAT's existence.
See below: NBC 4 - New York ‘Chopper 4’ live camera feed screen-shots
Also video clip below:
Question: Why didn’t Simon Shack investigate further and show his viewers this NBC live news feed footage, which was available at the time when he made his Addendum film? Simon Shack knew it was 'Chopper 4' who was delivering the live video coverage for NBC stations because he pointed it out in his film at 7:04. See below:
A TV Programme called Galileo Mystery investigated the 9/11 attacks and used the NBC live news coverage in their documentary which was broadcast on the 2nd March 2007, which was two years before Simon Shack posted his September Clues - Addendum film on the 23rd March 2009 on his YouTube channel. My reasons for raising this point is, this provides conclusive proof that this video evidence was available at that time which Simon Shack could've used, which would've shown the visible presence of 'PAT' the helicopter in the NBC live news coverage. See screen-shot below:
Simon Shack's misdirection and the NY1 live news footage...
At 5:05 into Simon Shack's film he now turns his attentions to the NY1 live news coverage.
At 5:11 in the film he points-out 'PAT' the helicopter's approach towards the Twin Towers. See still image below:
Above, in the NY1 live news coverage footage above shows 'PAT' the helicopter approaching the towers. As 'PAT' disappears behind the North Tower briefly before the South Tower turns to dust, what Simon Shack does next in his video can only be described as "misdirection". Simon Shack misdirects the viewers of his film to look for 'PAT' in the "wrong" place as 'PAT' begins to fly away as the South Tower is destroyed (which I've highlighted with a red circle) in the NY1 live news coverage still image below from Shack's film.
Below, as 'PAT' the helicopter begins to fly away as the South Tower is destroyed 'PAT' comes back into view from being obscured behind the North Tower briefly, Simon Shack says: "On NY1 TV PAT simply VANISHES", however Simon Shack is not pointing out 'PAT' helicopter's true flight path as he flies away. See below:
Again, Simon Shack's methods are called into question regarding the treatment and presentation of this NY1 news video evidence. The question is, why has Simon Shack pointed out 'PAT' in the "wrong" place in the video?
In the screen-shots below, 'PAT' the helicopter can be seen flying away as the South Tower is destroyed which I have shown with the arrow correctly showing 'PAT' the helicopter's true flight path which Simon Shack misrepresented.
Please see short video below where I point-out 'PAT' the helicopter in the NY1 live news coverage.
QUESTION....
I have demonstrated how Simon Shack attempts to "misdirect" the viewers' attention away from 'PAT' the helicopter's "real" flight path location in the NY1 live news coverage video, thus allowing Simon Shack to promote a "false" claim of 'PAT' the helicopter "vanishing" in the video, when in reality 'PAT' is visible in the video footage if you look in the correct location and ignore Simon Shack's misplacement of where 'PAT' should be. The question is, was this deliberately done? I can only conclude this to be "deceptive" and "deliberate". I base my opinion from all my past and current analysis of Simon Shack's films, where there appears to be a pattern to his methods of presenting evidence in his films.
Conclusions:
A question to consider is, can we really trust Simon Shack to fairly present the 9/11 video evidence? The answer for me judging by his "unfair" treatment of the video evidence he presented in his September Clues films, is NO. Simon Shack's integrity has been called into question so many times regarding his presentation of the video evidence, because of his clever editing, misdirection and false, misleading statements which he makes without any supportive evidence, other than to conceal evidence which proves the opposite to his claims.
Simon Shack appears to have an agenda with predetermined conclusions where he is prepared to "exploit" legitimate explanations such as, "laws of optics" to present perfectly genuine 9/11 videos as "fake". Simon Shack's intention is to cast doubt in people's minds over the authenticity of the 9/11 video evidence, which to some degree has worked as people are still promoting 'video fakery'.
To find out more about Simon Shack (Hytten), please read Andrew Johnson's research article here: 9 or 11 “Clues” about Simon Shack and a 3D-Analysis of Flight 175. http://www.checktheevidence.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=349&Itemid=60
Thanks for reading.
And people still think this is "go to" evidence when his whole deception has clearly been pointed out numerous times over the years. Great investigative piece.