TPM Reader RM takes his hand in debunking one of the greats … (is this really the origin of the whole porn-loving terrorists storyline?)
The “hero on a plane” email you’ve been covering reminds me of how this weird idea of terrorists going to strip clubs (which has transmuted to watching porn) actually started.
In the days following 9/11 a guy running a strip club in Daytona Beach claimed that some of the hijackers had been in his club a few nights before. It was a big story in the Daytona Beach newspaper (I live near Daytona Beach, so I remember this).
At that time, it seemed like there could be a Daytona Beach connection to the hijackers, as there is an aeronautical university in town (Embry-Riddle) and some flight schools. Anyway, the FBI visited the strip club within a day or two and the guy running the joint immediately recanted his story and admitted he made it up to get publicity for his club. Again, that was in the Daytona Beach newspaper. (Btw, there was never any Daytona Beach connection to the hijackers that anyone could prove… chances are they were never here.)
However, the original bogus story about the hijackers going to a strip club had bubbled up to the national news, and it still gets repeated. I recall Maureen Dowd referring to it in a column several years after 9/11. And the guy who made up the current wacky story about terrorists watching porn on a plane probably got the germ of the “it’s allowed before jihad” theme from the false account of the hijackers going to a strip club in Daytona Beach.
If you check a database containing the Daytona Beach News-Journal for the week following 9/11, I’m sure you could find the original stories.
