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Shanksville resident says photo is fake because
the original photo didn't have a mushroom cloud!

This blog is dedicated in finding out if the smoke plume in Val McClatchey's infamous "End of Serenity" photo is from an explosion originating from a different location than the alleged crash spot of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa which would prove the official story is a fraud, or if her photo itself is a fraud.

Start by reading my original article about the story behind her photo:

Val McClatchey Photo:
More Smoking Guns, or Total Fraud?

(Updated: 03/29/08)

Plume analysis only

(Updated: 03/29/07)

The above article will constantly be updated when new evidence emerges. Blogposts below will be of related evidence and/or updates to the above article.

"Photo dispute challenges copyright law" - The Globe

Photo dispute challenges copyright law

By: Rebecca Shaffer
Posted: 3/26/08

When Somerset County resident Valencia McClatchey captured the fleeting moments of peace on a warm fall morning with her digital camera, she never thought that photograph, "End of Serenity," would be the basis for a law suit against the Associated Press (AP) over copyright infringement.

On Sept.11, 2001 McClatchey was at home, glued to the television coverage of the morning's tragic events when she was shaken from her seat by a loud boom. From her living room window she saw a large gray cloud of smoke rising over the horizon. She instinctively went to the door, grabbed her digital camera and captured the infamous image of the smoke rising into the blue cloudless sky over her neighbors' red barn seconds after the crash of United Airlines Flight 93.

In the ensuing months McClatchey's photograph gained so much notoriety that in January 2002 she obtained a copyright for her famous snapshot, which was supposed to allow her the rights to control its use. Eight months later, she would sue the AP, claiming that the large media organization infringed her copyrights, which the AP disputed.

According to Mass Media Law, a copyright protects a work like McClatchey's photograph from being put on display, distributed or reproduced without consent. McClatchey said that she obtained the copyright because she did not want her photo to be misused in any way and she said firmly, "When I copyright the photo, I have the rights."

On the first anniversary of the crash McClatchey was interviewed by AP reporter Charles Sheehan. AP photographer Gene Puskar visited McClatchey a short time later and took her photo to accompany Sheehan's article.

McClatchey posed with her original photograph for Puskar. She said she believed the picture was of both her and her photograph.

McClatchey said that she also gave a copy of her photograph to Puskar as a gift. The copy contained her copyright management information. "They knew it was copyrighted," McClatchey said.

Sheehan's article ran on Friday, Sept. 13, 2002 in numerous newspapers. Rather than a photo of McClatchey and her famous Sept.11 image, the AP published her "End of Serenity" photograph without her permission.

The AP's use was based on their assumption that Puskar's use of McClatchey's copyrighted image could be used freely because it was considered news.

Then, unbeknownst to McClatchey, in August 2003 her photo appeared through the AP on America Online's Web site with an article concerning a conspiracy theory surrounding Flight 93. "I didn't want the photo used in conspiracy theory stories, because it degrades the passengers and crew," McClatchey said.

McClatchey was horrified to discover the photograph posted on several other news Web sites who subscribe to the AP, without her permission and did not bear the copyright information.

"I didn't know it would be all over the internet," she said.

In January 2005 McClatchey filed a lawsuit in federal court against the AP concerning five counts, three of which dealt with copyright infringement and the other two regarding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). McClatchey was seeking $150,000 in damages for copyright infringement and $25,000 in damages for the violations under the DMCA. She also requested that the AP's use of the photograph be permanently barred.

McClatchey said that the AP used her photo with knowledge of her copyright, which demonstrates willful disregard. "Pure down and out willfulness," McClatchey said, shaking her head.

The AP disagrees.

"In my view, this is classic fair use," Robert Penchina, AP lead legal council said.

According to Penchina, a copyright is meant to be a balanced protection for both the author of the work and also for the public's best interest, which is to be aware of what is going on in society.

Penchina also said that even if the story was about the photographer and her life one year after shooting the famous photo, she was still being featured because of that photograph.

Because McClatchey had given her photo earlier to many other organizations and she later sold individual prints with a portion of the proceeds donated to charity, the AP argues its distribution of it. The AP feels that their use of the image only brought attention to it and increased its demand.

McClatchey's attorney, Doug Hall countered and said her market was large news organization that now had use of the photo from the AP. Hall compared the availability of the photo online to illegally downloading music.

"They know there is damage done but it is hard to measure how much," Hall said.

McClatchey's case lasted over two and a half years. U.S. District Court Judge Terrence McVerry summarized the situation writing in one opinion, "Puskar's assignment was to 'take pictures of a woman with a picture.' Instead, Plaintiff contends that Puskar, under false pretenses, took a picture only of the 'End of Serenity' photograph itself."

"The Sheehan article and the photograph were distributed as separate items to AP's roughly 2000 PhotoStream member news organizations without her permission," McVerry wrote.

In November 2007 McClatchey accepted a settlement from the AP, which remains confidential.

Today, McClatchey says she would do things differently. She says that any use of her photo will be stated in writing with full disclosure. McClatchey is glad that the case has been settled and she no longer has to defend her photograph. In the end, McClatchey said, "Nothing will ever change the fact that I took the photo."

http://media.www.pointparkglobe.com/media/storage/paper1255/news/2008/03/26/Perspectives/Photo.Dispute.Challenges.Copyright.Law-3284396.shtml

Val McClatchey reportedly has amateur footage that 'vindicates' her photo

Val reportedly showed amateur footage of the aftermath from the alleged Shanksville crash site at the 2007 Shanksville memorial reunion that supposedly vindicates her photo:

By: Tony Mussari

~

For the past six years we have taken students, relatives, neighbors, friends, and friends of friends to the site of the temporary memorial of the Heroes of Flight 93.

Once there we listen to Janie Kiehl, a Flight 93 Ambassador and dear friend tell the story of United 93. Val McClatchey another good friend, explains the history of her famous photograph, The End of Serenity. Chuck and Jayne Wagner, Flight 93 Ambassadors, are usually on hand to help us and their daughter, Leigh Snyder provides our guests with her book, Patriots of Peace.

At the Lutheran church hall we come together in a community dinner compliments of Janie Kiehl and her family. This year Val McClatchey shared a priceless piece of history with our guests. She played a DVD of the amateur video recorded in Berlin, PA, of the aftermath of the end of United 93 and the now famous plume of black smoke that looked like a mushroom cloud.

For Val McClatchey it was a moment of vindication. It gave lie to the conspiracy theorists. For those of us in the room, it was a chilling moment of discovery and verification of what Val’s picture had recorded for millions of people around the world. We were watching moving images of The End of Serenity. We were experiencing an historically significant event.

http://www.windsorparktheater.com/news_shanksvilletrip%202007.html

Why did it take 6 years for this reported amateur footage to surface and when does the rest of the world get to see it?

This video was reportedly filmed in Berlin, PA, which is about 9 miles SSW of the crater. Remember that the wind near the crater was reported blowing 9 knots in a SE direction.




Also note that I've never suggested that there wasn't an explosion in that empty Shanksville field, or that there was never any smoke being emitted from there. I do not even doubt there might have been a mushroom cloud there after whatever exploded. I just doubt than any mushroom cloud that may have formed over the immediate area around the crater grew to a whooping 700 yards wide, the width that I estimate the plume in Val's photo had to be if it was near the crater.

"Photographer of Flight 93 Somerset crash settles" - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Photographer of Flight 93 Somerset crash settles

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Somerset County woman who took the only known photograph of United Airlines Flight 93 moments after the crash has settled a federal lawsuit she filed against the Associated Press.

Valencia M. McClatchey claimed the news organization violated her federal copyright by obtaining a copy of the photo and transmitting it to more than 1,000 news outlets.

Ms. McClatchey's attorney, Douglas Hall, said the parties reached a confidential settlement. Part of the agreement, though, calls for the Associated Press to destroy copies of the photograph.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07318/833685-56.stm

So will Val give all this to charity, because she's not in it for the money, right?

"Somerset Hospital marks Sept. 11 anniversary" - Daily American

Somerset Hospital marks Sept. 11 anniversary
By MADOLIN EDWARDS
Daily American Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 12:25 AM EDT

“We were ready Sept. 11 and then it took the wind out of our sails,” said Somerset Hospital’s director of corporate communications, Greg Chiappelli.

He was talking about hospital employees who were ready to offer medical help on Sept. 11, 2001, but in the end, weren’t needed. He mentioned this commemoration to employees prior to a Sept. 11, 2001, memorial service Tuesday, which was sponsored by the Pastoral Care Committee at Somerset Hospital. Hospital employees, as well as the public, were invited to the service.

The Rev. Ruth Ann Campagna and the Rev. Mark Bendes offered prayers and scripture. Danny Conner performed two musical selections.

Valencia McClatchey was the featured speaker. She took the photo “The End of Serenity” of the smoke from the Flight 93 plane crash in the field near her home.

McClatchey said she heard a tremendously loud noise, unlike anything she’s heard in her years of living near coal mines, and looked outside of her house to see a flash like sunlight reflecting off a plane. She said she always has a camera by the door because she has a friend who is a helicopter pilot and does training runs around the Indian Lake area.

She said her friend will fly by her house, and she wanted to be ready to get a photo of him flying over for a car club newsletter.

Then she saw the mushroom cloud. She took the photo that has made the news all over the world.

She said she called the photo, which now hangs in the Smithsonian Institute, “The End of Serenity” because it was the end of our peaceful lives as we knew them to be. She said we are slowly getting back to that, but that we’ll never forget Sept. 11, 2001.



Valencia McClatchey, the woman who took the photo “The End of Serenity” on Sept. 11, 2001, of the mushroom cloud after United Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, was the guest speaker at Somerset Hospital’s memorial service Tuesday.

http://www.dailyamerican.com/articles/2007/09/12/news/news576.txt

"Picture Made on 9/11 Takes a Toll on Photographer" - NY Times

(Response to this article below.)

(Secondary NY Times title: A Sept. 11 Photo Brings Out the Conspiracy Theorists)

September 10, 2007

Picture Made on 9/11 Takes a Toll on Photographer

By SEAN D. HAMILL


Emily Jerich told visitors at a temporary memorial for victims of United Flight 93 about a photograph that Valencia M. McClatchey took of the crash on Sept. 11, 2001. In numerous online postings, critics have ripped apart every element of the photo, and Mrs. McClatchey’s life.


SHANKSVILLE, Pa. , Sept. 7 — Valencia M. McClatchey thought she was doing the right thing when she gave the F.B.I. a copy of her photo of the mushroom cloud that rose over the hill outside her home after United Flight 93 crashed in a field here on Sept. 11, 2001.

And, after it became apparent that hers was the only known picture of that ominous, gray cloud — and the first shot after Flight 93 crashed — she thought she was still doing the right thing when she gave copies to people who asked for them, and let newspapers and television stations use it.

But fame for the photo has had an unexpected cost for the photographer.

“Every time I’ve done any stories it goes online and all these conspiracy theorists start up and they call me and harass me,” said Mrs. McClatchey, 51, who runs her own real estate company.

In numerous online postings, critics have ripped apart every element of the photo, and Mrs. McClatchey’s life. They accuse her of faking the photo, of profiteering from it and of being part of a conspiracy to cover up the fact that Flight 93 was shot down by the government.

They claim the mushroom cloud is from an ordnance blast, not a jet crashing; the cloud is the wrong color for burning jet fuel; the cloud is too small and in the wrong position.

They’ve posted her personal e-mail, phone numbers and street address online. One Canadian “9/11 debunker” surreptitiously taped a phone conversation with her, quizzing her about the photo, and then uploaded it to his Web site.

“It’s just gotten so bad, I’m just fed up with it,” Mrs. McClatchey said. “This thing has become too much of a distraction in my life. I have a husband and a new business to deal with, too.”

The F.B.I., the Smithsonian Institution — which used the photo in an exhibition on Sept. 11 — and the National Park Service’s Flight 93 National Memorial — which has used the photo in pamphlets — all consider the photo legitimate.

“We have no reason to doubt it,” said Bill Crowley, an agent who is a spokesman for the Pittsburgh F.B.I. office, which oversaw evidence collection in Shanksville.

Along with the rest of the nation, Mrs. McClatchey was watching the coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington when she was shaken from her couch by a ground-shaking blast just over a mile away. She grabbed her new digital camera and took just one picture from her front porch.

It is a simple photo, showing a sloping green farm field, with a brilliant red barn in the foreground. Hovering above the barn in a brilliant blue sky is an ominous, dark gray mushroom cloud. Mrs. McClatchey named the photo “The End of Serenity.”

Barbara Black, acting site manager for the Flight 93 memorial, said, “What makes the image so powerful is that it’s this serene scene in Pennsylvania, this typical red barn, green trees, and then this terrible cloud above it that changed our life here forever.”

At the temporary memorial site, Flight 93 “ambassadors,” local residents who volunteer to tell visitors what happened here, always start the story by showing people Mrs. McClatchey’s photo.

From the beginning, Mrs. McClatchey said, she tried to use the photograph to help remember the 40 passengers on Flight 93. She sells copies to people and lets them choose whether $18 of the $20 fee goes to the Flight 93 National Memorial or the Heroic Choices organization (formerly the Todd Beamer Foundation).

To ensure that she controlled distribution of the photograph, in January 2002 she copyrighted it. To “protect the integrity of the photo,” Mrs. McClatchey said, she filed suit in 2005 against The Associated Press, saying that it violated her copyright by distributing the photo to its clients as part of a story. The lawsuit is pending.

One of Mrs. McClatchey’s neighbors here defended her against the allegations of the people he called the “Internet crazies.”

The McClatcheys “are as good neighbors as you could possibly have,” said Robert Musser, who owns the red barn that is so prominent in Mrs. McClatchey’s photo.

To accommodate visitors who will show up on Sept. 11 to recreate the picture, and who eventually find their way to the Mussers’ 94-year-old barn, they’ve tried to spruce it up this past week, adding a touch of paint. They plan to spend thousands in the near future to shore up the foundation on one side so the barn will endure for years to come.

“Here this barn could fall down, and it’s in the picture that’s so famous,” said Mr. Musser’s wife, Phyllis. “We have to do something.”


"The photograph Valencia M. McClatchey took from her front porch on Sept. 11, 2001."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/us/10cnd-shanksville.html

This NY Times article is very misleading, gets a major point wrong and again, fails to mention me by name (so what's new?).

First, they say "we" accuse Val for taking part of the cover-up of Flight 93 being shot down. I have never made that claim, especially when I think it never crashed.

Second, they say my claim is that the plume in her photo is to small in which it is my claim that her plume is to big, 7 football fields to big!

Third, they make it sound like I posted her email, phone numbers, and address as if they were all private. I posted her home address which is posted on the webiste that advertises her photo for sale and posted her work phone number from her own business' website. I posted her email address from the email she sent me, but after I checked and saw her email address is publically available on the net too.


Btw, did you notice the title of this NY Times article:

Picture Made on 9/11 Takes a Toll on Photographer

"Picture made". Well, guess they got something right. ; )

History Channel's 9/11 conspiracies episode featured 'Flight 93 Photo Fraud' blog

The History Channel showed a fairly lengthy segment about this blog on their The 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction hit piece.

To no one's surprise, the History Channel got most of my claims about Val, her photo, and what happened to Flight 93 wrong and they didn't even bring up most of the evidence I presented (such as the plume in her photo being about 7 football fields wide) that shows her photo proves that the official story of Flight 93 crashing is a fraud or that her photo is a fraud other than the plume in her photo couldn't have been from a plane crashing.


However, there are a couple of interesting things in their clip about her photo. Here is the breakdown in order:

- First the show a picture of Val's house, but notice they only show the back of her house.

They never show the front where she allegedly took her photo. Why the big deal? Well I've been informed that Val has since remolded the front of her house after 9/11. Not bad for filing bankruptcy on their business 9 days after 9/11 and was in danger of losing their house too.

- Also note that they only show the red barn featured on the right of her photo and never the white barn seen on the left side of her photo. That white barn is now painted red.

- She says she heard a load surge of an engine. What the History Channel doesn't tell you is that Val said she heard this roar of an engine over Indian Lake which is in the opposite direction that Flight 93 allegedly flew in at. Val then skips the part where she had said that she almost got knocked off her couch from the shock wave from the "crash" of Flight 93 and that is why she jumped up to grab her camera.

- The narrator then says Val says 9/11 conspiracists have "harassed her" with emails and phone calls. I've never contacted Val by any method ever. However, Val has sent me a harrassing email threatening to sue me for putting her photo on my website (not this blog).

- Next they say that we, the conspiracists who think her photo is a fraud, think Flight 93 was shot down and "accuse" Val of being a part of it. I've stopped thinking Flight 93 was shot down years before I discovered Val's photo was a fraud and I now think the shot-down theory was started on purpose to distract from Flight 93 not crashing in shanksville. I've also never said that I thought Val was part of some conspiracy involving Flight 93 being shot down.


Another thing to notice about History Channel's segment of my claim that her photo is a fraud is that they didn't even have any of their "experts" try to debunk my analysis showing that the plume on Val's photo is way to big and is about 250 yards south of the crater!