Val McClatchey is the woman who claims to have taken the famous photo of the black smoke plume rising above the red barn in Shanksville, PA the morning of 9/11. This is the only photographic evidence that any sort of crash took place.

Here is a YouTube video of an interview of McClatchey talking about her famous photo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBhRQggXZuc

What's interesting about her interview is that she makes odd claims re the crash of Flight 93. Listen to the interview. She claims that the crash of Flight 93 almost knocked her from her sofa, that she saw a flash, and that in the 5 seconds from the time she saw the flash, she was able to grab her digital camera, and take the famous photo of the smoke rising above the barn.

She also makes claims about the FBI taking her original photo, not being able to upload it to her computer because her dog chewed the cable, and making sure that proceeds from selling the photo went to the victims' families.

She was asked how taken the photo has affected her life, and she goes into a sob story about how awful her life has been because of taken the photo, including stories about medical problems, and about how she had to close down her business because of the insurance industry taking advantage of 9/11.

This is where it gets interesting. A photo of her business is shown, and it's named JCM Industries. A Google search of JCM Industries turns up an SEC filing for Commercial National Financial Corp.

Here's a link to the filing:

sec.edgar-online.com

In this filing, a John McClatchey is listed as a director of Commercial National Financial Group since 1990. This SEC filing also states that JCM Industries filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 20, 2001, just 9 days after 9/11. Within 6 months, the chapter 11 filing was converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation, and National Financial Group was listed as a creditor.

The real kicker is that National Finanical Group stock was at its all-time low of about $14 a share just before 9/11/01. And then the stock doubled in price within a year after 9/11.

Here's a link to the stock at yahoo finance:

finance.yahoo.com

So to summarize:

Val McClatchey sees a flash, is nearly knocked onto her sofa, and has the presence of mind to take a photo of the smoke from Flight 93 within 5 seconds of the crash. She is unable to show anybody the photo for several days because her dog chewed her computer cable. The FBI takes the original memory card with the photo.

Ms. McClatchey claims that 9/11 caused her business to go bankrupt because of insurance rates going up, and yet we discover that her flooring business, JCM Enterprises, filed bankruptcy just 9 days after 9/11. The debts of JCM Enterprises were discharged in bankruptcy, and JCM Enterprises was completely liquidated, causing 40 some people to lose their jobs.

A John McClatchey, an owner of JCM Enterprises, sits on the board of publicly traded Commercial National Financial Group, a bank holding company whose stock is at an all-time low prior to 9/11, and then doubles within a year after 9/11.

Val McClatchey's entire story seems to be problematic:

* How could the crash on the opposite side of a hill knock her off of her sofa?

* How could she then get her digital camera, turn it one, go back outside, focus the camera, and take a photo in 5 seconds?

* Why didn't she take more than one photo?

* Why didn't she make the photo public right away?

* Why did she claim that 9/11 caused her business to go bankrupt, when in fact the bankruptcy case was filed 9 days after 9/11? It takes more than 9 days to prepare a bankruptcy filing for a small business.

* Why was the stock price of Commerical National Financial Corp at an all-time low prior to 9/11? What fundamental ecominic change caused this company to double in value in the year after 9/11?

Here's some more info on Commercial National Financial Corp., (CNAF) the company of which Val McClatchey's husband, John, was a director since 1990.

CNAF only has 25 employees total, yet is worth $60 million. The company is located in Latrobe, PA, which is about 30 minutes from Shanksville, and also 30 minutes from Greensburg, PA.

I mention this because Latrobe/Greensburg is the home of another prominent, and shadowy political figure, Richard Mellon Scaife.

Scaife owns the Tribune-Review newspaper, and is famous for pursuing/instigating the rumors that Vince Foster was murdered. Scaife is also a former Heritage Foundation director, and is a billionaire.

I'm not saying at this point there's a connection between Scaife and the McClatcheys, or even Scaife and CNAF. However, Latrobe is a small town.

I think tone of the most questionable parts of Val McClatchey's story is her portrayal of being broke, and being forced to go out and carry her briefcase everyday while her husband stays home. She is stating that she is now supporting the family.

How could John McClatchey go from being one of the founding directors of a multi-million dollar bank and owner of a successful lumber mill to being forced to rely on his wife, Val, to support the family as a real estate agent? Something just isn't making sense about this whole story...

(not to mention the fact that the photo was probably faked)

I was reading the 9/11 Commission Report again about Steve O'Brien, the pilot of the C-130H that "magically" saw both the Pentagon crash and the Flight 93 crash site.

Then I decided to re-read the entire Northwoods document.

Northwoods talked about faking commercial airline crashes, including having a submarine rise up from the ocean and spread debris on the surface.

Considering nothing else makes much sense, how far-fetched is it that the C-130H could have been the source of the debris at either the Pentagon or the Flight 93 site?

This would explain why there was no eye-witnesses to a smoke trail from Flight 93 being shot down, and why debris drifted a couple miles away to Indian Lake. A C-130H is certainly large enough to hold the debris. This would also explain why the FAA was so anxious to evacuate the control towers that could have spotted the C-130 on radar.

After visiting the site, there's no way McClatchey's photo can be legit, in my humble opinion. You can't appreciate the scale of size involved just from the photos or from the google earth maps. Just over the hill from the second barn in the photo, there is a huge expanse of land that reaches to the next tree line. The McClatchey photo makes it look like the crash was right over the hillside. No chance.

Now this isn't to say that this proves a conspiracy. It might only prove that McClathey is a fraud and opportunist, and that the FBI didn't bother debunking her story publicly because of the can of worms it would open.

For the sake of brevity and in the spirit of staying on topic, let's just stick to the photo for now.

It's a matter of perspective. However, there's something drastically wrong with the perspective.

Imagine drawing a line from the spot McClatchey took the photo to each edge of the smoke plume. This would form an angle that opens up, getting wider as the lines go out further. I.e., the further away the smoke plume, the wider it would have to be to fit in the same space in the photo.

The crash site is so far away from McClatchey's house (roughly 1.5 miles) that for the smoke plume to be from the crash, it would need to be over 2000 feet wide. There's no way a smoke plume from a plane crash is going to expand to 2000 feet in diameter. That's twice as wide as the WTCs were high.

No, the government could not have planted a 2000 foot wide smoke plume. This has everything to do with McClatchey because, unlike the Pentagon and WTCs, there was NO visual evidence of Flight 93 crashing anywhere near Shanksville -with the exception of McClatchey's photo.