Motive for Forgery

Video profoundly influenced 9/11 researchers, favoring theories the Pentagon was hit by a missile and/or small plane.

Thierry Meyssan's second book incorporated this idea.

Idea of small-plane/missile attack led to wholesale dismissal of eyewitness accounts by most skeptics who rejected the offical account of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon based on physical evidence.

Faction embracing eyewitness accounts became polarized from physical evidence faction.

Dick Eastman was the exception, putting forth a theory that Flight 77 approached the Pentagon, and then overflew it, hidden by a rapid succession of events including explosions, flashes, smoke, and other aircraft.