Survivors of the attack and first responders have been diagnosed with increased rates of leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as esophageal, prostate and thyroid cancer, according to sources that have seen the federally funded longitudinal study that the New York Fire Department has undertaken for the last seven years. In addition, the study will reportedly show World Trade Center workers of all ages have increased rates of the blood cancer multiple myeloma, with is usually found only among the elderly. The study is set to be released to the general public soon.

Bolstering the findings of the study is the fact that more than 600 of the 10,000 people involved in a lawsuit against the city of New York seeking compensation for damages resulting from 9/11 have been diagnosed with cancer. Since June 2010, 345 Ground Zero workers have died of cancer.

It’s as yet unclear exactly why Ground Zero exposure has caused such heightened levels of cancer, though previous reports on health problems among Ground Zero workers have cited exposure to smoke and alkaline dust as triggers for a wide variety of complaints.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, an alternative and potentially offensive hypothesis has crept up among the margins of the Internet.

Conspiracy theorists who maintain that the 9/11 attacks were planned and executed by the U.S. government to provide a pretext for war in the Middle East have seized upon the news as evidence that the destruction at the World Trade Center was, in fact, from a nuclear detonation. This theory ignores the fact that there are plenty of carcinogens that can result from widespread destruction, even without the aid of nuclear weapons, as evidenced by the little-reported massive surge in cancer rates in Fallujah, Iraq, following the U.S. invasion of the city.

The news that 9/11 responders are suffering from cancer at inordinate rates may create some political fallout for Senate and House Republicans, who blocked passage last year of a bill that would have provided a total of $7.4 billion to compensate 9/11 victims and their families and to monitor and treat health problems stemming from Ground Zero. Democratic advocates for the measure, like Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), spoke out strongly at the time against the death of the bill.

#1 in “Conspiracy Theories,” but what about the book is false?

The news that Palin is speaking at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, however, protects her from a little of the criticism that she’s skipping established political events because they won’t pay her. The SRLC conference doesn’t pay its speakers and is seen as must-attend run-up to the presidential primaries.

Wikipedia’s profile page for Farah has dubbed him “homophobic,” a “conspiracy theorist,” “white supremacist,” a “proud member of the Ku Klux Klan,” a “religious nutcase” and “a pioneer in the political uses of psychedelics.”

“He also enjoys chowing down on babies once in a while,” stated one Aug. 7, 2008, entry.

The news value of this is hard to ascertain; the goal WND has in promoting it, harder still. The humor value is, however, very much apparent.

I’d add that Limbaugh played a pivotal role in elevating “birtherism” from the very far fringes of the discourses into a sort of dog whistle for right-wingers. On his Oct. 23, 2008 show, Limbaugh responded to the news that Obama would travel to Hawaii to visit his grandmother on her deathbed by speculating whether the candidate was trying to cover up the truth about his birth certificate.

Who announces days in advance they’re rushing to the side of a loved one who is deathly ill but keeps campaigning in a race that’s said to be over, only to go to the loved one’s side days later?  See, I think this is about something else.  You know what’s really percolating out there?  I’ve been laying low on this because it hasn’t met the threshold to pass the smell test on this program. This birth certificate business, this lawsuit that a guy named Philip Berg filed in Philadelphia in August for Obama to produce his genuine birth certificate and he still hasn’t replied. You’ve got a deathly ill grandmother, you are going to rush to her side a few days from now, when you first announced this, you’re going to rush, you’re going to hurry, you’re going to make tracks, you’re going to get over there because you don’t want your grandmother to die before you got there like your mother did, but somehow you keep campaigning, you take three days to get over there, if he’s left yet, and this birth certificate business, I’m just wondering if something’s up.  I have no clue, and folks, I’m telling you, this has not reached the threshold until now, and it’s popping up all over the place. There are a lot of people now that are starting to speculate and be curious about this.

Still, the big takeaway from WND’s list is that it really did manage to catapult stories from the web to Fox News. For example:

WND was the news agency that broke the first major story on Obama’s “green” jobs czar Van Jones and it was the dogged reporting of WND’s Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein that helped bring down the first high-ranking member of the Obama administration.

I’d agree with that. Few people admit to reading WND but there’s no doubt that its relentless reports on Jones, coupled with Gateway Pundit’s blog posts, provided the grist for Glenn Beck’s attacks.

The Aliso Viejo dentist and attorney was sanctioned by one court, accused of suborning perjury in another, and saw all her lawsuits dismissed without going to trial. Taitz has responded that the judges are part of a Soviet-styled conspiracy to protect Obama.

“I commend Rep. Bill Posey for taking the lead in introducing and securing co-sponsors for important legislation that enforces the presidential qualifications outlined in Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution,” writes WND’s Joseph Farah in his introduction to the email. “It is critical that we begin enforcing the Constitution before the 2012 election with regard to the eligibility of presidential candidates.”

In his appeal, Posey asks donors to help him fend off an attack from Democrats–an attack based on his brave quest for presidential birth certificates.

“My bill (H.R. 1503) that would require all candidates for President in the future to provide documentation (such as a birth certificate) to prove they are natural born citizens of the United States, has resulted in the national liberal left making me Top target for defeat in the 2010 Congressional elections,” writes Posey. “As I said before, I’m being lambasted by the media and late-night comics and Nancy Pelosi’s team has already paid for tens of thousands of automated phone calls in my district and are raising a multi-million-dollar campaign war chest to defeat me.”

Here’s Farah’s introduction:

And here’s the fundraising splash page for Posey.

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask… which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

A glance at the comments suggests that many Palin fans didn’t want her to back down.

Gene Bland:

The question of his birth certificate must be resolved now, otherwise he is a fraud. Those he associates with are tax cheats, and criminals. His actions violate the principles he professes to believe in.

Bill Stapleton:

What passport did he use when he was traveling between New York, Jakarta, and Karachi in 1981? There are only three possiblilities a U.S. passport, a British passport or an Indonesia passport. Pakastan was on the U.S. State Department’s “no travel list” so he couldn’t have travelled with a U.S.passport. So, what passport did he travel with? The answere to this question will clear all this up.

Ian Gratton:

I tell ya, if it turns out that he doesn’t have a birth certificate, I would not be surprised one bit. This guy is a bad dude and just as he has said several times now, he wants to “fundamentally change” America.

Dave Happe:

This one is pretty simple. If a birth certificate existed, they would have produced it already. How can they show something they don’t have? Even a visit by Obama to Hawaii, complete with some shaved ice photo ops and an off camera visit to the hospital — couldn’t get one done after the fact. Doesn’t exist. Every single natural born citizen in America – excluding our president – could produce a birth certificate.

Wayne Winchell:

I wonder then, why he’s spent so much money hiding his birth certificate from the public if there’s nothing compromising in it?

Tom Burley:

I’m not a conspiracy junky but surely as a general rule ANY presidential candidate should be required to provide proof of birth as a US citizen? I had to provide my birth certificate to become a legal permanent resident and apply for US citizenship and to get a passport and yet an incoming president is not required to? I don’t need to see it myself but I would like to be assured that the Chief Justice who swears in a President has verified candidate eligability.

Tracy Jayne Keckler

Why is not asking for his birth certificate a bad thing? I’ll grab a anything to get this creep out of office!

Larry Diurba:

You See —- I think you should have asked him to produce his birth certificate, health records and college records.

No Birth Certificate – Shouldn’t be President (Constitution)
No Health Records – Could still be on drugs (put that finger on the launch button)
No College Records – Might show where the money for his college came from, and what citizenship was declaired.

Jim Tischler:

The simple way to shut up all the birthers is to show them the original birth certificate. So why doesn’t he? The inability to put this claim to rest only fuels the fire that he wasn’t really born in HI. You almost have to believe he’s hiding SOMETHING by faililng to comply with a simple request every other candidate has complied with.

This is the problem with dipping a toe into the fever swamp.

Another point I’d make: While Palin’s whining and martyr complex about the attacks on her son — which don’t seem to have come from anyone more powerful than blogger Andrew Sullivan — there’s an obvious difference between those attacks and a sustained, yearlong fringe campaign that has produced dozens of junk lawsuits from lawyers who encourage members of the military to disobey their commander-in-chief.