Very sensitive Jew / Arab 9-11 stuff within... please bring a cool head. →[More:]I am looking for published research that disproves the bullshit rumor that 4000 Jews did not show up to work at the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001.

By my use of the word "bullshit" I hope I have made it clear that I do not believe in this legend. But there are many people who do, and I am lucky enough to know some of them.

I would like some ammunition to put an end to some really stupid conversations I've had to have on this subject. Ideally: a URL I can email to a published study that demonstrates a thorough investigation and clear, publicly verifiable results.

All of this was recently re-prompted by listening to old This American Life episodes. In one, dated early October, 2001, the reporter speaks to someone who has heard this rumor, thinks it may be true, and wants to know why the Western media is hiding it.

Unfortunately, all the reporter offers at that point is some somber music and some rhetorical head-shaking about how tragic it is that anyone would believe such obviously untrue and offensive rubbish. Well, Miss... try my fucking family, okay? Help me out here. It is tragic but pish-poshing doesn't exactly help.

She does quote the names of 3 Israelis killed in the attacks and go on to say that 4000 Israelis would mean that 1 in every 15 WTC employees was from Israel, which just isn't true. Good point. Excellent.

But some variants of the rumor say 2000, not 4000, and in some variants it's simply "Jews" and not "Israelis." Is it possible that 1 in 30 WTC employees was Jewish? I think it is, so the one helpful data point in that story just isn't quite thorough or helpful enough. More please.

I was very disappointed to check Snopes and find just more moralistic head-shaking. In a completely out-of-character move, they quote the examples and then open with "these hardly merit a response." How could it possibly be true? And how disgusting for anyone to think it could be! I expect more than a high-handed dismissal from Snopes. I was hoping for some actual research into the subject. It's really out of character for them.

There are a lot of people I would like to shake out of this delusion and they are not just morally weak idiots. They perceive Israel as a powerful, well-connected, ruthless force capable of anything. And the facts on the ground are hardly an obvious dismissal of this point of view. Israel is a tiny country with a huge military and powerful friends that somehow manages to wag the dog that is the US despite all the regional bitterness this causes the US and does so in smug defiance of many UN resolutions plus the nuclear non-proliferation pact. They live in a state of war and have employed some pretty extreme policies, including targeting civilians, in the past. I'm not saying they plotted 9-11, just that an Arab with a long history of bitterness toward Israel needs more than some moralistic head-shaking to be convinced.

I need a neutral, thorough study that can be read by a mere mortal. Who's got it?