I want to put some thoughts down about LOL SUPERMAN (LSM) and the chances of it ever being released, because I see a lot of hope, speculation, and misunderstanding around this topic, especially lately.
I’ll say it plainly up front: I think the chances of LSM being released in any meaningful timeframe are extremely slim, and there are structural legal and political reasons for that which don’t get talked about enough.
Most people point to FBI FOIA responses where they say something like “cannot be released at this time” and read that as a soft no, or even a “maybe later.” In reality, that phrase is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It usually means there is no timeline, no obligation, and no expectation of eventual release. It’s not a countdown, it’s a legal dead end.
The core issue is the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 9/11 case. KSM’s trial has been ongoing for more than two decades and is being handled through military commissions at Guantánamo Bay, not civilian courts. This matters because the rules around evidence, classification, and disclosure are radically different. The case has become what many legal scholars describe as a “forever trial,” meaning it exists in a permanent state of pre-trial motion, appeals, and procedural paralysis.
This situation exists largely because of classified evidence, unresolved legal fallout from torture, national security concerns, and constant legal challenges over what can even be presented in court. The result is that the case technically remains active, with no realistic end in sight.
As long as that case remains active, anything that could even loosely be argued to relate to 9/11 is treated as part of a frozen evidentiary universe. That includes videos, audio, documents, and media held by agencies like the FBI. Even material that seems strange, marginal, or unrelated on the surface can remain restricted simply because releasing it could be argued to intersect with the broader case.
This ties into another common misconception: that people can still uncover large amounts of rare or unreleased 9/11 material simply by filing new FOIA requests. In reality, the overwhelming majority of meaningful FOIA requests related to 9/11 were already filed in the early 2000s, when the event was fresh and disclosure windows were at their widest. Some of those requests were even filed by early figures in this very community, including the original owners of the original PENTTBOM.com site.
What we see today is mostly repetition. New FOIA requests tend to circle back to the same agencies, the same categories of material, and the same legal justifications for denial. That doesn’t mean people are wrong for trying, but it does mean expectations should be realistic. At this stage, filing FOIA requests in hopes of suddenly uncovering major unreleased 9/11 media is, more often than not, an exercise in patience rather than progress.
This is also why the popular explanation of “out of respect for the families” doesn’t really hold up. While that language is sometimes used publicly, it isn’t the legal basis for withholding material. If respect alone dictated release decisions, a significant amount of graphic and deeply disturbing 9/11 media that has already been released would never have been made public. The real barriers are legal risk, classification rules, and the ongoing status of the case.
Politically, there is also no incentive to reopen or complicate anything related to 9/11. From an institutional perspective, the safest option is perpetual non-disclosure. No administration wants to be responsible for releasing something that could cause controversy, legal challenges, or renewed scrutiny of intelligence failures. Silence is safer than transparency.
For those of us who have been searching for LSM for years, this is a hard thing to accept. The search feels unfinished, unresolved, like a loose thread in history that refuses to be tied off. But the uncomfortable truth may be that LSM isn’t being hidden in a vault waiting for the right moment. It may simply be trapped inside a legal and political process that was never designed to reach a clean ending.
At this point, LSM may never see the light of day. Not because it doesn’t exist, and not because people don’t care, but because it is caught inside a system designed to preserve itself indefinitely. The search still matters, documentation still matters, discussion still matters, but we should be honest about the reality we’re up against.
Sometimes the answer isn’t a reveal. Sometimes the answer is the silence itself.