 Proponents of the 9-11 conspiracy theories have claimed that one of the researchers at Popular Mechanics, Benjamin Chertoff is the cousin of former Department of Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff because they share the same last name.However, Chertoff has repeatedly denied this claim, most notably in the September 11, 2006, issue of U.S. News & World Report, stating "No one in my family has ever met anyone related to Michael Chertoff".In an audio interview, he noted that any possible relationship would likely only be found in "19th-century Belarus", and that his mother has described any such possible relationship as "distant".