September 11, 2001

9/11 Conspiracy and the Attack on the Wolrd Trade Center

2007-11-04T04:53:00.000-08:00

sept 11
september 11th
terrorism
twin towers
world trade centerDeath threat by ATS- (AboveTopSecret) Planehugger Pepe Lapiu
Published: Sat, 3 Nov 2007 13:08:22 GMT
Death threat by ATS- (AboveTopSecret) Planehugger Pepe Lapiu
picked up at:

http://killtown.blogspot.com/2007/11/death-threat-by-planehugger.html

Death threat by a planehugger

Sat, Nov 3 2007

By Killtown

Haven't received one of these in a while:

Your claims are simply stoopit Killtown, you are not a member of the truth movement, you are either a liar and a disinfo agent or a very bad researcher.

It is already difficult for us to tell people that bombs were in the buildings, now you want to suggest even more difficult to show, something that will make us all look crazier then we already are: there were no planes. When will you upgrade to the theory that there was no buildings either?

Keep posting anonymously dude, because if I find out where you are I will show you a hologram of a sick disinfo agent hanging off his shower curtain.

And that is not a treat, that is a promise.

People who speak the truth do not need to speak anonymously...

PepeLapiu a.k.a.
Guy Cotnoir
32 Citadel Meadows Gardens
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
1-403-390-7991
(ed: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/visitor/56775/ )

Griffin Co-Author Enver Masud on 9/11 Lecture Tour of South Africa
Published: Sat, 3 Nov 2007 12:07:11 GMT
Griffin Co-Author Enver Masud on 9/11 Lecture Tour of South Africa
picked up at:

http://911sig.blogspot.com/2007/11/enver-masuds-911-lecture-tour-of-south.html

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2007
Enver Masud's 9/11 lecture tour of South Africa

Well known author and engineer, Enver Masud, based in Washington will be arriving in South Africa on the 12th of November. He will be presenting an in-depth audio-visual lecture entitled:

"9-11 .. What Really Happened?!" at public venues throughout the country. Admission is free and open to all....

...Enver Masud is founder and CEO of The Wisdom Fund, and recipient of the 2002 Gold Award from the Human Rights Foundation for his book "The War on Islam."

He is also a contributing author of "Islam: Opposing Viewpoints," and "9/11 and American Empire: Christians, Jews, and Muslims Speak Out..."

...He was at the forefront of innovation in the electric power industry, and managed the U.S. Department of Energy's National Power Grid Study...

Schedule of talks

Tuesday 13th November 2007: KwaDukuza (Stanger) Town Hall after 8pm Wednesday 14th November 2007: Guest speaker at IMA dinner Thursday 15th November: University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg) 18h30 Friday 16th November: Al-Ansaar Hall, West Road, Overport, Durban at 20h00 Saturday 17th November: Fundraising dinner at Port Shepstone Sunday 18th November: Newcastle, Old Checkers Hall Monday 19th November: Ladysmith evening programme Tuesday 20th November: Cape Town evening lecture Wednesday 21st November: Cape Town evening lecture Thursday 22nd November: Polokwane (Pietersburg) evening lecture Friday 23rd November Lenasia at Nur-ul-Islam Hall at 20h30 Saturday 24th November: Fordsburg at Jiswa at 14h30 Sunday 25th November: Pretoria - Erasmia at 14h00.

WWeek: 9/11 Keymaster Rodriguez comes to Portland
Published: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 23:11:15 GMT
WWeek: 9/11 Keymaster Rodriguez comes to Portland
http://wweek.com/wwire/?p=9889

9/11 Survivor Turned Skeptic Comes to Portland
November 2nd 2007

William Rodriguez, a 9/11 survivor turned skeptic, will be in Portland this Tuesday to talk about his experience as a national hero and activist and his doubts about September 11...

...But Rodriguez still has doubts. ?I don?t know who is responsible,? he says. He says he?s not ?blaming the government,? but that the government had previous knowledge of the attacks and refused to do anything about it. When asked why the government would let something like 9/11 happen, he answers, ?that?s exactly our question.?

Yet some of the claims Rodriguez has made about 9/11 don?t add up. He says an explosion occurred seven seconds before the first plane hit the towers, and came from below, not above. But when he first began to report this, he described the explosion as a ?rumble,? like furniture moving. Today, he remembers it as a ?POW!? Rodriguez claims the difference is due to translation errors, but his accounts of the explosion have gotten more and more dramatic over the years...

Alex Jones reinforces Fear Mongering with recent Rumsfeld-"Atmosphere of Fear" -Memo Hangout
Published: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 13:23:43 GMT
Alex Jones reinforces Fear Mongering with recent Rumsfeld-"Atmosphere of Fear" -Memo Hangout
Scientology Supporter and self appointed "CointelPRO" Specialists Alex Jones and the Watson Brothers profit from Hoax that American Citizens allegedly 'live in fear' to distract from Ignorance, Lazyness, Pseudo Patriotism and Illogical Thinking

picked up at:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2007/021107_terror_campaign.htm

Friday, November 2, 2007

(see also "Alex Jones is a LIAR!", "Alex Jones: Disinfo or Stupid?" at http://youtube.com/pumpitout)

"...Donald Rumsfeld, the former United States defence secretary, tried to maintain an atmosphere of fear in America as part of the Iraq war propaganda campaign, a series of leaked memos has shown," reports the London Telegraph.

In an April 2006 memo, Rumsfeld encouraged Pentagon officials to "Keep elevating the threat" and "Talk about Somalia, the Philippines etc. Make the American people realise they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists..."

(see also:
http://truthaction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2527 -Nov 01, 2007

"....this is just more Alex Jones anti-immigrant fearmongering sensationalist bull shit. Alex Jones has no credibility on the matter. He is notorious for shamelessly and blatently lying and exagerating about the issue of Mexican immigration, including his notorious New Years Eve 1999 broadcast in which he claimed that Mexican and Canadian troops were massing on the US border planning on invading..."

9/11 DEW/SDI Cover-Up: Next DEW Type turns mainstream
Published: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 12:23:50 GMT
9/11 DEW/SDI Cover-Up: Next DEW Type turns mainstream
After Future Combat System, General Dynamics Active Denial System, Boeing's ADL and Raytheon's Ray-Gun, now also Boeing's "Laser Avenger " turns up more and more in mainstream

picked up at:

http://vwt.d2g.com:8081/2007/11/an_anti_ied_laser_weapon.html

(see also Boeing Conducts Successful Avenger-Mounted Laser Tests
WebWire (press release), GA - Oct 15, 2007, http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=50220) An anti IED Laser Weapon?

November 2, 2007

"...The army conducted tests of the Avenger-mounted laser system in late September 2007 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. The laser system, also designed to destroy unexploded ordnance, was developed by Boeing.

"Boeing's investment strategy is to move some of its new directed energy weapon systems into field demonstrations, and Laser Avenger is the first one we're rolling out," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems. "Laser Avenger provides the speed-of-light and ultra-precision capability that the warfighter needs today to safely neutralize improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance."

Anthony Lawson presents new "Rotten Fruits" with alleged SepClues Debunking
Published: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 10:59:02 GMT
Anthony Lawson presents new "Rotten Fruits" with alleged SepClues Debunking
After his mini-hit "WTC7 - This is an Orange", video producer "Anthony Lawson" aka lawson911@gmail.com claims he allegedly debunked "September Clues", co-operating with Eric Salter, Nick Irving and Xenomorph911.
Lawson tries to cloak the vacuum of missing political outrage on 9/11 tv fakery evidence, with typical cherry-picking, deceptive "Bilker"-pseudo counter analysis on witness statements, black frames, speed of aircrafts and furthermore ignores to explain the discrepancies of contradictive aircraft CGI phenomena in itself.

picked up at:

http://911videomashupdates.blogspot.com/ (Video Updates 11/02)

Halloween with a Fake Plane
Published: Thu, 1 Nov 2007 17:29:20 GMT
Halloween with a Fake Plane
picked up at:

http://flyingphuk.blogspot.com/2007/11/halloween-with-fake-plane.html

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2007 ...

Huffington Post: Giuliani Faces Investigation Of 9/11 Motorola Radios
Published: Thu, 1 Nov 2007 16:35:35 GMT
Huffington Post: Giuliani Faces Investigation Of 9/11 Motorola Radios
Motorola also once integrated into SBI Net Initiative at Mexican Border

picked up at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/01/giuliani-faces-investigat_n_70709.html

Giuliani Faces Investigation Of 9/11 Radios November 1, 2007

war on terror
terrorist attacks
sept 11th
terrorist attack
911
9 11
911 conspiracy
september eleven
wtc
iraq
conspiracy
war on terrorism
bin laden
terrorist
ground zero
attack on america
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september images
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wq2rx

2007-10-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

TV Fakery Update

2007-10-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

Gary Welz WQ3RX Nico Haupt Thermite

2007-10-19T04:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you have to wonder how someone educated thinks he can get away with mass-murder. The truth about September 11, 2001 is that they showed bogus video on TV as part of a military deception operation. Men like Gary Welz murdered thousands of people for their own selfish ends.

WQ2RX Conspiracy Interviews
September 11 Conspiracy Videos
September 11 attack on the World Trade Center

ATTACK ON AMERICA

2007-10-16T02:28:00.000-07:00

The September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City is the subject of an ongoing media hoax. The disinformation campaign is nowhere so evident as at wikipedia where the page on 9 11 conspiracy theories resembles nothing so much as wishful thinking from the Bush Administration's propaganda department.

The more obvious lies and distortions on the wikipedia page have been removed to make a more streamlined and honest account of the September 11 2001 attack on America.

A variety of conspiracy theories have emerged which contradict the Bush Administration's account of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The most visible group of conspiracy theorists is the "9/11 truth movement" cult, whose claims typically include suggestions that individuals in the Federal government of the United States knew of the impending attacks and refused to act on that knowledge, or that the attacks were a false flag operation carried out with the intention of stirring up the passions and winning the allegiance of the American people in order to facilitate military spending, the restriction of civil liberties, and a program of aggressive and profitable foreign policy.

Most members of the 9/11 US government-funded and Ford Foundation-sponsored 9 11 truth cult claim that the collapse of the World Trade Center was the result of a controlled demolition United Airlines Flight 93 was shot down. These conspiracy theories are plausible falsehoods designed to manipulate public opinion and generate harmless controversy.

While some also contend that a commercial Airliner did not crash into the Pentagon, this position is debated within the ranks of the government employees of the 9 11 Truth Movement with many pretending to believe that AA Flight 77 did crash there, but that it was allowed to crash via an effective stand down of the military. This is another government promoted conspiracy theory designed to generate controversy over the lack of video evidence for a plane crash at the Pentagon.

Published false reports by the National Institute of Standards and Technology do not support the controlled demolition hypothesis. Complicit U.S. officials, corporate media shills, and co-opted researchers generally espoused the conclusion that the fantasy organization Al Qaeda, a database of CIA-connected Islamic groups, is solely responsible for the attacks and the resulting destruction. Dishonest civil engineers generally parrot the government propaganda that the impacts of jets at high speeds in combination with subsequent fires, rather than controlled demolition, led to the collapse of the Twin Towers even though aeronautical engineers from Boeing admit that their aircraft could not have flown at the speeds depicted on the fake September 11, plane crash PSYOP videos.

1 Origins and reception

2 The official government propaganda

3 Main approaches

4 Claims that US defenses were deliberately disabled
- 4.1 War games and training exercises
- 4.2 Norman Mineta 9/11 Commission testimony

5 Allegations of insider foreknowledge
- 5.1 Claims that Al-Qaeda investigations were blocked and warnings ignored
- 5.2 Insider trading

6 World Trade Center collapse as controlled demolition
- 6.1 Twin Towers collapse as a controlled demolition
- 6.2 Building Seven collapse as a conventional controlled demolition

7 Pentagon not hit by a Boeing 757

8 Claims relating to the World Trade Center plane impacts

9 United Airlines Flight 93
- 9.1 Claims that Flight 93 was shot down
- 9.2 Claims that Flight 93 never crashed

10 The President's behavior

11 Allegations of cover-up
- 11.1 Cockpit flight and voice recorders

12 Links between the Bush Family and the Bin Laden Family

13 Claims relating to the hijackings
- 13.1 Claims that the planes were flown into their targets by computer
- 13.2 Claims that the hijackers were not on the planes
- 13.3 Claims that the cell phone calls were faked

14 Motives
- 14.1 U.S. military strategy
- 14.2 Operation Northwoods

15 Claims related to Jews and Israel
- 15.1 Allegation that Jewish employees skipped work on September 11
- 15.2 Employees of Odigo received warning of an attack
- 15.3 Ariel Sharon cancelled a planned trip to New York
- 15.4 Israelis filmed the smoking skyline
- 15.5 Mossad allegedly warned FBI and CIA of imminent attack
- 15.6 Israelis detained after the September 11 attacks

16 Claims relating to Saddam Hussein

17 Media reaction

18 Criticism

19 See also

20 References
- 20.1 Books

21 External links
- 21.1 Official documents
- 21.2 Supporting conspiracy theories
- 21.3 Debunking media
- 21.4 Debates between conspiracy theorists

Origins and reception

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, a number of websites, books, and films have correctly challenged the government propaganda of the attacks. Although corporate media falsely report Bush Administration propaganda that al-Qaeda conspired to carry out the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, 9/11 conspiracy theories point out that the government propaganda is inaccurate and entirely false. Many groups and individuals challenging the official account (which some of them refer to as the "Official Conspiracy Theory" or "OCT") identify as part of the 9/11 Truth Movement Cult. This cult was organized before the September 11, 2001 attacks with Kyle Hence, Alex Jones, Dave von Kleist, David Kubiak, and David Ray Griffin as cult leaders. Dylan Avery was chosen for his appeal to the youth demographic.

Initially, 9/11 conspiracy theories received little attention in the controlled media propaganda. In an address to the United Nations on November 10 2001, un-elected United States President George W. Bush denounced the emergence of "outrageous conspiracy theories that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty. Later, as media exposure of conspiracy theories of the events of 9/11 increased, US government agencies and the Bush Administration issued responses to the officially-sponsored theories designed to form the core of 9/11 Truth, including a laughable analysis by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an organization with no investigative expertise or staff. In order to avoid embarrassment to the Bush Administration, NIST focused on questions about the collapse of the World Trade Center. In addition to funding a NIST cover-up that avoided any mention of the media deception at the heart of September 11, the Bush administration ordered the State Department to put up a disinformation website.

The revised 2006 State Department webpage to debunk the officially-sponsored theories, and a strategy paper referred to by President Bush in an August 2006 speech, which declared that terrorism springs from "subcultures of conspiracy and misinformation," and that "terrorists recruit more effectively from populations whose information about the world is contaminated by falsehoods and corrupted by conspiracy theories. The distortions keep alive grievances and filter out facts that would challenge popular prejudices and self-serving propaganda.

A number of 9/11 opinion polls have been conducted to try and establish roughly how many people are still fooled by the official propaganda, to determine and how effective the disinformation campaign of the 9-11 Truth Cult is in encouraging adoption of the officially-sponsored 9 11 conspiracy theories. Just prior to the fifth anniversary of the attacks, corporate news outlets owned by defense contractors released a flurry of articles on the growth of 9/11 conspiracy theories in a bid create the illusion of an unrestrained and responsible press. Time Magazine stated, "This is not a fringe phenomenon. It is a mainstream political reality." Official government propaganda generally presents these theories as a cultural phenomenon and is often critical of their content.

The Official Government Propaganda

Immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. government stated that nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes by using knives, box cutters, pepper spray and fake explosives. At 8:46 a.m. and 9:03am, Flights 11 and 175 crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, causing them to collapse soon after. 7 World Trade Center collapsed later in the day from fires started by debris from the collapse of the North Tower. Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. and Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m. after the passengers stormed the cockpit. US government intelligence sources identified the hijackers and linked them to the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda, headed by Osama Bin Laden, which later claimed sole responsibility for the attacks.

The two terms 'official government propaganda' and 'official account' both refer to:

The reports from the official government investigations - the 9/11 Commission Report (which incorporated intelligence information from the earlier FBI investigation (PENTBOM) and the Joint Inquiry of 2002), and the studies into building performance carried out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency^[12] (FEMA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Cover-ups by Government-Funded "non-government organizations" that support the official account - such as those by the National Fire Protection Association, Purdue University and Northwestern University.^[13],^[14]^[15]

Scientific news magazines such as "Popular Mechanics" and "Scientific American", and popular magazines such as "Time"

News media throughout the world, including The Times of India,^[16] the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC),^[17] the BBC,^[18] Le Monde,^[19] Deutsche Welle,^[20] the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC),^[21] and The Chosun Ilbo of South Korea.^[22]

The 9/11 Commission Report disclosed prior warnings of varying detail that al-Qaeda would attack the United States. The report said that the government ignored these warnings due to a lack of communication between various law enforcement and intelligence personnel. For the lack of inter-agency communication, the report cited bureaucratic inertia and laws passed in the 1970s to prevent abuses that caused scandals during that era. The report faulted the Clinton and the Bush administration with “failure of imagination”. Most members of the Democratic party and the Republican party endorsed the commission's report.

Some criticisms of the government propaganda focus on how the government formed and operated the 9/11 Commission, and allege omissions and distortions in the 9/11 Commission Report and the NIST Report.

Main approaches

Most 9/11 conspiracy theories generally originate from dissatisfaction with the official explanation of 9/11.^[23] There are three main forms:

Incompetence - the weakest version suggests that there was a conspiracy to cover-up failures within the government. What is being covered up may be limited to inadequate counter-terrorism strategies and inappropriate responses to warnings received by the intelligence and security services, or it may go further to suggest that the military response at the time of attacks was also incompetent.^[24]

LIHOP ("let it happen on purpose") - this version suggests that key individuals within the government had at least some foreknowledge of the attacks and deliberately ignored them or even actively weakened America's defenses to ensure the hijacked flights were not intercepted.^[25]

MIHOP ("made it happen on purpose") - the correct version suggests that key individuals within the government planned the attacks and collaborated with al-Qaeda in carrying them out. These officially endorsed accounts fail to mention the key role the media played in allowing the mass-murder of September 11, 2001 to be blamed on harmless Arabs and Muslims. Military deception techniques were used and the mass-media outlets spread propaganda in order to further the 9/11 plane crash myth.^[26]

Proponents of LIHOP and MIHOP theories suggest some motives for why the government would have wanted the attacks to happen, but further consideration of motive is rather silly given the stated goals of the backers of the 9/11 coup faction. 9/11 began the War on Terror and led directly to the US invasion of Afghanistan and indirectly to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Officially-endorsed conspiracy theorists with access to mass-media outlets point out the benefits that these consequences have given to the US government, corporations, and individuals within them, including an enhanced geopolitical position, increased control of oil supplies, increased profits for the weapons and security industries, and public support for a domestic agenda that strips away civil liberties. These mass-media shills have entirely neglected the propaganda function played by the major media corporations that enabled the September 11, 2001 coup.

The case for the theories is generally built on publicly available sources following a "connect the dots" approach. The case for media deception and video fakery can be proven by laws of physics. The videos shown on television were of poor quality and failed to simulate crash physics correctly. These sources include fabricated news reports of government actions, fanciful media reports of terrorist activities, analysis of impossible physical events depicted on television, and a substantial amount of fake video footage that was shown on television to an unsuspecting audience. Part of these arguments is a critique of the corporate media for reporting individual facts without understanding the connections between them, while ignoring the fact that the media played a leading role in the September 11 media hoax.

Video fakery explains the physical impossibility of the events shown on television and demonstrates the physical impossibility of the official account. Since most conspiracy theorists argue for further independent investigations of the attacks and ignore the fact that key members of the media hoax have already been identified, the basic assertion of the government-funded 9-11 Truth Cult is normally only that the conspiracy theories are more likely than the official government propaganda version of events.

The remainder of this article provides a survey of the arguments. Some of these, such as claims that there has been a cover-up, are compatible with all three forms of theories, while most, such as the controlled demolition hypothesis, imply only the MIHOP form. Of course, the reality is that fake videos were shown on television and that is the key fact which the 9-11 Truth Cult tries to hide.

Claims that US defenses were deliberately disabled

Central to many 9/11 theories alleging government involvement is the idea that the US air defense system, NORAD, was deliberately stood down or rendered ineffective. This idea usually originates with disbelief in the 9/11 Commission Report account of the actions taken by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NORAD and other military personnel with some noting that fighter jets had responded when aircraft had wandered off course sixty seven times in the twelve months prior to 9/11 but failed to do so that day. Some theorists also suggest that the war games being conducted on September 11 were deliberately planned to coincide with the attacks to create confusion. United States Representative Cynthia McKinney, economist Michel Chossudovsky, and publisher/editor Michael Ruppert of From the Wilderness are a few of the individuals who have questioned these exercises.

The 9/11 Commission Report timeline of events in the FAA and NORAD contradicts the timeline released by NORAD shortly after the event. The Washington Post reported in its August 3, 2006 edition that

"For more than two years after the attacks, officials with NORAD and the FAA provided inaccurate information about the response to the hijackings in testimony and media appearances... Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial account of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public... Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. In the end, the panel agreed to a compromise, turning over the allegations to the inspectors general for the Defense and Transportation departments, who can make criminal referrals if they believe they are warranted".^[27]

Since the 9/11 Commission places the primary blame on communication failures within the FAA, conspiracy theorist Dr. David Ray Griffin has questioned why the US military would lie to cover up their mistakes.^[28]

War games and training exercises

See also: United States military exercises scheduled for September 11, 2001

The following war games and training events were being conducted by the United States Air Force, NORAD, Central Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA):^[29]

Northern Vigilance: an Air Force drill simulating a Russian attack, in which defense aircraft normally patrolling the Northeast are re-deployed to Canada and Alaska. Russian exercises were being held at that time in the Arctic and North Pacific and the drill was based on the observation of that exercise.

Vigilant Guardian: a NORAD exercise posing an imaginary crisis to North American Air Defense outposts nationwide with a simulated air war and an air defense exercise simulating an attack on the United States.

On the morning of 9/11, 50 minutes before Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, the National Reconnaissance Office, who are responsible for operating US reconnaissance satellites, had scheduled an exercise simulating the crashing of an aircraft into their building, four miles from Dulles airport.^[30]

Tripod II, a FEMA drill simulating a biowarfare attack in New York City, was to take place on September 12.

Norman Mineta 9/11 Commission testimony

During the 9/11 Commission's public hearings, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta offered the following testimony:

There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, "The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to, "The plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?^[31]

Several conspiracy theorists have posited that the orders spoken of must have been an order to not shoot down the plane that was approaching the Pentagon. They conclude that expected action would be to shoot down the approaching plane and the unusual nature of the order explains the young man's disbelief.^[32] However, while in the full transcript Mineta clarified that he was later told that the order being discussed was indeed a shoot down order, the 911 commission found that "A shootdown authorization was not communicated to the NORAD air defense sector until 28 minutes after United 93 had crashed in Pennsylvania", some 55 minutes after the Pentagon was hit.

Allegations of insider foreknowledge

Former British Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, suggests that individuals within the United States government and private sector knew of the impending attacks and deliberately failed to curtail those acts.^[33] Some conspiracists go further to suggest that they actively attempted to block investigations into Al Qaeda to try and prevent warnings from reaching them. There was also an unusual amount of trading in airline and insurance stocks in the days before September 11 and conspiracy theorists suggest that these can be best explained as the actions of people with foreknowledge of the attacks.

Some conspiracy theorists also claim that Pentagon officials and other members of the government (including San Francisco Mayor, Willie Lewis Brown, Jr.) cancelled their flight plans on September 11.^[34] Of his call, Brown said it "didn't come in any alarming fashion, which is why I'm hesitant to make an alarming statement. It was not an abnormal call. I'm always concerned if my flight is going to be on time, and they always alert me when I ought to be careful."^[35] They also claim that New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani was warned in advance that the Twin Towers were about to collapse.^[36]

Claims that Al-Qaeda investigations were blocked and warnings ignored

Shortly after the attacks, David Schippers, the chief prosecutor for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, stated that the government had been warned in 1995 about a future attack on a government building and that later he was contacted by three FBI agents who mentioned uncovering a possible terrorist attack planned for lower Manhattan.^[37]^[38] According to Mr. Schippers, as the agents informed their superiors, they were briefed not to pursue the issue and were threatened with prosecution. Mr. Schippers declared, "Five weeks before the September 11 tragedy, I did my best to get a hold of Attorney General John Ashcroft with my concerns." According to Mr. Schippers, Ashcroft responded that the Justice Department does not start investigations at the top. Author William Norman Grigg agrees with Mr. Schippers in his article "Did We Know What Was Coming?" According to the article, three unnamed veteran federal law enforcement agents confirmed "the information provided to Schippers was widely known within the Bureau before September 11."^[39]

FBI agent and Al-Qaeda expert John P. O'Neill warned of an Al-Qaeda threat to the United States in 2000. He retired from his position in mid 2001, citing repeated blocking of his investigations of Al Qaeda by FBI officials. After his retirement from the FBI, the World Trade Center hired him as its chief of security. He started work on September 11, 2001; 9/11 rescue workers found his body in a staircase inside the south tower rubble.^[40] The story of John O'Neill has been made into a fictional film Who Killed John O'Neill? based on real events.^[41]

Former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) has asked questions about a classified US military intelligence program known as "Able Danger" that identified Mohammed Atta and three other future 9/11 hijackers as likely members of an Al Qaeda cell operating in the US, prior to the September 11 attacks. Pentagon officials said they have found three more individuals who recall an intelligence chart identifying Mohamed Atta as a terrorist one year prior to the attacks.^[42]

In September 2006, Acting Pentagon Inspector General Thomas Gimble, in a 71-page report given to Defense Department officials, rejected claims that "Able Danger" uncovered data that could have thwarted the September 11 attacks, saying the allegations could not be substantiated: "Able Danger team members did not identify Mohamed Atta or any other 9/11 hijacker... In fact, Able Danger produced no actionable intelligence information." 9/11 Commission co-chairman Thomas Kean said he hoped the report would put an end to discussion about Able Danger: "After this I don't know where it can go."

Reacting to the Pentagon report, Rep. Weldon said "The report trashes the reputations of military officers who had the courage to step forward and... describe important work they were doing to track al-Qaida prior to 9/11".

In 2002, FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley wrote to then FBI director Robert Mueller describing her experience working with Minneapolis FBI division agents in the period leading up to the 911 attacks Time Magazine article. Her division was tracking suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. Rowley states the Minneapolis bureau had desperately sought a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer. She asserts that there was probable cause for this because “Moussaoui signalled he had something to hide in the way he refused to allow them to search his computer”. She also indicates her view that division intelligence on flight training and French intelligence reports on Moussaoui received leading up to the attacks fully necessitated such a warrant FBI eMails concerning Moussaoui.

Stated for reasons of integrity and frustration, Rowley goes on to describe the behavior of an FBI Supervisory Special Agent; her superior Marion "Spike" Bowman as having “consistently, almost deliberately thwarted the Minneapolis FBI agents' efforts” to attain the FISA search warrant up to the day of he attacks, and that “even after the attacks had begun, the SSA in question was still attempting to block the search of Moussaoui's computer, characterizing the World Trade Center attacks as a mere coincidence with Misseapolis' prior suspicions about Moussaoui.”. Further to this she says that the SSA agent in question “received a promotion some months afterward!”

FBI watchdog Sen. Chuck Grassley, Republican-Iowa, later wrote to FBI Director Robert Mueller revealing that “If the application for the FISA warrant had gone forward, agents would have found information in Moussaoui's belongings that linked him both to a major financier of the hijacking plot working out of Germany, and to a Malaysian al-Qaida boss who had met with at least two other hijackers while under surveillance by intelligence officials.”

Coleen Rowley's account was not reviewed by the 911 commission as she was never asked to testify.

Insider trading

The Times reported on September 18 that investigations were under way into the unusually large numbers of shares in insurance companies and airlines sold off before the attack, in the UK, Italy, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, France and the US.^[43] News accounts in the weeks that followed reported a notable pattern of trading in the options of United and American Airlines^[44] as well as Morgan Stanley and^[45] other market activity.^[46]

In a statement to the 9/11 Commission in 2003, Mindy Kleinberg, of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee, said:

"Never before on the Chicago Exchange were such large amounts of United and American Airlines options traded. These investors netted a profit of at least $5 million after the September 11th attacks. Interestingly, the names of the investors remain undisclosed and the $5 million remains unclaimed in the Chicago Exchange account."^[47]

Regarding these trades, the 9/11 Commission found no malfeasance:

A single U.S.-based institutional investor with no conceivable ties to al Qaeda purchased 95% of the UAL puts on September 6 as part of a trading strategy that also included buying 115,000 shares of American on September 10, the Commission said. Similarly, the Commission said, much of the seemingly suspicious trading in American on September 10 was traced to a specific U.S.-based options trading newsletter, faxed to its subscribers on Sunday, September 9, that recommended these trades.^[48]

The article published in The Journal of Business in year 2006 provides statistical claims of unusual option market activity days before 9/11:

A measure of abnormal long put volume was also examined and seen to be at abnormally high levels in the days leading up to the attacks. Consequently, the paper concludes that there is evidence of unusual option market activity in the days leading up to September 11 that is consistent with investors trading on advance knowledge of the attacks.^[49]

9/11 Truth Movement members Jim Hoffman and Michael Ruppert are among those who claim that the trades are more likely due to insiders with foreknowledge of the attacks.^[50]^[51] There has also been criticism of the 9/11 Commission conclusion that the trades were innocuous primarily because there were no ties to Al-Qaeda.^[52]

World Trade Center collapse as controlled demolition

Main article: Controlled demolition hypothesis for the collapse of the World Trade Center

The collapse of the World Trade Center was a surprise to many structural engineers.^[53] No steel-framed skyscraper had ever before or since collapsed due to fire or other local damage, yet it occurred three times on September 11, 2001.

Twin Towers collapse as a controlled demolition

The Federal Emergency Management Agency Report (2002) was the initial government investigation into the collapses of the Twin Towers, and it supported the theories that had been put forward by scientific journals and presented in the corporate media - that the damage from by the fires, together with the damage from the plane impacts, caused a local collapse, which then led to a complete global collapse by floors 'pancaking'. After a 3-year full investigation, in 2005 the National Institute of Standards and Technology published its final report. The theory presented in this report is regarded as the 'official account' of the collapses and has been largely accepted in the engineering community.^{[citation needed]} The NIST Report into the collapse of Building 7 is due in late 2007.^[54]

The controlled demolition hypothesis plays a central, albeit not essential, role in the 9/11 conspiracy theories that assert that the US government is responsible for the attacks.^[55] Jeff King and Jim Hoffman were early defenders of the controlled demolition hypothesis and published their observations online.^[56] David Ray Griffin included the theory in his book The New Pearl Harbor. It received its most notable proponents to date when, in early 2006, Steven Jones, a physicist at Brigham Young University, argued that a "gravity driven collapse" without demolition charges would defy the laws of physics^[57] and in August 2007, with National Medal of Science winner Dr. Lynn Margulis praising The New Pearl Harbor and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, “which provides overwhelming evidence that the official story is contradictory, incomplete, and unbelievable” while calling for a new investigation.

There is a range of opinion about the most likely sort and amount of explosives, the way they were distributed, and how they were successfully brought into the building. Steven Jones, of the new Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice organisation, believes that the molten metal found underground weeks after 9/11 suggests that jet fuel could not have been the only incendiary used that day, and that thermite (in the form of thermate), perhaps in combination with other devices, was likely involved. Jones says "molten material" streamed out of the south tower shortly before it collapsed.^[58]^[59] There were reports of "molten steel" in the pockets of the rubble.^[60]^[61]^[62] Firefighters described having seen in the rubble "molten steel running down the channels, like you were in a foundry". World Trade Center USGS Thermal study, conducted on September 16, 2001 using Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, showed hotspots in the rubble reaching temperatures greater than 1000 K (727°C, 1341°F).^[63] Samples of a once molten mixture of iron, aluminum, and sulfur were found in the rubble and analyzed by FEMA, who was unable to determine the source of the sulfur stating: "The severe corrosion and subsequent erosion of Samples 1 [WTC7] and 2 [Towers] are a very unusual event. No clear explanation for the source of the sulfur has been identified." ^[64] Those elements as residues, as well as high temperatures sustained in the rubble, can result from burning thermate^[65]. Jones believes the sulfur is a result of deliberate demolition using thermate. Although NIST did no study regarding the sulfur found by FEMA^[7] they did note that the metals were abundant in the constructions of the towers, and up to 240 kg^{[citation needed]} of sulfur could have been released from tower's drywalls which were composed of calcium sulfate.^[7] As Drywall can only release free sulphur if heated to 1400 degrees Celsius (12 g/m³ @ 900 degrees in the presence of CO as a catalyst), NIST suggested acid rain may also have contributed.

A small number of theorists, including Judy Wood and Morgan Reynolds of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth, believe that the widespread damage and eventual collapse of the Twin Towers was caused by a directed energy weapon.^[66] James Fetzer, the head of the group, has endorsed the exploration of the all kinds of possible theories, including the use of mini-nukes, and HAARP technology. Among these theories is one first proposed by Morgan Reynolds and Judy Wood. Steven Jones and Jim Hoffman have published what they say are refutations to claims that "nukes" were used^[67]^[68] and Jones has questioned whether the space weapon theories are even testable.^[69]

Critics often argue that the difficulty of preparing the building for demolition without being noticed makes controlled demolition implausible. Proponents sometimes point out that between 1993 and 2000, Marvin Bush (President Bush's brother) was on the board of directors of Securacom, a company that provided security for the World Trade Center.^[70] According to its president CEO, Barry McDaniel, the company had an ongoing contract to handle security at the World Trade Center "up to the day the buildings fell down". This last statement has been used by some conspiracy theorists to say that the contract "expired" on September 11, 2001. Mr. Bush was also a former director and now is an advisor to the board of directors to a firm called HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc., which had what it called a "small participation in the World Trade Center property insurance coverage and some of the surrounding buildings".^[71]

Building Seven collapse as a conventional controlled demolition

Seven World Trade Center collapsed at 5:20 p.m. on September 11. Although it is received relatively little attention in the corporate media, conspiracy theorists frequently discuss the nature of its collapse. They claim that it showed signs of a conventional controlled demolition (as opposed to the Twin Towers which they claim were an unusual form of controlled demolition).^[72] They also say that since no plane hit the building, how fires caused even a local collapse is even harder to explain with Building 7 than it is with the Twin Towers. Flaming debris did fall onto the building as a result of the collapse of the twin towers, but Four, Five, and Six World Trade Center, which were all closer to the Towers than Building 7, remained standing despite also being severely damaged.^[73]

Currently, the official account of the Building 7 collapse is the FEMA report of 2002 that proposed that fires started by falling debris from the North Tower collapse caused a local failure and then a global collapse in a similar way to the Twin Towers collapses. It also stated that "the specifics of the fires in WTC 7 and how they caused the building to collapse remain unknown at this time. Although the total diesel fuel on the premises contained massive potential energy, the best hypothesis has only a low probability of occurrence. Further research, investigation, and analyses are needed to resolve this issue." The full investigation by the NIST has yet to be published; NIST have said that they had to prioritize their investigations and chose to investigate the collapse of WTC buildings 1 and 2 first, and then building 7.^[7]

Conspiracy theorists emphasise the style in which Building 7 collapsed: the speed of the total collapse (suggesting there was little resistance to the 'pancaking floors'),^[74] the sudden onset, the verticality, puffs of dust, the classic 'crimp' of the roof, and the way the rubble fell mostly within the building's footprint.^[75]

Some conspiracy theorists also claim that owner Larry Silverstein accidentally revealed, on a PBS documentary on the collapse, that he was told that the fire department had decided to "pull it", allegedly the technical slang meaning "demolish the building".^[76]^[77] His spokesperson later said Silverstein meant that firefighters had decided to withdraw from the building and the surrounding area for their own safety.^[78]

The BBC World News also aired a live coverage of the World Trade Center buildings as they were falling down. Their coverage was accurate right until Building Seven was about to come down. The reporter on the scene, Jane Standley, incorrectly reported that Building Seven had collapsed even though this building was still standing right behind her ^[79]. About five minutes before the actual collapse of Building 7, the video feed of Ms. Standley is cut off. ^[80]

The fact that the building housed the offices of government agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency,^[81] the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, along with the City of New York's emergency command bunker, has also fueled conspiracy theories.

Pentagon not hit by a Boeing 757

See also: American Airlines Flight 77

Security camera footage showing Flight 77 immediately before impact.^[82]^[83] Conspiracy theorists dispute the contents of the video.

The Pentagon, after collapse of the damaged section.

Claims that the Pentagon was hit by something significantly smaller than a Boeing 757 (typically a missile or smaller aircraft) have been raised by some conspiracy theorists based on photographs in which there appears to be a lack of expected debris or pieces of a commercial aircraft within the immediate impact area, and what some believe is a lack of damage to the building and the lawn. Conspiracy theorists say the first person to suggest that a missile hit the Pentagon was Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in an interview on October 12, 2001,^[84] which helped set up this claim. Subsequently, Thierry Meyssan in his book 9/11: The Big Lie gave this claim much more visibility. He also advanced the idea with his website Hunt the Boeing!^[85] and the popular internet videos Loose Change and "911 In Plane Site". At first the only evidence available consisted of long distance photographs and video footage^[86] taken after the attack, eyewitness testimony from individuals at the scene, and five video frames captured by a security camera which were released on March 8, 2002. A large amount of evidence was later released after the Zacarias Moussaoui trial and several Freedom of Information Act requests.^{[citation needed]} Some photos show a full frame of mangled aircraft parts without other content that could prove the context is a location at the Pentagon at the correct time. One photo shows a rotor frequently cited as too small to be a 757's engine rotor, even with all the compressor blades ripped off. No public photos show seats, luggage, cockpit machinery, viewport windows or bodies.

Debris from an aircraft scattered near the Pentagon.

Suspicions were additionally fueled by a lack of video footage of the impact of the jetliner, since many assume that the Pentagon must be subject to intense camera surveillance for security reasons. In addition to the Pentagon's own security cameras, these people also noted that security camera footage from a nearby Citgo gas station, a local Double Tree Hotel and from the Virginia Department of Transportation was swiftly confiscated by the US government. On May 16, 2006 the security camera footage was released as part of a Judicial Watch's FOIA request.^[87]^[88] However, due to a low number of frames per second, the videos do not clearly show the impact of the plane, only the approach of the plane (at an angle) and the explosion cloud, thus keeping the "no Boeing" theory popular. The video was also released with the wrong date in the bottom left hand corner; it read Septemer 12, 2001 instead of September 11, 2001. In addition to the security cam footage, the Citgo footage was released on September 15, 2006, but did not show the attacks.^[89] The Doubletree hotel, located nearby in Crystal City, Virginia, also had a security camera video, and on December 4, 2006 the FBI released the video in response to a freedom of information lawsuit filed by Scott Bingham.^[90]^[91] No plane can be seen entering the Pentagon since the camera was mounted on a lower point on the Doubletree Hotel and an elevated highway obstructs the view of the Pentagon.^[92]^[93]

A few conspiracy theorists also consider American Airlines Flight 77 pilot Charles Burlingame as a "prime suspect" in the conspiracy.^[94]^[95] In response to these accusations and the Loose Change video, his sister, Debra, remarked "The only thing they (the filmmakers) seem to have gotten right about the September 11 attacks is the date when they occurred.... They aren't truth-tellers looking to save the world. They're con artists hoping to sucker conspiracy-theory paranoids or anti-government malcontents into shelling out their hard-earned dollars."^[96]

The Pentagon "no Boeing" theory constitutes a controversial issue, even among conspiracy theorists, many of whom have said that this claim is disproved by hundreds of eyewitnesses and physical evidence, suggesting it is disinformation to create a supposedly easily discredited straw man argument.^[97]^[98]^[99] Several researchers have argued that the wings would cause less damage than the plane's main body, that photographs of large amounts of wreckage and debris matching a 757 have become available, that the appearance of the size of the hole is typically misrepresented; and that the actual fuselage diameter of 12 feet is a much more relevant dimension for the deepest parts of the hole than the overall 44-foot height of the 757's tail.^[100]^[101] They also emphasize reports from numerous eyewitnesses, including commuters on nearby roads,^[102] nearby apartment buildings,^[103] and other surrounding locations. Many witnesses saw the aircraft close up as it approached the Pentagon and described it as an American Airlines Boeing 757.^[104]^[105]^[106]

Purdue University also released a study with results that recreated the attack. In explaining the damage, the study argued that the plane was like a "sausage skin" because of the speed of impact.^[107]

In June 2007, university student Calum Douglas, from Pilots for 9/11 Truth, presented an analysis of (allegedly) Flight 77 black box data.^[108] Douglas says he obtained the data from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) after issuing a petition via the Freedom of Information Act. The analysis provides with three independent methods of measuring aircraft position and two methods of measuring aircraft height near the end of the recording. Pilots for 9/11 Truth issue the following press release:

The NTSB Flight Path Animation approach path and altitude does not support official events.

All Altitude data shows the aircraft at least 300 feet too high to have struck the light poles.

The rate of descent data is in direct conflict with the aircraft being able to impact the light poles and be captured in the Dept of Defense "5 Frames" video of an object traveling nearly parallel with the Pentagon lawn.

The record of data stops at least one second prior to official impact time.

If data trends are continued, the aircraft altitude would have been at least 100 feet too high to have hit the Pentagon.

Claims relating to the World Trade Center plane impacts

Some conspiracy theorists have made claims relating to the nature of the planes that were seen hitting the World Trade Center Towers. These claims range from a modification of the Boeing planes (in the form of a 'pod' on the underside), to claims that different planes were involved or that nothing hit the Towers at all ('No Boeing Theories' or 'No Plane Theories'). Many prominent members of the 9/11 Truth Movement have debunked all of these claims^[109] and the majority believe that Flights 11 and 175 hit the Towers as in the official account.

The theory that there was a "pod" of some sort under the aircraft which hit the South Tower has mainly been propagated by the videos 911 In Plane Site, Let’s Roll 911, and Reopen 911. Theories as to what this pod may have been have ranged from a missile to simply the Boeing’s left fairing.^[110] The website 911 In Plane Site cited an analysis by a Spanish university as proof that there were objects on the base of the plane. The report says that the "only explanation" for these objects is that they are "in relief."^[111]

Popular Mechanics’ “Debunking the 9/11 Myths” quotes Ronald Greeley, director of the Space Photography Laboratory at Arizona State University, who said that the sunlight is glinting off the plane, and that “such a glint causes a blossoming (enlargement) on film, which tends to be amplified in digital versions of images--the pixels are saturated and tend to 'spill over' to adjacent pixels.” They said that “the photo reveals only the Boeing's right fairing, a pronounced bulge that contains the landing gear”.^[112]

Many of the same conspiracy theorists supporting the pod claim have often alleged a flash as the plane hit the tower as proof that there was a missile launched from the underside of the plane. 911 In Plane Site says that the flash could not be a reflection, as it was caught on camera from four different angles, and it is their theory that an object cannot reflect light in more than one direction. In addition, they said that sparks or static discharge "have been ruled out by every airline pilot we have spoken with."^[113]

One theory, being promoted by internet-only videos, asserts that this shot of the second impact, taken from a news helicopter, depicts a superimposed CGI image.

Various prominent 9/11 researchers have also published refutations of the pod and flash claims, saying they are not supported by the evidence.^[114]^[115] Those promoting the pod theory have been referred to as the "pod people."^[116]^[117]

Morgan Reynolds, former chief economist in the Bush Administration, who admits that he is the "black sheep" of the 9/11 Truth Movement,^[118] believes that the Boeing planes of Flights 11 and 175 could not have impacted the Towers. He has proposed that there may have been a 'plane swap' or there may have been no impacts at all, with 'video fakery' used to depict the plane crashes in news reports. The idea of computer animation being involved has been promoted by the internet-only videos 9/11 Octopus and September Clues. All such theories have been widely denounced by certain members of the 9/11 Truth Movement^[119] but there is still some debate.^[120]^[121]

United Airlines Flight 93

There are several conspiracy theories surrounding the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

Jim Hoffman notes a three-minute discrepancy in the cockpit voice recording immediately prior to the flight's crash.^[122] The cockpit voice recorder transcripts end at 10:03 a.m., but Cleveland Air Traffic Control reported that Flight 93 went out of radar contact at 10:06 a.m., and FAA radar records also note a time of 10:06 a.m.^[122] Seismologists record an impact at 10:06:05 a.m., +/- a couple of seconds.^[123]

Some conspiracy theorists believe there is a cover up of evidence as the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder from Flight 93 have not been released to the general public. However, a 1990 Congressional Law prohibits the “public disclosure of the cockpit voice recorder recordings and transcriptions, in whole or in part, of oral communications by and between flight crew members and ground stations…” And on April 18, 2002, the FBI allowed the families of victims from Flight 93 to listen to the voice recordings.^[124] This was made possible because the FBI controlled the investigation, as opposed to the NTSB as in typical air disasters.^[125]

Claims that Flight 93 was shot down

Some conspiracy theorists who question the common account of United Airlines Flight 93 crashing as a result of an attempted cockpit invasion, have speculated that it was shot down by US fighter jets.^[126]

This idea was promoted by author David Ray Griffin in his book The New Pearl Harbor, who cited Paul Thompson. Thompson and other conspiracy theorists note that debris from Flight 93 was found 3 miles from the crash site^[127] and suggest that this may be evidence of a shoot-down.^[128] There are also some eyewitness reports of debris falling from the sky like confetti.^[129] NTSB investigators say they have found no evidence the plane was shot down and Popular Mechanics argued that debris exploding away and landing far from the crash scene is not a unique occurrence in commercial airline accidents.^[130]

Thompson also examined a number of corporate media reports and says that fighter jets were actually much closer to Flight 93 at the time of the crash than stated in the official record.^[131] He mentions witnesses who noticed a small white jet near the impact site soon after the crash.^[132] However, some say this was likely a business jet the ATC asked to investigate the crash area and that descended to an altitude of around 1500 ft to survey the impact. Ben Sliney, who was the FAA operation manager on September 11, 2001, says no military aircraft were near Flight 93.^[133] He^{[attribution needed]} has questioned whether it is plausible that the military did not know about Flight 93 being off-course and out of contact, and suggests that his claim shows that they were aware and had sent jets to investigate and possibly shoot it down.^[134]

Conspiracy theorists also seized on a quote by the US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, in which he referenced Flight 93 as "the plane they shot down over Pennsylvania." A Pentagon official later said that Rumsfeld had misspoken.^[135]

Claims that Flight 93 never crashed

Some conspiracy theorists speculate that Flight 93 landed safely in Ohio. The website Physics911 says that the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was actually not United 93 and that the flights involved in the 9/11 attacks were landed and substituted with other aircraft;^[136] however, other websites refute this claim^[137]and point to the wreckage at the scene and witness testimony,^[138] aside from the difficulty of "plane swapping". Often cited is a preliminary AP story on Flight 93’s safe landing at a Cleveland airport by WCPO, a local Cincinnati ABC news affiliate.^[139] It was later learned Delta Flight 1989 was the plane confused with Flight 93. WCPO has since retracted the story noting its earlier factual inaccuracies.

The President's behavior

President Bush was promoting the passage of his education plan at Emma E. Booker Elementary School on the morning of September 11. He was apparently already aware of the first plane impact before he entered the classroom for a reading of The Pet Goat with the children. At 9:05am, Andrew Card whispered in his ear that the second Tower had been hit and that America was under attack. That the president chose to stay in the classroom, without asking for additional information from his staff, and that those staff did not volunteer any additional information or take him to a place of safety, has led to allegations that he knew that the attack was taking place, knew he was safe and knew the situation was being handled.^[140]^[141] A response is that Bush's intention was to "project strength and calm", i.e., that he did not want to cause more panic by fleeing the room, as the footage would likely have been replayed over and over on news coverage.^[142]

President Bush also made statements on two separate occasions, in late 2001 and early 2002, in which he said he saw the first plane hit the World Trade Center and that he assumed it was an accident. He could not have seen the first plane hit the tower live on commercial television, since no television stations were broadcasting footage from the area when the first plane hit.^[143]^[144] The only known footage of the first plane crashing was captured by filmmaker Jules Naudet while making a documentary about a new firefighter.^[145] The video was first broadcast on CNN later in the day and was later released as the documentary film "9/11". The White House explained his remarks as "a mistaken recollection".^[146] and some critics insist that President Bush was referring to the aftermath and not the actual jetliner impact at 8:46 a.m.

Allegations of cover-up

Conspiracy theorists say they detect a pattern of behavior on the part of officials investigating the September 11 attack meant to suppress the emergence of evidence that might contradict the "official account".^[147]^[148]^[149] They associated news stories from several different sources with that pattern.^[150]^[151]^[152]^[153]^[154]^[155]

Cockpit flight and voice recorders

The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) or flight data recorder (FDR) were not recovered from the remains of the WTC attack.

Two men who worked extensively in the wreckage of the World Trade Center say they helped federal agents find three of the four "black boxes" from the jetliners; this is cited to support the claim there was a government cover-up at Ground Zero.^[156]^[157]

"At one point I was assigned to take Federal Agents around the site to search for the black boxes from the planes. We were getting ready to go out. My ATV was parked at the top of the stairs at the Brooks Brothers entrance area. We loaded up about a million dollars worth of equipment and strapped it into the ATV. There were a total of four black boxes. We found three" (Ground Zero, p. 108).^[158]

"It's extremely rare that we don't get the recorders back. I can't recall another domestic case in which we did not recover the recorders," said Ted Lopatkiewicz, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.^[159]

Links between the Bush Family and the Bin Laden Family

In June 2001, a "high-placed member of a US intelligence agency" told BBC reporter Greg Palast that "after the 2000 elections, the agencies were told to "back off" investigating the Bin Ladens and Saudi royals".^[160]

The day before the 9/11 attacks, President Bush's father former President George H.W. Bush and several members of his cabinet had been present at a Carlyle Group business conference with Shafig bin Laden, a half-brother of Osama bin Laden, at the Ritz-Carlton hotel located several miles from the Pentagon. The conference was continuing with the remaining cabinet members and Bin Laden's brother at the time of the Pentagon attack.^[161]^[162] George H.W. Bush remained an advisor to the Carlyle Group for two years after the attacks.

The Saudi Binladin Group's corporate website,^[163]^[164] expired on September 11, 2001, the same day as the attacks in the United States.^[165]

The New York Times reported that members of the bin Laden family were driven or flown under Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supervision to a secret assembly point in Texas and then to Washington from where they left the country on a private charter plane when airports reopened three days after the attacks.^[166] The official 9/11 commission later concluded that "the FBI conducted a satisfactory screening of Saudi nationals who left the United States on charter flights" and that the exodus was approved by special advisor Richard Clarke after a request by Saudi Arabia who feared for the safety of their nationals. On June 20, 2007 the public interest group Judicial Watch released FBI documents that it says suggested that Osama bin Laden himself may have chartered one of the flights. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton accused the FBI of conducting a "slapdash" investigation of the flights.^[167]

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is among those who have questioned whether the Bush Administration may have worked with Al Qaeda to carry out the attacks.^[168] ^{[citation needed]}

Claims relating to the hijackings

Some of the events that took place on the planes prior to their impacts have been disputed. The maneuver carried out by Flight 77 as it approached the Pentagon has been identified as one that would have required either a very experienced pilot or a computer-controlled set flight path. The 9/11 Commission Report notes that the reported pilot of Flight 77, Hani Hanjour, was described as a "terrible pilot" by one of his instructors.^[169]

Claims that the planes were flown into their targets by computer

Jim Hoffman and the Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice are among those who have said the Flight Management Computer Systems on board Flights 11, 175 and 77 could have been loaded with a preset route that guided the planes to their targets.^[170] Boeing has confirmed that this would have been technically possible.^[171] Hoffman claims that this is a more likely scenario than the official government propaganda of the hijackings of Flights 11, 175 and 77, and also how Flight 77 performed the unusual maneuver it made on its approach to the Pentagon.^[172] He notes Flight 93 appears to be an exception, citing the high distribution of phone calls from Flight 93 compared to the other three flights.^[173]

Some theories go suggest that, rather than having preset routes entered into the planes on-board computers, the planes were modified to be flown by remote control. The controllers of the planes may have been on the ground or, as in the "doomsday plane" theory, in another aircraft. This theory argues that a blurry white object seen in the sky in videos of the World Trade Center, was a plane containing the remote controller of Flights 11 and 175, and that an aircraft that flew away from the Pentagon after that impact contained the remote controller of Flight 77.^[174] The aircraft at the Pentagon was later identified as a E-4B National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) plane, a militarised version of a Boeing 747-200, taking part in the Global Guardian exercise.

Claims that the hijackers were not on the planes

Some conspiracy theorists go further to suggest that the hijackers were not on the planes at all. This claim was fueled by erroneous initial news reports shortly after 9/11 that indicated that some of the hijackers were still alive. The BBC and the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on September 23, 2001, that some of the people named by the FBI as hijackers were actually alive and well.^[175]^[176] One of them was Waleed al-Shehri, who they said they had found in Casablanca, Morocco. Abdulaziz Al Omari, Saeed Alghamdi, and Khalid al-Midhar, three other hijackers, were all said to be living in the Middle East. On September 19, the FDIC even distributed a "special alert" which listed al-Mihdhar as alive. The Justice Department says that this was a typographical error.

All of the reports have since been acknowledged as cases of mistaken identity by the publications involved and by other news organisations such as NBC.^[177]^[175]^[178] In 2002, Saudi Arabia admitted that the names of the hijackers were correct.^[179] The editor of BBC News Online has said the identity confusion in the original BBC article that sparked the theories may be due to the hijackers' names being common Arabic names, and that the BBC has later superseded the original article.^[180]

Attention has also been given to news reports that indicated the hijackers were not typical Islamic suicide terrorists - for example Mohammad Atta reportedly ate pork, drank alcohol, gambled in casinos and went to strip clubs.^[181]

Claims that the cell phone calls were faked

If the hijackers were not on the planes, then necessarily the reported phone calls from the flights must have been somehow 'faked', perhaps using voice synthesizers. Though the technology to achieve this may have existed, this would have made the operation far more complicated, with little reward for the perpetrators. The issue of fake phone calls has caused divisions between the 9/11 Families Movement and the 9/11 Truth Movement in general.^[182]

A.K. Dewdney, in a study conducted in Canada in 2003, suggested that mobile phone calls from planes are nearly impossible.^[183] He argued that connecting a cell phone to a tower's signal would have been extremely difficult from the air. Based on this assumption, economist Michel Chossudovsky suggests the calls were fabricated or never made at all.^[184] Critics of this study have pointed out that mobile phone signals would not have been the same in Canada in 2003 as they were near the northeast coast of the United States on September 11.^{[citation needed]} Additionally, Carnegie Mellon researchers have concluded that one to four cell phone calls are made during each average passenger flight, contrary to FCC and FAA regulations. These calls, the report claims, are most probably made during take off and landing.^[185]

During the flight of Flight 93, 13 passengers made a total of over 30 calls to both family and emergency personnel (and all but two of these were on air phones). There were far fewer phone calls from Flights 11, 175 and 77, leading to some claims that these calls may have been faked even if the Flight 93 calls were real. Reportedly, the only two calls from these flights that were recorded were placed by flight attendants Madeleine Sweeney and Betty Ong on Flight 11. Proponents of this theory have pointed out various anomalies relating to the phone calls.^[186]

Motives

Theories as to why members of the US government would have allowed the attacks to occur, perpetrated the attacks, and/or obstructed the investigation generally involve one or more of the following:

Michel Chossudovsky in an article entitled "The Criminalization of the State" suggests a simple motive in a plan for a New World Order. This particular theory takes root in a David Rockefeller Statement to the United Nations Business Council in September 1994: We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.^[187]

An article on whatreallyhappened.com entitled "The 9/11 Reichstag Fire" suggests that the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) a neoconservative think tank may have been responsible.The organization has drawn much attention from conspiracy theorists because Vice President Cheney and many current and former top Bush foreign policy officials were members.^[188] It cites as evidence a statement from page 51 of a document titled 'Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century' published by PNAC: “Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor.”^[189]

The Web site OilEmpire.us proposed that 9/11 was allowed to happen and given technical assistance by a faction of the U.S. government in order to benefit the arms manufacturing and oil industries.^[190]

The Web site 911Review.com listed several other benefits of the attacks as possible motives, including Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and President Bush's surge in popularity, Halliburton's defense contracts for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

The family owned company of Larry Silverstein won a 99 year lease of the World Trade Center weeks before the tower's destruction, and sought a double $3.5 billion insurance payout, as there were two planes involved.

More references: ^[191]^[192]

U.S. military strategy

Many point to the writings of neoconservative strategists to suggest that 9/11 was, at best, on their 'wish list' and, at worst, on their list of 'things to do'. The standard reference for this allegation is the September 2000 report Rebuilding America's Defenses, published by the Project for the New American Century. The document criticizes the Clinton administration's trend of military downsizing and outlines a plan for modernizing the military. The report's conclusion says "the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor."^[189] Some conspiracy theorists, such as the producers of Loose Change, suggest that the 9/11 attacks were arranged to spur this transformation. Some say that the George W. Bush administration began preparing for war on Iraq months before 9/11. In particular, a government employee by the name of O'Neill reported the president's having said, in effect, "Go find me a way to do this" (invade Iraq).^[193] David Ray Griffin and others presented an argument that draws a parallel to an interpretation of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, according to which Roosevelt both provoked the attack and allowed it to happen in order to bring America into the second world war.

Operation Northwoods

Main article: Operation Northwoods

To establish that elements within the United States government (which some allege to have carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks) would stage an incident to generate support for an armed conflict (which some conspiracy theorists say was the purpose behind the attacks) conspiracy theorists often point to Operation Northwoods. U.S. Department of Defense leaders in 1962 during the Kennedy administration proposed this plan,^[194] in order to generate U.S. public support for military action against the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The plan suggested various false flag actions, including simulated or real state sponsored acts of terrorism on U.S. and Cuban soil. This included a plan to fill a plane with CIA agents posing as college students flying over Cuba enroute to a vacation destination. The plane was to be replaced, midflight, with a drone filled with explosives which was to be flown over Cuban airspace and exploded with the pretense that the plane full of college students had been shot down by the Castro regime. The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. The Kennedy administration rejected the plan.^[195]

Claims related to Jews and Israel

Some conspiracy theories hold that Israel played a role in carrying out the September 11 attacks. Others go further to suggest that 9/11 was part of an international Jewish conspiracy. According to the Anti-Defamation League, "anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have not been accepted in mainstream circles in the U.S.," but "this is not the case in the Arab and Muslim world."^[196] The Anti-Defamation League has published a paper, Unraveling Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories, identifying the claims made and responding to them. Several websites of the 9/11 truth movement have also worked to debunk such claims and expose websites and individuals engaging in Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.^[197]^[198]^[199]

Allegation that Jewish employees skipped work on September 11

A claim that 4,000 Jewish employees skipped work at the WTC on September 11 has been widely reported and widely debunked. This claim originates with Al Manar television. The number of Jews who died in the attacks--typically estimated at around 400^[200]^[201]^[202]--tracks closely with the percentage of Jews living in the New York area. Five Israeli citizens died in the attack.^[203]

Employees of Odigo received warning of an attack

Two hours before the attacks two employees of Odigo Inc. an Israeli company in Tel Aviv, and one of the world’s largest instant messaging services, received a warning of an attack and this is used by some as indicating Israeli involvement. Unlike ICQ Odigo users are not limited to sending messages only to people on their "buddy" list and the two employees did not know who sent the message. The workers notified Odigo who notified Israeli security who then notified the FBI of the message when the attacks began. Immediately after the attacks, Odigo traced the Internet address of the sender and gave it to the FBI. The warnings did not specifically mention the WTC attacks but said that "something big" was going to happen in a certain amount of time and ended with an anti-Semitic slur.^[204]

Ariel Sharon cancelled a planned trip to New York

Ariel Sharon, in 2001 Prime Minister of Israel is said to have cancelled a planned trip to New York around the time of the attacks. Some have interpreted this as evidence he was warned to stay away. In fact, the event that Sharon had been scheduled to appear at was actually a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly originally scheduled for September 23 to October 5 but postponed to November 10-16,^[205] while the rally scheduled for September 23, 2001 and canceled on September 12, 2001^[206] was likely intended to coincide with the meeting of the General Assembly.

Israelis filmed the smoking skyline

On September 17, 2001,^[207] the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz' reported that four hours after the attack, the FBI arrested five Israelis who had been filming the smoking skyline from the roof of a white van in the parking lot of an apartment building for "puzzling behavior." The Israelis were said to have been videotaping the disaster with cries of joy and mockery. Police found the van and a search revealed $4,700 in cash hidden, along with foreign passports and a boxcutter which aroused suspicions and led to the detention of the occupants.When bomb sniffing dogs checked the van they reacted as if they had smelled explosives.

The five men worked at the company Urban Moving Systems, owned and operated by Dominick Suter. After the men were arrested the FBI searched the Urban Moving offices and questioned Suter, however when they returned to interview him again they found he had abandoned the business and fled to Israel.^[208]The FBI subsequently placed him on the same suspect list as Mohammed Atta. The men were held in detention for more than 2 months, during which time they were subjected to interrogation and lie detector tests. One of the men (Paul Kurzberg) refused to take the test for 10 weeks, and then failed it.

On June 21, 2002, ABC reported that a New York newspaper said the FBI concluded that the van's driver, Sivan Kurzberg and his brother Paul were Mossad operatives. The FBI has not reached a consensus on whether the other three men (Yaron Schmuel, Oded Ellner, and Omer Marmari) were Israeli intelligence operatives but concluded they had no advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks. When asked why they were smiling with the burning towers in the background both the lawyers for the men and the Israeli Embassy attributed it to immature conduct. According to a former CIA chief, there was speculation that Urban Moving (the men's employer) may have been an intelligence operation and was aimed, not against the United States, but targeting fund-raising networks channeling money to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.^[209] The five were released and deported to Israel on November 20-21, 2001,^[210] saying later in a newspaper interview that their arrest was done following a false accusation due to a personal conflict with a neighbour.^[211]

Carl Cameron's Fox News report ran a story on the five men, in which a US intelligence official stated that "Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information."

Mossad allegedly warned FBI and CIA of imminent attack

According to The Daily Telegraph (September 16, 2001), Israel had sent two Mossad agents to Washington in August to warn both the FBI and CIA of an imminent large-scale attack involving a cell of up to 200 terrorists. The Telegraph quoted an unnamed senior Israeli security official as saying "They had no specific information about what was being planned but linked the plot to Osama bin Laden and told the Americans that there were strong grounds for suspecting Iraqi involvement."^[212]

Israelis detained after the September 11 attacks

On December 12, 2001, Fox News reported that some 60 Israelis were among the hundreds of foreigners detained since the September 11 attacks. Federal investigators were reported to have described them as part of a long-running effort to spy on American government officials. A "handful" of these Israelis were described as active Israeli military or intelligence operatives. Federal investigators said that some of them failed polygraph questions inquiring about alleged surveillance activities in the United States. Investigators suspected that they may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance and not shared it, shadowing the hijackers in Florida and in California. As many as 140 other Israelis were reported to have been detained or arrested as part of an investigation into espionage by Israelis in the United States. Investigators were also reported to have been focusing part of their efforts on Israelis who said they were art students from the University of Jerusalem or Bezalel Academy, and repeatedly made contact with U.S. government personnel by saying they wanted to sell cheap art or handiwork. Indeed, in March, 2001, the US Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive had actually issued a warning about people identifying themselves as "Israeli art students" attempting to bypass security and gain entry to federal buildings, and even to the private residences of senior federal officials.^[213] Subsequently, the Telegraph newspaper (UK), the online magazine Salon, and the Sunday Herald (UK), among other sources, ran similar stories, elaborating in greater detail.^[214]^[215]^[216]^[217] In December 2001, a 60 page internal memo on the Israeli “art student spy ring” prepared by the Drug Enforcement Agency was leaked to the media. Although warning military bases to be on the alert for “possible intelligence collection being conducted by Israeli art students” the memo was primarily concerned with the students efforts to foil investigations into Israeli organized crime activity involving the importation of the drug Ecstasy rather than with any connection to 9/11.^[218]

Claims relating to Saddam Hussein

Further information: Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda timeline, and 9/11 opinion polls

On September 18, 2003, President George W. Bush said "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11" attacks despite a poll released at that time that found that nearly 70% of respondents believed the late Iraqi leader probably was personally involved.^[219]^[220] He also said that "There's no question that Saddam Hussein had Al Qaeda ties." The 9/11 Commission Report stated that there is "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq collaborated with the al Qaeda terrorist network on any attacks on the United States.^[221]

On June 29, 2005 Robin Hayes a Republican Congressman from North Carolina and vice chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism at that time stated "evidence is clear" that "Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11". Senator John McCain reacting to the Congressman's statement said "I haven't seen compelling evidence of that"^[222]

NewsMax.com reported that people within and outside the U.S. government believed that then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein conspired in the 9/11 attacks and the Oklahoma City Bombing.^[223] The theory extended from the one advanced by investigative journalist Jayna Davis in her book The Third Terrorist linking Hussein to the Oklahoma City Bombing. It was discussed in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.^[224]

In a Newsweek Magazine poll released on June 23, 2007, 41% of American respondents agreed with the statement that "Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001" while 50% of respondents disagreed with this statement and 9% of respondents did not know. The percentage of respondents agreeing with this statement was up 5% from 2004.^[225] A New York Times/CBS News poll released on the sixth anniversary of the attacks found that 33% of American respondents in general 40% of Republican respondents and 27% of Democratic respondents believe Saddam Hussein was "personally involved" in the attacks. Several analysts said that in part the results of the poll reflect what many people want to believe ^[226].

Media reaction

While discussion and coverage of these theories is mainly confined to internet chat sites and conversation, a number of corporate news outlets around the world have pretended to cover the issue by inviting government-funded propagandists on to spout the alternative conspiracy theories.

The Norwegian version of the July 2006 Le Monde diplomatique sparked interest when they ran, on their own initiative, a three page main story on the 9/11 attacks and summarized the various types of 9/11 conspiracy theories (which were not specifically endorsed by the newspaper, only recensed).^[227] The Voltaire Network, which has changed position since the September 11 attacks and whose director, Thierry Meyssan, became a leading proponent of 9/11 conspiracy theory, explained that although the Norwegian version of Le Monde diplomatique had allowed it to translate and publish this article on its website, the mother-house, in France, categorically refused it this right, thus displaying an open debate between various national editions.^[228] In December 2006, the French version published an article by Alexander Cockburn, co-editor of CounterPunch, which strongly criticized the endorsement of conspiracy theories by the US left-wing, alleging that it was a sign of "theoretical emptiness."^[229]^[230]

An article in the September 11 2006 edition of Time Magazine comments that the major 9/11 conspiracy theories “depend on circumstantial evidence, facts without analysis or documentation, quotes taken out of context and the scattered testimony of traumatized eyewitnesses”, and enjoy continued popularity due to the fact that “the idea that there is a malevolent controlling force orchestrating global events is, in a perverse way, comforting”. It concludes that “conspiracy theories are part of the process by which Americans deal with traumatic public events” and constitute “an American form of national mourning.”^[231]

The Daily Telegraph published an article called "The CIA couldn't have organised this..." which said "The same people who are making a mess of Iraq were never so clever or devious that they could stage a complex assault on two narrow towers of steel and glass" and "if there is a nefarious plot in all this bad planning, it is one improvised by a confederacy of dunces". This article mainly attacked Scholars for 9/11 Truth, a group of scientists which was, at the time, led by Professor Steven E. Jones. They said "most of them aren't scientists but instructors... at second-rate colleges".^[232]

A major Australian newspaper "The Daily Telegraph", published an article in May 2007 that was highly critical of 9/11 conspiracy theories.^[233]

The History Channel aired a documentary regarding 9/11 Conspiracy on August 20th 2007. The documentary was critical of the conspiracy theories.^[234]

Criticism

Critics of these alternative theories say they are a form of conspiracism common throughout history after a traumatic event in which conspiracy theories emerge as a mythic form of explanation (Barkun, 2003). A related criticism addresses the form of research on which the theories are based. Thomas W. Eagar, an engineering professor at MIT, suggested they "use the 'reverse scientific method'. They determine what happened, throw out all the data that doesn't fit their conclusion, and then hail their findings as the only possible conclusion."^[235] Eagar's criticisms also exemplify a common stance that the theories are best ignored. "I've told people that if the argument gets too mainstream, I'll engage in the debate." This, he continues, happened when Steve Jones took up the issue. The basic assumption is that conspiracy theories emerge a set of previously held or quickly assembled beliefs about how society works, which are then legitimized by further "research". Taking such beliefs seriously, even if only to criticize them, it is argued, merely grants them further legitimacy.

Michael Shermer, writing in Scientific American, said: "The mistaken belief that a handful of unexplained anomalies can undermine a well-established theory lies at the heart of all conspiratorial thinking (as well as Holocaust denial and the various crank theories of physics). All the "evidence" for a 9/11 conspiracy falls under the rubric of this fallacy. Such notions are easily refuted by noting that scientific theories are not built on single facts alone but on a convergence of evidence assembled from multiple lines of inquiry."^[236]

There are also behavioristic objections to these conspiracy theories, arguing that the conspiracy theorists behave in an irrational or unscholarly way.^[237] One objection is that the conspiracy theorists tend to connect unrelated information. Another is that they will often expand the conspiracy to include those who debunk their original theories, such as Popular Mechanics.^[237] There is also the tendency of the conspiracy theorists to quote only other conspiracy theorists and provide little if any expert verification of any of their claims.^[238]

Scientific American,^[239] Popular Mechanics,^[240] and The Skeptic's Dictionary^[241] have published articles that debunk various 9/11 conspiracy theories. Proponents of these theories have attacked the contribution to the Popular Mechanics article by senior researcher Ben Chertoff, who they say is cousin of Michael Chertoff — current head of Homeland Security.^[242] However, U.S News says no indication of an actual connection has been revealed and Ben Chertoff has denied the allegation.^[243] Popular Mechanics has published a book entitled Debunking 9/11 Myths that expands upon the research first presented in the article.^[244] Der Spiegel dismissed 9/11 conspiracy theories as a "panoply of the absurd", stating "as diverse as these theories and their adherents may be, they share a basic thought pattern: great tragedies must have great reasons."^[245] David Ray Griffin has published a book entitled Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory^[246]

From the same Time Magazine article referenced previously, "There are psychological explanations for why conspiracy theories are so seductive. Academics who study them argue that they meet a basic human need: to have the magnitude of any given effect be balanced by the magnitude of the cause behind it. A world in which tiny causes can have huge consequences feels scary and unreliable. Therefore a grand disaster like September 11 needs a grand conspiracy behind it. 'We tend to associate major events — a President or princess dying — with major causes,' says Patrick Leman, a lecturer in psychology at Royal Holloway University of London, who has conducted studies on conspiracy belief. 'If we think big events like a President being assassinated can happen at the hands of a minor individual, that points to the unpredictability and randomness of life and unsettles us.' In that sense, the idea that there is a malevolent controlling force orchestrating global events is, in a perverse way, comforting."^[247]

References

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^ Hermann, Steve. "Simulation finds 9/11 fireproofing key", Associated Press. Retrieved on July 29, 2007.

^ Bazant, Zdenek P. and Mathieu Verdure. "Mechanics of Progressive Collapse: Learning from World Trade Center and Building Demolitions" in Journal of Engineering Mechanics ASCE, Volume 133, Issue 3, pp. 308-319 (March 2007). Bazant and Verdure write, "As generally accepted by the community of specialists in structural mechanics and structural engineering (though not by a few outsiders claiming a conspiracy with planted explosives), the failure scenario was as follows..." (continues with a four-part scenario of progressive structural failure).

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^ SCHOLARS: ON ITS FIRST ANNIVERSARY.

^ Testing the Hypothesis that Mini-Nukes Were Used on the WTC Towers.

^ Theories that Nuclear Weapons Destroyed the Twin Towers.

^ Jones, Steven. "My Response to 'An Open Letter'". 20 November 2006

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^ ^a ^b The Crash of Flight 93: Crashing Plane Leaves Debris Field Miles Wide 2006-05-05

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^ "9/11 commission finishes Bush, Cheney session" MSNBC

^ 9/11: Missing Black Boxes in World Trade Center Attacks Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by NTSB, Concealed by FBI. A CounterPunch Special Report - Did the Bush Administration Lie to Congress and the 9/11 Commission?. CounterPunch (2005-12-19). Retrieved on 2006-10-07.

^ Jones, Steven E. (2006). FAQ: Questions and Answers (pdf). Journal Of 9/11 Studies. page 181.

^ Swanson, Gail; edited by Dennis Fisin (2003). Ground Zero, A collection of personal accounts. TRAC Team.

^ Voice recorders could provide crucial 9/11 clues. USAToday.

^ NEWSNIGHT Greg Palest report transcript. BBC News (6/11/01). Retrieved on 2006-04-27.

^ Profile: Carlyle Group (Profile: Carlyle Group).

^ Dark heart of the American dream June 16, 2002

^ Current site of Saudi Binladin Group.

^ Saudi Binladin Group; archived version as of Nov. 2001.

^ Judicial Watch Releases New FBI Documents: Osama bin Laden May Have Chartered Saudi Flight Out of U.S. after 9/11 June 20, 2007

^ "Fearing Harm, bin Laden Kin Fled From U.S.", by Patrick E. Tyler. The New York Times, September 30, 2001

^ Judicial Watch.

^ "Connections and Then Some", The Washington Post.

^ [9/11 Commission Report, page 520, footnote 56].

^ Programmed Flight Control.

^ Boeing 757-200 Background Information.

^ [url=http://911review.com/errors/pentagon/aerobatics.html| title=ERROR: 'Pentagon Attack Maneuvers Preclude a 757'| author=Jim Hoffman]

^ Title=Flight 93| Author=Jim Hoffman

^ "Doomsday plane" CNN Video

^ ^a ^b Hijack 'suspects' alive and well 23 September, 2001

^ Revealed: the men with stolen identities 23/09/2001 David Harrison

^ After the Attacks: Missed Cues; Saudi May Have Been Suspected in Error, Officials Say September 16, 2001

^ Panoply of the Absurd September 08, 2003

^ Saudis Arabia Admit Hijackers of Sept. 11 Attacks were Citizens February 06, 2002

^ 9/11 conspiracy theory, BBC News Online - The Editors

^ Strange behaviour of Mohammad Atta.

^ Phone Calls.

^ Project Achilles Report.

^ More Holes in the Official Story: The 9/11 Cell Phone Calls 10 August 2004

^ Unsafe At Any Airspeed? Cellphones and other electronics are more of a risk than you think March 2006

^ Phone Call Oddities.

^ The Criminalization of the State Michel Chossudovsky 3 February 2004

^ The 9/11 Reichstag Fire.

^ ^a ^b 'Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century' September 2000

^ 9/11: the American Reichstag Fire.

^ The Motive for the 9/11 Attack 2006-12-29

^ Gov. Pataki, acting gov. DiFrancesco laud historic Port Authority agreement to privatize World Trade Center July 24, 2001

^ Bush Sought ‘Way’ To Invade Iraq?. CBS News (January 2004). Retrieved on 2006-11-19. “"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this,’" says O’Neill.” O'Neill Tells '60 Minutes' Iraq Was 'Topic A' 8 Months Before 9-11

^ The document recommending Operation Northwoods: Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962 April 30, 2001

^ David Ruppe (2001-05-01). U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba. ABC News.

^ "Unraveling Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories." New York: Anti-Defamation League, 2003. p. 1

^ Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth.

^ "No Planes and No Gas Chambers".

^ Holocaust Denial Versus 9/11 Truth.

^ The Mitzvah To Remember (09/05/2002) Gary Rosenblatt, August 3, 2007

^ The Resuscitation of Anti-Semitism: An American Perspective: An Interview with Abraham Foxman 1 October 2003

^ The 4,000 Jews Rumor: Rumor surrounding Sept. 11th proved untrue January 2005

^ Cashman, Greer Fay. "Five Israeli victims remembered in capital", The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Post, 2002-09-12, p. 3. Retrieved on 2006-10-17.

^ Odigo says workers were warned of attack Haaretz September 26, 2001

^ The case of the missing 4000 Israelis: Truth, hoax, or urban legend? A little bit of all three Nov 29, 2001 (last updated, Aug 29 2004)

^ UJC Statement: IsraelNOW and Forever Solidarity Rally September 12, 2001

^ Haaretz.com – 5 Israelis detained for `puzzling behavior' after WTC tragedy

^ Five men detained as suspected conspirators Paulo Lima, September 12, 2001

^ The White Van:Were Israelis Detained on Sept. 11 Spies? at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine June 21, 2002

^ Sanders, Doug. "U.S. arrests of Israelis a mystery." The Globe and Mail, Dec. 17., 2001.

^ Ma'ariv Israeli newspaper, 23.11.01.

^ Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks David Wastell 15/09/2001

^ Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive: Suspicious Visitors to Federal Facilities (archived at Internet Archive.}

^ Archive.org link to Fox News.com: Suspected Israeli Spies Held by U.S..

^ Telegraph.co.uk: US arrests 200 young Israelis in spying investigation.

^ Salon.com: The Israeli "art student" mystery.

^ Sunday Herald (UK) via Internet Archive: Were they part of a massive spy ring which shadowed the 9/11 hijackers and knew that al-Qaeda planned a devastating terrorist attack on the USA?.

^ [An Enigma: Vast Israeli Spy Network Dismantled in the US.] Le Monde (Paris) March 5, 2002

^ Bush: No Saddam Links To 9/11 CBS News.

^ Bush ties Al Qaeda in Iraq to Sept. 11 Los Angeles Times July 25, 2007.

^ No Evidence Connecting Iraq to Al Qaeda, 9/11 Panel Says Dan Eggen Washington Post.

^ GOP lawmaker: Saddam linked to 9/11 CNN.

^ Iraq Linked to 9-11 and Oklahoma City BombingWes Vernon, NewsMax.com, Sept. 9, 2002

^ The Iraq Connection: Was Saddam involved in Oklahoma City and the first WTC bombing? Micah Morrison, September 5, 2002

^ NEWSWEEK Poll Conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International June 23, 2007

^ War Update Newsday September 12, 2007

^ 11.September - an innsidde jobb?, Norwegian edition of Le Monde diplomatique, July 2006. See also English translation: Kim Bredesen, Was 9/11 an inside job? and other links

^ * (French) Pour le Monde diplomatique norvégien, le 11 septembre est un complot intérieur US, Voltaire Network * (Spanish) El 11 de septiembre fue un complot interno estadounidense, estima la prensa noruega

^ *(English) Distractions from awful reality - US: the conspiracy that wasn’t, by Alexander Cockburn in Le Monde diplomatique, December 2006 *(French)Scepticisme ou occultisme? Le complot du 11-Septembre n’aura pas lieu, by Alexander Cockburn in Le Monde diplomatique, December 2006 *Template:Ir icon Iranian translation *(Portuguese) PODERES IMAGINÁRIOS - A "conspiração" das Torres Gêmeas

^ Debunking the Myths of 9/11, by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, November 28, 2006

^ Grossman, Lev. (2006) Time.com – Why The 9/11 Conspiracies Won't Go Away

^ The CIA couldn't have organised this... 08/09/2006

^ The Daily Telegraph "Virgin's 9/11 Farce"[1]

^ The History Channel "9/11 Fact or Fiction"[2]

^ Walch, Tad (2006). Controversy dogs Y.'s Jones. Utah news. Deseret News Publishing Company. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.

^ Shermer, Michael (2005). Fahrenheit 2777. Skeptic. Scientific American, Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-10-13.

^ ^a ^b Rothschild, Matthew. "Enough conspiracy theories, already", The Progressive, October 1, 2006.

^ Laucius, Joanne. "The coincidental cash value of conspiracy theories: Theorists 'make the unexplainable explainable' and, in the case of works like The Da Vinci Code, make a fair bit of money", Ottawa Citizen, November 26, 2004.

^ Shermer, Michael (June, 2005). Fahrenheit 2777, 9/11 has generated the mother of all conspiracy theories. Scientific American.

^ Debunking The 9/11 Myths - Mar. 2005 Cover Story. Popular Mechanics (March, 2005).

^ Carroll, Robert Todd (March 30, 2006). Mass Media Bunk - 9/11 conspiracies: the war on critical thinking. The Skeptic's Dictionary.

^ Bollyn, Christopher (March 4, 2005). 9/11 and Chertoff. Associated Free Press.

^ Sullivan, Will (September 3, 2006). Viewing 9/11 From a Grassy Knoll. Us News.

^ Debunking The 9/11 Myths blog. Popular Mechanics.

^ Cziesche, Dominik, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Ulrich Fichtner, Ulrich Jaeger, Gunther Latsch, Gisela Leske, and Max F. Ruppert (September 8, 2003). Panoply of the Absurd. Der Spiegel.

^ Griffin, David Ray. Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory. Olive Branch Press. ISBN 978-1566566865.

^ Grossman, Lev. "Why The 9/11 Conspiracies Won't Go Away", Time Magazine, September 3, 2006.

Books

Begin, Jeremy (2007). Fighting for G.O.D. (Gold, Oil, and Drugs). Trine Day Press. ISBN 978-0-9777953-3-8.

Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23805-2.

Broeckers, Mathias (2006). Conspiracies, Conspiracy Theories, and the Secrets of 9/11. Progressive Press. ISBN 0930852230.

Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York's World Trade Center.

Editors of Der Spiegel (2002). Inside 9-11: What Really Happened. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-30621-0.

Editors of Popular Mechanics. Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts. ISBN 1-58816-635-X.

Griffin, David Ray (2007). Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory.. Olive Branch Press. ISBN 1566566865.

Griffin, David Ray (2006). 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, Vol. 1. Olive Branch Press. ISBN 1566566592.

Griffin, David (2004). The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. Olive Branch Press. ISBN 1566565847.

Griffin, David Ray; Richard Falk. The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11. ISBN 1566565529. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.

Johnston, Patrick, S. (2006). Mission Accomplished (Novel). Dog Ear. ISBN 1-59858-244-5.

Laurent, Eric (2004). La face cachée du 11 septembre. Plon. ISBN 2-259-20030-3.

Marrs, Jim (2006). The Terror Conspiracy: Deception, 9/11 and the Loss of Liberty. Disinformation Company. ISBN 1932857435.

Meyssan, Thierry (2002). 9/11: The big lie. Carnot Editions. ISBN 2912362733.

Meyssan, Thierry (2003). Pentagate. USA Books. ISBN 1592090281.

Morgan, Rowland; Ian Henshall. 9/11 Revealed: The Unanswered Questions.

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (2004). The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. W. W. Norton & Co.. ISBN 0393060411.

Paul, Don; Jim Hoffman. Waking up from our Nightmare: The 9/11 Crimes in New York City. ISBN 0-943096-10-3.

Ruppert, Michael. Crossing the Rubicon.

Ridgeway, James. The Five Unanswered Questions About 9/11.

Tarpley, Webster Griffin. 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA.

Thompson, Paul; The Center for Cooperative Research (2004). The Terror Timeline.

Williams, Eric D. (2006). 9/11 101: 101 Key Points that Everyone Should Know and Consider that Prove 9/11 Was an Inside Job. Booksurge Publishing. ISBN 1419624288.

Wright, Lawrence (2006). The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Knopf. ISBN 037541486X.

External links

Official documents

Joint Chiefs Directive changing rules on intercepting hijacked planes, 1 June 2001

Final report of the "National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States" (9-11 Commission), chaired by Thomas H. Kean, 22 July 2004

NIST Final Reports of the Federal Building and Fire Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster, October 2005

NIST Status Update on World Trade Center 7 Investigation, 29 June 2007

Supporting conspiracy theories

Websites

9-11 Research: An Attempt to Uncover the Truth About September 11th, 2001 (WTC 7). Retrieved on 2006-07-30.

9-11 Review: A Resource for Understanding the 9/11/01 Attack. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.

911truth.org: The 9/11 Truth Movement. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.

Alex Jones Infowars. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.

Oil Empire. oilempire.us. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.

Physics911.net. Retrieved on 2006-09-11.

Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth!. Retrieved on 2007-07-30.

Truth Seeker: A Public Collaboration in the Quest for Truth. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.

Patriots Question 9/11. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.

Articles

Cynthia McKinney's July 2005 Congressional Briefing on 9/11 (link broken)

Former Top German Minister Rejects Official Story Of 911 Attacks. ratical.org. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.

9/11 an Inside Job by H. Titan, Ph. D.. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.

Flight 93 Ordered Shot Down. dcdave.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.

Problems With the ASCE Report On The Pentagon Cast Further Doubt on 757 Account. bedoper.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.

Democracy Now! - The New Pearl Harbor - debate between David Ray Griffin and Chip Berlet.

Videos

List of Online Videos

911 Mysteries, Documentary at Google Video and 9/11 Mysteries Official Site. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.

Loose Change. Retrieved on 2006-07-30. Film questioning the official account

The Oil Factor: Behind The war on Terror at Google Video

Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime at Google Video

911 Octopus: New World Order

WTC Tower 7 Collapse at Google Video

Videos of lectures

9/11 The Myth and the Reality: Dr. David Ray Griffin at Google Video: two speeches given by philosopher and theologist Dr. David Ray Griffin at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco (4/3/06) and at The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland (3/30/06).

Interview with Gore Vidal by Alex Jones, Infowars, October 29, 2006 Texas Book Festival at Google Video: Gore Vidal speaks very critically about today's US government, 9/11 official account, US media.

JFK and 9/11 - Insights Gained From Studying Both at Google Video - In his wide-ranging talk, Peter Dale Scott points out similarities that arise when you look at the assassination of JFK and the all events of 9/11. (COPA meeting in Dallas, Texas, November 18 2006)

911 - Steven Jones on 911 Evidence at Google Video: L.A. Conference, Alex Jones, 2006-06-24.

Debunking media

Official documents

U.S. Department of State Article: The Top September 11 Conspiracy Theories, 19 September 2006

U.S. Department of State - September 11 Conspiracy Theories - links to refutations of various 9/11 conspiracy theories, 20 January 2006

U.S. Department of State - How to Identify Misinformation, 27 July 2005

NIST Frequently Asked Questions, 30 August 2006