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9/11 conspiracy theories

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Template:Sep11 A number of conspiracy theories have emerged concerning the September 11, 2001 attacks. According to the widely accepted account, on 11 September 2001, 19 al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four planes in the Eastern United States. They crashed two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense at The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to regain control of the plane.

Overview

Although some conspiracy theories propose that Israel or Iraq were behind the attacks, those theories which have drawn the most attention seem to be based on one of two ideas: 1) that the U.S. government had foreknowledge of the attacks and consciously failed to prevent them, or 2) that the U.S. government itself orchestrated the attacks. Some of the claims and key points these theorists cite are as follows:

Foreknowledge

  • After the attacks, David Schippers, the chief prosecuter for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, declared that he had recieved warnings from FBI agents six weeks earlier which included the dates and targets of the attacks. Schippers claims the FBI agents came to him because FBI headquarters had blocked their investigations and threatened them with prosecution if they went public with their information. Schippers reports that he tried to contact Attorney General John Ashcroft about this matter but Ashcroft repeatedly refused to return his calls.
  • In the article "Did We Know What Was Coming?" by William Norman Grigg, published in The New American, (published by the John Birch Society) Grigg states that according to three FBI agents he interviewed, "the information provided to Schippers was widely known within the FBI before September 11."
  • An unusually high volume of put options were purchased in the three days before 9/11 for only two airlines, American and United. Put options were also purchased for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, which occupied 22 stories of the World Trade Center. Although no evidence has yet been provided that there was anything sinister in these transactions, US intelligence agencies are known to monitor markets for signs of imminent, untoward events.

Inconsistent Explanations

  • Initially, the military reported that, on 9/11, no fighters were sent up to intercept the hijacked planes until after the Pentagon was hit.
  • Later the same week, the military put out a second story, saying that it had sent up fighters but because the FAA had been late in notifying it about the hijackings, the fighters arrived too late.
  • The 9/11 Commission reported a third version that the FAA gave the military insufficient warning of the first hijacked airline and no warning of the other hijackings until after they had crashed.

The Pentagon

  • Flight 77 was able to fly toward the Pentagon for 40 minutes and was not intercepted despite sophisticated radar technology, anti-missile batteries surrounding the Pentagon, and the building's close proximity to Andrews Air Force Base.
  • At the time of the attacks, the west wing (which was the area of the crash site) of the Pentagon was under construction, and therefore nearly empty.
  • Damage to the outer wall of the Pentagon is said to be too minimal to have been caused by a Boeing 757.
  • Many consider photographic evidence of plane wreckage lying on the grounds of the Pentagon to be ambiguous and unconvincing.
  • Pentagon surveillance cameras captured 5 frames from before, during, and after the impact, but none show exactly what hit the building.
  • The FBI confiscated videos, which might have captured the attack, from a nearby gas station immediately after the attacks. These videos have not been released.
  • One witness said the aircraft that hit the Pentagon looked like a cruise missile. However many other witnesses described a commercial airliner.
  • Military personnel were photographed removing from the crash site a large light-weight object shrouded by a blue tarp [1]. Some conjecture that this was to hide its contents from the public.

The World Trade Center

File:310954.jpg
The Madrid's Windsor skyscraper burned for days, but did not fall.
  • Kevin Ryan of Underwriters Laboratories, the company that certified the steel componets used in the constuction of the World Trade Center towers, has written "This story just does not add up. If steel from those buildings did soften or melt, I’m sure we can all agree that this was certainly not due to jet fuel fires of any kind, let alone the briefly burning fires in those towers."
  • A June 13, 2005 article in the Washington Times, reported that former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term, Morgan Reynolds, said the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7.
  • The government never produced a jet engine yet claimed it recovered the passport of alleged hijacker Satam al Suqami unharmed by the crash or the collapse of the North Tower.
  • The government has not produced voice (CVR) or flight data recorders (FDR) in the New York attack, so-called black boxes, a fact unprecedented in the aviation history of major domestic crashes.
  • At no time before or after 9/11, have high-rise, steel frame buildings collapsed due to fire.
  • The Twin Towers collapsed straight down, at close to free-fall speed, as in controlled demolitions.
  • The WTC 7 building was not struck by any airliner nor were the fires inside caused or sustained by jet fuel. The official explanation for the collapse of the twin towers relys primarily on these two details, however, WTC 7 also collapsed straight down and at close to freefall speed.
  • Firefighters in the Twin Towers reported seeing or hearing explosions.
  • The rubble of the Twin Towers smoldered for months after their collapse, most of the concrete was pulverized, and molten steel was found beneath it. The melting point of un-fireproofed steel is around 3000F while the most generous speculation regarding temperatures inside the twin towers is 2000F.
  • Most of the columns came down in sections about 30 ft. long. Soon after the attacks, most of the steel colums were loaded onto trucks and shipped to Asia.

The President's Behavior

  • The President's location on the morning of the attacks was highly publicized. However, after the second plane struck the World Trade Center, the Secret Service permitted the President to remain in a classroom for 10 minutes and then to give a speech to the nation from the same school. At this time there would have been no way of knowing whether the President himself was in danger.

One theory supports uses this fact to support the idea that the Bush Administration knew of the attacks and somehow was convinced there was no imminent threat to the President of the United States. One could think that in a normal situation, the Secret Service protecting the arguably most important person in the world would act much faster to remove the President to a secure location.

Supporting Happenstance

  • Half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall said that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," according to the poll conducted by Zogby International from Tuesday August 24 through Thursday August 26, 2004.
  • A September, 2000 report by the Project for the New American Century (cofounded by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Perle), entitled Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces and Resources For the New Century, states the following:
    • "To preserve American military preeminence in the coming decades, the Department of Defense must move more aggressively to experiment with new technologies and operational concepts, and seek to exploit the emerging revolution in military affairs."
    • "Further, the process of [military] 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."
  • Referring to Bush’s efforts to obstruct the 9/11 Commission’s access to critical documents, Senator Max Cleland said "disgusting . . . a scam. Americans are being scammed."
  • Rep. Ron Paul has written "The 9-11 Commission report is several hundred pages worth of recommendations to make government larger and more intrusive."
  • Rep. Cynthia McKinney is calling for an investigation into whether President Bush and other government officials had advance notice of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 but did nothing to prevent them.
  • Some conspiracy theorists cite the following as evidence of a lack of concern, on the part of the US government, regarding an external threat:
    • During the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks, it was determined that the anthrax used in the attacks was a variant of the Ames strain, which was first researched by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, but was later distributed to at least fifteen bio-research labs within the US and six overseas. Don Foster, who was enlisted by the FBI to profile the culprit, and others believe that the culprit was a US biodefense insider, though not necessarily an individual from USAMRIID. Other individuals, including atleast one independent expert involved in the FBI's investigation, have been critical of the FBI's performance in the investigation, accusing the bureau of dragging its feet. This investigation has been largely abandoned and no one has been indicted.
    • During a news conference at the White House on March 13, 2002, when asked why President Bush rarely mentioned Osama bin Laden anymore, the President responded by saying "I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him , to be honest with you. I truly am not that concerned about him. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country."
    • In September 2002 ABC News was able to smuggle a 15-pound (6.8-kilogram) cylinder of depleted uranium metal, loaned by NRDC, into the United States, and televised the story on the first anniversary of the September 2001 terrorist attacks. In September 2003, the network smuggled the same uranium cylinder into the country and aired another story on September 11, 2003.
    • Since the attacks, the US government has done little to secure its border with Mexico in order to prevent potential terrorists from entering the US.

Motives

All theories as to why the US Government would have either perpetrated the attacks or allowed them to occur seem to entail one or more of the following motives:

  • To justify increased defense spending.
  • To gain the support of US citizens to invade the Middle East in order to control petroleum reserves and political affairs in the region.
  • To justify passing legislation, such as the USA PATRIOT Act, which is perceived by many to infringe on civil liberties.

Less Common Theories

See also

Discussion and Evidence of various conspiracy issues
Skeptical of or debunking larger conspiracy claim
Neutral
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