Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Conspiracy Theory: 9/11 Attacks

Not since the John F. Kennedy assassination has a national tragedy so heavily imprinted American minds as have the events on 9/11/2001 — or given rise to so many explanations different from the official one.

World Trade Center, Sept. 11, 2001
Credit: npr.org
Videos and photographs of the two planes striking the World Trade Center towers are famous around the world, but the sheer profusion of documentary evidence has only provided more fodder for conspiracy theories.

(Source for much of the information below is Wikipedia.)

A May 2006 Zogby poll found that 42% of Americans believed the government and the 9/11 commission "concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks."

This topic is too large to be fully covered in one post. Many theories have been debunked; some conspiracy buffs play loose with the facts. A web search on the subject will produce enough reading material to keep you busy for weeks.

Most prominent conspiracy theories
  • Planning and execution attributed to parties other than, or in addition to, al-Qaeda, or claim there was advance knowledge of the attacks among high-level government officials.

Government investigations and independent scientific reviews have found no evidence, but proponents claim there are inconsistencies in the official conclusions, or evidence was overlooked.

  • The collapse of the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center were the result of a controlled demolition rather than structural failure due to impact and fire.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the technology magazine Popular Mechanics have investigated and rejected these claims. The civil engineering community accepts that the impacts of jet aircraft at high speeds in combination with subsequent fires, not controlled demolition, led to the collapse of the Twin Towers. This also was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission, chaired by Governor Thomas Kean.

The Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
Credit
  • The U.S. administration deliberately chose not to shoot down a plane that was heading for the Pentagon, while others contend that no plane hit the Pentagon at all, claiming that the Pentagon was hit by a missile launched by elements from inside the U.S. government or that a commercial airliner was allowed to do so. Possible motives claimed by conspiracy theorists for such actions include justifying the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as well as interests in the Mideast, such as pipeline plans launched in the early 1990s by oil companies.

The evidence refuting the missile claims includes airplane debris including Flight 77's black boxes, the nose cone, landing gear, an airplane tire, and an intact cockpit seat found at the crash site. The remains of passengers from Flight 77 were indeed found at the Pentagon crash site and their identities confirmed by DNA analysis. Many eyewitnesses saw the plane strike the Pentagon. Further, Flight 77 passengers made phone calls reporting that their airplane had been hijacked. Some conspiracy theories say the phone calls the passengers made were fabricated by voice morphing, the passengers' bodies disposed of, and a missile fired at the Pentagon.


Popular Conspiracy Motives
Pax Americana -- A group of US neo-conservatives called the Project for a New American Century, which included Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, were set on US world dominance and orchestrated the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to hit Iraq, Afghanistan and later Iran..

Invasions -- Conspiracy theorists have questioned whether The Oil Factor and 9/11 provided the United States and the United Kingdom with a reason to launch a war they had wanted for some time, and suggest that this gives them a strong motive for either carrying out the attacks, or allowing them to take place.

New World Order -- 9/11 was initiated by a disparate variety of banking, corporate, globalization, and military interests for the purpose of creating a globalist government. Such New World Order conspiracy theories predate 9/11.

Ah, there are many others. I have barely scratched the surface. 

Just one source here for more reading about 9/11 conspiracy theories.

What are your thoughts/beliefs about this tragic day?

Tomorrow we observe the 12th anniversary of the attacks. Everyone will be remembering exactly where they were when they heard the news. What were you doing and what were your first thoughts?

Next post in this series: Secret Societies Control the World
 



20 comments:

  1. i tend to dismiss all conspiracy theories as baseless nonsense and all conspiracy theorists as nuts ;) that's not to say i believe our government is open and transparent and shares all the information it holds.

    i do think it's fun to read and discuss the conspiracy theories and other outlandish views. i remember being quite taken with the idea that aliens built the pyramids. it doesn't have to be true to be fun to talk about.

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    1. It is fun to talk about these theories and you realize there are many, many people who are ready to believe in them.

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  2. There are always plenty of people who like to get on the band wagon with their conspiracy theories and ideas - it is rather like all the question marks surrounding the death of the Princess of Wales.
    As for where I was, I had just returned home from shopping, and switched on the TV to get the latest news. I don't believe that I could properly understand what was going on - the programme was live and it was like watching a movie. I could not get my head around it at all, my imagination could not process what I was seeing. It was much later in the day that I really began to appreciate what a terrible tragedy I had actually witnessed on the screen.

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    1. We stayed glued to the television set for three days. There was so much fear, wondering if it was part of a larger attack. The crop dusting planes were flying in our area, and every time I heard one I was afraid it was not crop dusting, but something else.

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  3. Popular Mechanics had a good article debunking some of the conspiracy theories a few years ago. Personally, having given some surprise parties, I know how difficult it is to have a group of people keep quiet about anything. So I'm a bit skeptical of large ongoing conspiracies. Small ones that fall apart quickly I could believe.

    When I put my oldest on the kindergarten bus some of the parents were saying a plane had crashed in Pennsylvania and they were wondering why school hadn't been cancelled. I thought this was a strange reason to consider cancelling school, until I returned home and turned on the TV and found out it was so much more. As a perspective on how long it's been, that kindergartener will graduate from high school next spring.

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    1. I read that Popular Mechanics article. You are so right; secrets cannot be kept. But that fact within itself often fuels believers, in that they provide a long list of "unexplained deaths," of those who may know something.

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  4. I was quite astonished about 3 years ago in Canada, when it was put to me that the 9/11 tragedy was a Government conspiracy! This is crazy talk, imo, there are way too many elements which just could not be set up in that way. It was what it was, and the worst thing I have ever seen, when I woke up that morning in Australia to the chaos beamed into our TV. It felt very much like the world had changed forever, overnight. I went to a University lecture that morning, and everyone was subdued, we couldn't concentrate, it was just a weird, weird day. We were very afraid that a great World War had begun.

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    1. I agree with you, Patricia. I do think some honest mistakes were made leading up to the tragedy, such as officials misreading the signals, bad sharing of info among the agencies who could have seen it coming, etc.

      One eerie thing I'll always remember: Since all commercial flights were grounded for a time, it was so strange standing outdoors and not a plane's contrail in the sky.

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  5. I'm not on the conspiracy bandwagon with this one. It would just make the situation more horrible than it was - if that is even possible.

    I remember we had the early morning news on, not really paying attention but waiting for the local weather and traffic. I agree with Patricia, it seems the word had changed forever. It still does.

    Darla

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    1. All the country was together in the days following 9/11. It was a good feeling. I wish we could pull together again in that manner. Why does it take a tragedy to bring people together?

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  6. Um, that would be the WORLD (with an L) changed forever. I need more coffee this morning.

    darla

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    1. LOL Darla. I read your comment as I was driving to the lab for blood work, and of course I wasn't allowed coffee beforehand! It was kind of rough having to wait until 9 am. for my first cup!

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  7. as a foreigner the one thing that strikes me most is that every major/shocking event in American history comes with its own constellation of alternate versions, conspiracy theories and myths. We're not used to this where I come from. We do recognize that some major historical events like WW2 and subsequent rise of the communist/socialist regime in (now former) Yugoslavia were smoothed over to make the winning party look better. At the same time we recognize the unofficial versions of events, even if we don't talk about them publicly.

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    1. That's interesting. I wonder why we have so many conspiracy theories. Distrust of government? But surely people in other countries feel distrustful of their politicians too?

      I would imagine that during the communist rule in countries people would have been too fearful for their lives to put forth alternate versions of events? Do you think those past experiences have colored peoples' willingness to even now discuss alternate versions of events?

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    2. Actually we are very distrustful of our leaders to the point that prevalent public opinion of all our politicians is that they are corrupted and take bribes on a regular basis. Unfortunately the majority of them are :-( but still I believe that it's a vicious circle that leads to normalisation of the idea that a politician is corrupted by default leading into a self fulfilling prophecy.

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  8. I was living in Kent,and heard it on the car radio on my journey home,told HB and we watched on tv as the horrific events unfolded.
    Have heard more on the Kennedy conspiracy theories than the ones you have mentioned on 9/11.Agree 9/11 did change how we view the world.

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    1. I think we would be surprised if we knew how many plots for similar tragedies have been foiled. I don't resent the inconveniences of additional security put in place if those procedures keep us safer.

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  9. conspiracy..
    I have watched the falling of the towers many times.. and I ask myself. .Why , didnt they fall over! It was just like a demolition of a building.. strange!
    New world order... look where we are now.!! Could be!
    The world banks fell and collapes during that month.!
    That very same week..it was said on news and radio, that london would be next.. it wasnt attacked.! For sure London has had some terrible terrorist attacks.. but not to the extent or horrific extent of the twin towers.
    Whatever the case, it did change the world.

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    1. "... and I ask myself. .Why , didnt they fall over! It was just like a demolition of a building.. strange!"

      explanation for that here:
      http://www.debunking911.com/collapse.htm

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    2. Thanks for that link. I've seen similar info/videos presented on tv programs.

      Val,all the world is so connected now in so many ways and that scares me a little.

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