By Griffith Fuller
By Griffith Fuller
According to a growing number of conspiracy theorists, the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 never happened.
The events that occurred and were documented on 9/11 are perceived by conspiracy theorists to be planned out and orchestrated by the United States government to incite patriotism and to create a basis for attacking the Middle East.
Collectively, according to conspiracy theorists, missiles hit the twin towers and Pentagon, not planes, a plane did not crash in Shanksville, Pa., and World Trade Center 1, 2 and 7 were brought down by controlled demolition.
While most people who witnessed the events of 9/11 live will probably disagree with the previously stated claims, a strong movement of conspiracy theorists insists that the terrorist attacks were carried out by the government and covered up.
A combination of far-left activists and internet bloggers make up the 9/11 Truth Movement.
On one of the movement’s leading Web sites, 911truth.org, it states “Because we still lack subpoena and discovery powers, members of the 9/11 truth movement and American citizens as a whole will not be able to fully connect the ‘dots’ of 9/11 events until key classified documents and videos are leaked or released. In the meantime, many of us will develop theories about those events and what really occurred. Given the incompleteness of the facts at hand, our theories will invariably differ.”
Another strong force in the 9/11 truth movement is an amateur documentary, written and directed by Dylan Avery and produced by Korey Rowe and Jason Bermas, called “Loose Change” which tries to debunk 9/11 and analytically explain how the terrorist attacks were impractical.
“Loose Change” sounds convincing to the average youth, if it isn’t looked at closely enough. When analyzing the accuracy of the documentary including its logic and rationality, it remains highly questionable.
Often with conspiracy theorists, there is no room for coincidences; there is an elaborate story, usually of deviation, surrounded around every occurrence.
The difficult thing about the 9/11 truth movement is that it divides, or at least stirs up conflict within the anti-war movement community. While a large majority of the anti-war activists will agree that they believe that the Bush administration had prior knowledge of a terrorists attack, not many will go as far as to say the whole entire thing was carried out by the administration.
Frankly, the Bush administration isn’t intelligent enough to pull off something so slick and daring in front of thousands of witnesses and cameras.
So, while there was knowledge and warnings of an attack prior to Sept. 11, it would make sense to prompt officials within the Air Force to run attack drills.
One of the most infamous claims that “Loose Change” filmmakers and truth movement conspirators reference are quotations from on-the-spot interviews done minutes after the crash of the planes into the twin towers.
The interviews are of witnesses not far from the site of the twin towers, and firefighters near or within them. Many witnesses are cited saying that they heard “something like a bomb go off,” or that they heard “explosions.”
Conspiracy theorists try to use these statements to draw a conclusion that witnesses heard the explosions from demolition bombs going off prior to the collapse of the tower.
However, the conclusion drawn about witnesses hearing demolition explosions is a hasty generalization.
Since the interviews were done minutes after the attack there is wide room for inaccuracies in reporting.
Several quotes from witnesses insist that a plane did not fly into the building or that it was a bomb that went off.
It was proven in a debunking of “Loose Change” (loosechangeguide.com), that the witnesses were either too far away from the site to clearly see the plane or that they looked up to witness the smoke and flames after the plane hit the tower.
As for the multiple explosions heard, it’s only common sense that the twin towers were complex structures and had numerous gas lines that ran through them that no doubt exploded from the heat, impact of the plane, and fire balls and air pressure that traveled down the elevator shafts.
Isn’t it expected that electrical explosions would occur in a disaster at that magnitude?
Are there not secondary explosions after house fires and car accidents as well?
Immediate reactions from witnesses are not always accurate especially if they are in shock.
In fact, in “Loose Change” the filmmakers abruptly cut from interviews to news footage, thus providing whatever data they want or feel is convenient to support their claims. This allowed them to use portion of quotes and take them out of their original context.
The conspiracy theorists even go as far as to say that the phone calls made from the ill-fated planes on 9/11 were faked and that any one claiming to have talked with a loved one is paid off by the U.S. government.
In fact they have even gone as far as to say that witnesses out on the streets in Manhattan were paid off by the government and that amateur video footage taken of the plane crashes were faked and digitally altered.
Truth movement conspiracy theorists also claim that debris was planted at the Pentagon crash site of American Airline Flight 77.
Photographs of plane wreckage recovered from the Pentagon crash site have been released.
Who has time to plant fake evidence when a building is on fire and falling apart?
Truth movement conspirators follow a “would have/should have” theory, but forget that disasters can not be perfectly predicted.
Also, the “explosions” seen from the lower levels as the towers are collapsing are compressed air blowouts blasting out the glass from the windows.
The “explosions” are random and not sequenced as it is in controlled demolitions.
The filmmakers are also wrong in their claim that the elevator shafts of the towers were sealed tight and that fire doesn’t have enough oxygen to enter them.
The filmmakers claim that United Airlines Flight 93 never crashed in Shanksville, Pa. and that the actual Flight 93 landed in Cleveland, Ohio; this information is taken from a report made by the Associated Press that was immediately retracted once it was discovered to have errors and misleading information.
Also, the remains and personal items of passengers aboard have been discovered and identified, as well as the black-box recorder that recorded the voices of the high-jackers and passengers that tried to overtake them.
There is speculation about the black crater in the ground, yet the documentary doesn’t acknowledge the trail of debris Flight 93 left as well as examining the fact that the crash site was of a plane deliberately slammed into the ground at 530 mph, not one being prevented from crashing.
The most disgusting part of “Loose Change” is when the filmmakers dismiss the authenticity of the phone calls made from the planes on the basis that the people on the plane should have sounded or reacted in a different way if they were really in such a hectic situation.
The filmmakers also claim that calls couldn’t be made from a plane flying at such a high altitude, yet it has been proven that calls could be made, but some were dropped that day.
The documentary is littered with red herrings and slippery slopes; it doesn’t cite most of its sources, and the ones that are cited aren’t credible or don’t disprove anything.
The “Loose Change” filmmakers make themselves look even worse by reediting their film four times (“Loose Change,” “Loose Change 2nd Edition,” “Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut,” and “Loose Change Final Cut”), removing inaccuracies in previous editions and adding information with newer editions. If someone is to make a thorough documentary debunking something as huge as 9/11, then you’d think they’d get it right the first time. Did Michael Moore rec
ut “Fahrenheit 9/11” 4 times? No, he didn’t.
“Loose Change” is made up of faulty reasoning, the filmmakers avoid important questions that would challenge their argument.
They make claims that the Nov. 2001 Osama Bin Laden tape was faked, but what about the other claims of Al Qaeda organizers such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
Also in “Loose Change” there is a computer graphic simulation of Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon showing light poles being knocked down by the wings of the plane.
However, in this same documentary there is a claim that a missile hit the Pentagon, not a plane.
A missile traveling at 530 mph or more isn’t wide enough to hit and knock down the light poles spread out on the Pentagon lawn.
The filmmakers contradict themselves by claiming that it was a missile that hit the Pentagon, yet acknowledge that the light poles were indeed knocked down and clipped.
They also fail to mention a generator near the front of the Pentagon that had one side sliced off because it was clipped by the wings of Flight 77 when crashing.
The filmmakers don’t explain what happened to all of the other passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 (hit North Tower), United Airlines Flight 175 (hit South Tower) and Flight 77.
Black boxes from Flight 77 and 93 were recovered, but the conspiracy theorists deny this claim.
The conspiracy theorists also have no explanation from the numerous missing person reports filed after the fall of the Twin Towers.
Also, they claim that highjackers from the list that the FBI released were still alive (such as Abdulaziz Alomari and Waleed Al Shehri just to name a few), according to reports made by BCC. In the case of these two men and the other 7 highjackers claimed to be alive, it was of mistaken identity. The supposed “found” terrorists simply have the same names as the 9/11 highjackers. How many Jesus Gonzalezs or John Smiths live in California, alone?
The 9/11 Truth Movement is a sad one; it is a way to draw focus away from more important real issues and to further scapegoat the government.
It is quite evident that the Bush administration is crooked and the worst since the Nixon administration, but just because these men and women are wrong in their decisions involving Iraq and winning elections doesn’t mean that they are capable of planning and carrying out 9/11.
The 9/11 Truth Movement is cynical and cult-like. What does the Charles Manson Family, Scientologists, the Heaven’s Gate suicide cult, and the 9/11 conspiracy theorists all have in common?
They dangerously believe in something that’s irrational and engulfed in a world of make believe.
The 9/11 Truth activists think that they are educating the public of the true happenings of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, but their truth is based off of assumptions and juvenile theories that can’t be proven.
They are unreliable informers; a culmination of internet nerds and radical conspiracy theorists are not trustworthy or reliable.
Professionals and experts in the field of architecture and structural engineering do not support the claims made by 9/11 conspiracy theorists and “Loose Change” filmmaker Avery.
It’s sad what some people will do to gain attention or to make a buck off of another person’s tragedy (“Loose Change Final Cut” is on sale at loosechange911.com).
By next year the “Truthers” will be claiming that UFOs crashed into the Twin Towers and Pentagon and is responsible for the cover-up; conspiracy theorists will make themselves believe anything.
