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9/11 Buried Under Conspiracy Theories
// Americans question the mainstream account of the 9/11 attacks
Solemn ceremonies took place in the United States on Tuesday to mark six years since the September 11 attacks. Public opinion in the United States has much changed since the tragedy. Any doubts about the official theory of the attack would be considered blasphemy two years ago. But now Americans distrust the current administration so much that the commemoration day turned into a public discussion of alternative accounts of the 9/11 attacks.
Unusual Anniversary
Tuesday’s remembrance ceremonies to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks looked quite traditionally. In New York, families of the dead, officials and visitors came to pay their respects near ground zero. New York’s former Mayor Rudolf Giuliani was among those to give a reading at the ceremony. His presence this time has sparked criticism from the families of those killed who accused him of making political capital out of the attack, although Mr. Guiliani has attended every year. Another presidential contender, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton also took part the ceremony, but he gave no speeches.
Elsewhere, head of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, FBI Director Robert Mueller and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnel spoke at the U.S. Congress with reports on the fight on terror. Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden used the anniversary to praise one of the al-Qaeda hijackers, Walid al-Shehri, in his second video released this week. Al-Shehri was on American Airlines Flight 11, the first jet to crash into the World Trade Center in New York.
Unlike all previous years, the sixth anniversary was marked by a storm of accusations from nongovernmental organizations against the U.S. administration and intelligence. Reputation of incumbent authorities is so bad that an increasing number of Americans question the official account of the attack. 51 percent of Americans demand additional investigations into actions of the Bush administration during the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, according to an August opinion poll by Zogby International. 30 percent of those surveyed call for the administration’s immediate resignation.
Not all official probes into the 9/11 events are over. It is still unclear why a third New York skyscraper collapsed several hours after two Twin Towers fell down. Footage shows how it goes down glowingly in several seconds, which presumably came as a result of a fire. However, it looks like the building was packed with explosives. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has yet to establish it.
America is marking the sixth 9/11 anniversary with an increasing number of web-sites which gather and analyze information about the attacks. The 9/11 Truth Movement has become a sort of umbrella organization for all those who doubt the official account of the attack. Its adherents contend three assumptions – that terrorists flew into the Twin Towers on commercial jets, that New York skyscrapers collapsed as a result of a fire and that the attacks were orchestrated by al-Qaeda.
The Wrong Jets
French filmmaker Jules Naudet, who was making a documentary about New York firefighters in the morning on September 11, was the only one to capture Flight 11 plow into the north tower of the World Trade Center. The other jet, Flight 175 was filmed by dozens of cameras. But none of them caught details that would prove that it was exactly Flight 175 jet. Footage of the collision gave food for widespread speculation. It all began with a live on Fox News. A journalist who was on the site said that the jet had no windows and had a blue emblem on its tail, meaning that the plane was either a military or transportation one. This assumption is also supported by shots which allegedly show some additional equipment fixed onto the fuselage. Adherents of this theory believe that the passenger jets landed somewhere safely, their passengers were poisoned with gas while military planes were sent to crash into the buildings. Authors of the documentary 9/11 In Plane Site not only try to prove that the plans had additional equipment but they also show “rare footage” showing missiles strike the building just a moment before the collision. The quality of the footage is very poor but the authors boldly conclude that the World Trade Center was attacked by jets with adaptations which also fired missiles to make an additional explosion.
Another theory has been voiced by Morgan Reynolds, former chief economist in the George Bush administration. He said that the collision of flights 11 and 117 with the skyscrapers could be just product of computer animation, while the building was blown up by explosives.
Secondary Explosions
Perhaps the most contentious issue around the 9/11 tragedy is why the Twin Towers collapsed. No steel skyscraper was destroyed completed by the fire before 2001. Conspiracy theorists believe that the building crumbled down because of explosives triggered at order of the U.S. administration. This opinion has become widespread. Theologist David Ray Griffin promoted this idea in his book, The New Pearl Harbor. Physicist Steven Jones claims that the World Trade Center collapsed in controlled explosions which were caused by cumulative shells with extremely high temperature of combustion. This theory also gains support at Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.
Testimony of some witnesses of the attacks proves this idea. Firefighters and rescuers say that they heard something like secondary explosions. What is more, the molten metal found in the heaps of concrete at the site suggests that jet fuel could not have been the only incendiary used that day.
The strangest theory of the WTC collapse come from Scholars for 9/11 Truth. James Fetzer, head of the group, has endorsed the exploration of all possible theories. In one of these theories, Judy Wood and Morgan Reynolds suggest that the widespread damage and collapse of the Twin Towers was caused by energy weapon.
The molten metal found at ground zero have pushed some participations of the organization to a conclusion that the building were bombed with mini-nukes. Steven Johns, however, refuted this theory.
Terrorism Cover-Up
9/11 conspiracy theories can be largely divided in three types. In the first form, theorists say that the U.S. administration ignored intelligence about an upcoming attack and covered up its inadequate counter-terrorism strategies. Another version suggests that authorities deliberately ignored the warnings and failed to ensure that the hijackers were not intercepted. The most radical theories go further and say that several high-ranking officials within the government planned the attacks and collaborated with al-Qaeda in carrying them out.
All these accusations find breeding ground in discrepancies in reports by special services and paradoxical coincidences. For example, George Bush’s surprisingly calm behavior when he was informed of the attacks could be attributed to the fact that he had known about the plans. An incident with FBI agent John O’Neill also gave a lot of food for speculation. The agent warned of an al-Qaeda threat back in 2000, but his attempts to launch the investigation were blocked. He retired from the FBI in mid-2001, and he was offered to head security at the World Trade Center. His first working day in a new place – on September 11 – became his last one.
However, not everyone view the Bush administration as the key link in the conspiracy. There is also a theory that the attacks on the United States were plotted by Israel. In a reply to these allegations Anti-Defamation League published a paper with refutation.
Constant refutations of conspiracy theories do not make the number of their adherents less. Quite on the contrary, the 9/11 Truth Movement is growing. It held a rally in more than 20 cities across the United States on Tuesday to protest the mainstream account of the events. The number of those in doubt is likely to increase next year when America will be two months away from U.S. presidential elections. It is, however, not likely that all these efforts will find an explanation for all controversies around the 9/11 attacks.
Egor Nizamov
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 12, 2007
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