9/11 conspiracy theories

See World Trade Center demolition and 2001 DoD unaccounted funds scandal

9/11 conspiracy theories refer to some of the groups and individuals who do not believe the governmental and mainstream media accounts of the September 11, 2001 attacks and who have researched and developed alternative views of the events that day, also often described as 9/11 conspiracy theories. Some of these characterise themselves as researchers. The larger body of groups challenging the mainstream account of events on 11 September 2001 is sometimes called the 9/11 Truth Movement.

There is a standard in operation on this issue that perpetuates the power elite's propaganda in the media and in much wider circles as well- a vicious circle. It requires theories to have been published in reputable peer-reviewed journals and accepted by the relevant professional communities. But as can be obviously seen, this is requiring a chicken to emerge before an egg-a theory may not be accepted until it is published, and not published if it is not accepted.

Overview

Most of those questioning the mainstream account of 9/11 say they have arrived at one of two conclusions:

1. that elements within the US government had foreknowledge of the attacks and consciously failed to prevent them, or
2. that elements within the US government itself helped orchestrate the attacks.

Other alternatives propose that operatives from outside the US may have been involved in the attacks.

Some of the key claims of these researchers include the lack of a timely air-defense response, what they say are unexplained insider trading issues which occurred around the attacks, what they describe as demolition-style characterisitics of the collapses of the World Trade Center Towers 1 & 2 and WTC building 7, claims of anomalies at the Pentagon, and the behavior of President Bush and his staff that day.

The specifics of their claims are discussed in more depth in the 9/11 Truth Movement page, the 9/11 conspiracy theories page, and the Controlled demolition hypothesis for the collapse of the World Trade Center page.

Prominent 9/11 researchers and advocates

9/11 Family Steering Committee

The 9/11 Family Steering Committee (FSC) was made up of family members who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001 and who helped bring about the creation of the 9/11 Commission. They later submitted a series of questions and provided testimony to the Commission. Most of the questions were never answered, but remain archived on the FSC website, Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission. Some members, also called the 'Jersey Girls,' are featured in the 2006 film, Press For Truth.

Dylan Avery

Dylan Avery is the director and narrator of the documentary Loose Change, a film that questions the official explanation of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Factual errors in the film have led to 4 editions of it being produced so far, each offering a different version of the 'conspiracy'. As Avery admitted to Mark Roberts on 'Hardfire', a New York cable TV show in December 2006. “We made that film essentially as a bunch of kids. That’s the reality of the situation...I would be the first to admit that our film definitely contained errors, it still does contain some dubious claims, and it does come to some conclusions that are not 100% backed up by the facts.” [4]

Kevin Barrett

Kevin Barrett, creator of the organization 'Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth,'[5] was a part time University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer who gained notoriety during 2006 when Republican lawmakers began to call for his resignation upon learning that he taught that the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks may have been instigated by the U.S. government for political gains in a Middle East war. Critical lawmakers claimed that Barrett's 9/11 conspiracy theory is "dishonest," and therefore he should be fired. Nationwide support arose for the professor, including numerous Op Ed pieces in national newspapers, and instead of losing his job, he became a celebrity. [6]. During an appearance on the 'We the people' internet radio show on April 24, 2007 [7], Barrett called for the execution of all journalists who work for major newspapers and television stations. "I think that anybody who has drawn a paycheck from the major mainstream journalistic outlets in the past should be up on the scaffold for the crimes of high treason and crimes against humanity." In the same programme Barrett called for Senator John McCain to be "repeatedly called on his treason and complicity in mass murder, and crimes against humanity."

Robert Bowman

Dr. Robert M. Bowman Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for DOD and retired Lt. Col for United States Air Force, a combat pilot who flew 101 missions in the Vietnam War. The Baltimore Sentinal quotes him as holding the position of "Presiding Archbishop, United Catholic Church." [8] He is now a peace-activist criticizing the Star-Wars-program.[9]. He has written an article What Really Happened on 9/11; Why All the Secrecy? in which he states "There are conspiracy theories flying around the internet like seagulls around a landfill. Many people are convinced that George W. Bush knew what was going to happen and purposely allowed it to happen so he and his neo-conservative buddies could have the “new Pearl Harbor” they needed to justify their wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. Others go further. They are absolutely sure Cheney and company actually planned and carried out the attack (usually along with the Mossad). These folks don’t think there were ever any Arab hijackers at all. What is so disturbing is that their arguments are quite convincing. If an enormous cloud of suspicion is not to be permanently over the head of our government, the Bush Administration must “come clean,” releasing information thus far withheld from the American people." In July 2006 Bowman stated in a FOX news interview "... I just feel that we need a truly independent investigation to find out the truth. That's all I want to find out. The American people need the truth, and the most unbelievable of all the wild conspiracy theories is the one that our government has told us." [10] In the 2006 election Robert Bowman was a candidate for United States Congress in Florida's 15th Congressional District. He was not successful in his attempt to win office and, according to his website, his campaign is now 'retired' [11].

Mathias Bröckers

Mathias Bröckers is a writer, journalist and longtime editor of the Berlin daily TAZ (Die Tageszeitung). Starting in the September 13, 2001, edition of the online magazine Telepolis[12], he recorded his research in an investigative journal that attracted many readers. He has subsequently published the books: Verschwörungen, Verschwörungstheorien und die Geheimnisse des 11.9. ISBN 3-86150-456-1, published in English as Conspiracies, Conspiracy Theories and the Secrets of September 11th ISBN 0-930852-230; and Fakten, Fälschungen und die unterdrückten Beweise des 11.9. ISBN 3-86150-604-1 (Facts, Forgeries and the Suppressed Evidence of 9/11). From the very beginning he stated that the unanimous voice of the media made him suspicious: "Although it was the biggest police investigation of all time," writes Bröckers, "one year after the attacks the amount of evidence gathered against those who allegedly masterminded them, Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist group Al Queda, comes to no more than it did only a few hours afterwards: virtually nothing.”[13]. Bröckers is a prominent advocate of the legalisation of the growing and sale of hemp in Germany [14]. He spoke on 'The right to get high' on Saturday, 14 January 2006 at "The Ecstatic Adventure" [15], a conference dedicated to exploring and celebrating L.S.D. as 'Sorgenkind und Wunderdroge' (problem child and wonder drug).

Andreas von Bülow

Andreas von Bülow is a former assistant German defense minister and former Minister for Research and Technology in the cabinet of German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. He served for 25 years as an SPD member of the German parliament and was ranking member of the parliamentary committee on intelligence services. He has written a book called The CIA and September 11 (Die CIA und der 11. September) in which he suggests US government complicity in 9/11. "Planning the attacks was a master deed, in technical and organizational terms. To hijack four big airliners within a few minutes and fly them into targets within a single hour and doing so on complicated flight routes! That is unthinkable, without backing from the secret apparatuses of state and industry." Tagesspiegel, 13. Jan. 2002 [16]. In the book he claims that the Arab hijackers were controlled by the CIA and were not aware that the planes they had hijacked were to be used as weapons. He holds that the twin towers collapsed due to explosives, not the impact of the planes, that no plane flew into the Pentagon or crashed in Pennsylvania and that mobile phone calls made from United 93 were simulated by the CIA. He argues that the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, was involved in the attacks and that they warned Israelis to avoid the Twin Towers in the preceding days. The evidence he cites is that only one Israeli died in the attacks. [17]. In his January 13, 2002 interview with the German daily der Tagesspiegel he said the attacks had been staged by the C.I.A. to give the USA a pretext to invade Afganistan and take control of its drug trade.

Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chávez, democratically elected President of Venezuela, believes the Bush administration orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, and planned to bring down the World Trade Center. In a 2006 letter to the United States Congress, Chávez called on the U.S. Congress to "demand that the government of President Bush explain the self-inflicted attack on the World Trade Center and its victims, the supposed aircraft that crashed into the Pentagon and the links between the bin Laden family and the Bush family." Chávez has expressed several times his suspicions that the September 11, 2001 attacks were planned by the Bush administration, and he has called for an inquiry into the matter. According to Chavez, "The hypothesis is not absurd... that those towers could have been dynamited. A building never collapses like that, unless it's with an implosion. The hypothesis that is gaining strength... is that it was the same U.S. imperial power that planned and carried out this terrible terrorist attack or act against its own people and against citizens of all over the world," he said.

Michel Chossudovsky

In Michel Chossudovsky's book War and Globalisation: The Truth Behind September 11 ISBN 0-9731109-0-2 and his more recent America's "War on Terrorism" in the wake of 9-11 ISBN 0-9737147-1-9, he analyzes the September 11 attacks themselves, analyzes war and globalization in general, proposes a thesis regarding disinformation campaigns, and looks at the new world order. In a piece entitled 'Who is Osama Bin Laden?' posted the day after the 9/11 attacks [18] Chossudovsky claimed that "Washington has consciously supported Osama bin Laden". Chossudovsky also claims that the USA currently possesses weapons designed to cause earthquakes and climate change. "Recent scientific evidence suggests that HAARP (High-frequency Active Aural Research Program) is fully operational and has the ability of potentially triggering floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction. Potentially, it constitutes an instrument of conquest capable of selectively destabilising agricultural and ecological systems of entire regions." [19]

Bill Christison

Bill Christison, a former senior official of the CIA, was a National Intelligence Officer and the Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis before he retired in 1979. He has written numerous articles on U.S. foreign policy. Christison states, “I have come to believe that significant parts of the 9/11 theories are true, and that therefore significant parts of the “official story” put out by the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission are false.” Some in the 9/11 truth movement question the veracity of Christison's claims, saying he appears to believe a plane did not hit the Pentagon, a position generally unsupported by witness testimony at the scene and disputed by many 9/11 researchers.. He believes that many in the U.S. Government have 'dual loyalties' regarding Israel and the USA. In an article for the website 'If Americans Knew' he writes "We talk openly about the Israeli bias in the U.S. media. We make wry jokes about Congress being “Israeli-occupied territory.”...But we never pronounce the particular words that best describe the real meaning of those observations and wry remarks. It’s time, however, that we say the words out loud and deal with what they really signify. Dual loyalties." [20]

John Cobb

John B. Cobb, an eminent Christian theologian, co-edited 9/11 and the American Empire with Kevin Barrett and is an associate of David Ray Griffin. In 1989 he co-authored a book on economics entitled 'For the Common Good' [21] which rejected capitalism, conventional economics and today's growth oriented industrial economy in favour of production based on 'communities'.

Jean-Pierre Desmoulins

Jean-Pierre Desmoulins is a French engineer, now working as a university professor, who analysed the crash of flight 77 on the Pentagon on 9/11. Although French by birth he describes himself as an 'planet Earth citizen' on his website [22]. He has brought the first 3D geometrical analysis of the last part of the flight path, alleging that the five "CCTV frames" alleged to show this crash are fake. He speculates [23] that 'the pilots of the flights are party in the operation. Charles Burlingame, pilot of flight 77, is chosen for having already been in some secret ops, and being an expert who analysed the scenario of the crash of an airliner onto a target building...'A Navy C130 has on board the remote control equimement and the "pilot". The operation is supervised by a team of the Navy intelligence, from a room located at the first floor of the west aisle of the Pentagon.'....'The bomb inside the plane explodes. The navy intelligence team, in the pentagon, none of them understanding what happens, is killed by the shaped charge explosion, the DU penetrator, the debris of the plane, the fire in the building.' He also believes that 'the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was foreseen, and that the FBI ordered and organized (the murder of J.F. Kennedy'[24]. His other theories include speculation about cosmology "Sunspot cycles - are they caused by Venus, Earth and Jupiter syzygies?" [25].

Christine Ebersole

On February 20, 2007, Christine Ebersole went on the record on San Diego based Mark Dice's radio show (formerly known as John Conner) saying that 9/11 was engineered by a faction within the Bush administration. Christine Ebersole is an actress who appeared in Mac and Me (1988), My Girl 2 (1994), Richie Rich (1994) and My Favorite Martian (1999).

Tom Flocco

Tom Flocco is an investigative journalist who suggests the CIA played a role in insider trading of "put options" on affected companies days before the attack on 9/11. Flocco's website has also been listed in "a guide to bogus 9/11 truth websites"[26] by Mark Robinowitz. His other reportage [27] include claims that British Intelligence were behind the 7/7 bombings of London's transport system and that 'the alleged Chicago subway bombing attempt has been attributed to an underground and closeted enmity involving warring intelligence and military factions within the United States government.' In the same report, in 2005, he wrote that 'British Prime Minister Tony Blair was indicted for obstruction of justice and is reportedly consulting with members of Parliament and legal aides regarding how to avoid appearing in the U.S.A. for interrogation'. This did not turn out to be the case.

Francisco Gil-White

Francisco Gil-White is a former Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Pensylvania. He was "fired from the University of Pennsylvania for no greater crime than having documented certain facts" [28]. His views are very similar to those of Jared Israel. He believes that the U.S. government was involved in the attacks, and that the CIA. actively supports Islamism across the world. These views seem to be partly influenced by his studies of Yugoslavia, where he found that the Bosniaks had links with Al-Qaida that the U.S. government was aware of and made no attempt to stop.. He also believes that "the entire IQ-testing literature was created with frauds concocted by the leading propagandists of the American eugenics movement, the point being to attack the working classes as supposedly stupid, directing the attack most ferociously against blacks, in recent times. This is the same eugenics movement that also spawned German Nazism." [29]. In an interview with Sean Hannity on Thursday, February 17, 2005 Gil-White also gave his views that NATO 'framed' Slobodan Milosevic and that the U.S.A. is actually a secret enemy of Israel, rather than a puppet of it as many other conspiracy theorists contend. HANNITY: Let me -- Hang on a second. Did you or did you not write articles alleging that NATO framed Slobodan Milosevic? GIL-WHITE: Yes, I did. I have an article... HANNITY: Hang on. I'm not here to dispute this. I want to -- I want to get your track record on the record. Did you or did you not try to convince your colleagues that the United States is the secret enemy of Israel, sir? GIL-WHITE: Yes. [30]

David Ray Griffin

David Ray Griffin is a retired professor of philosophy of religion and theology at the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont California. He is a proponent of "postmodern spirituality" [31]. He is also the author of three books on 9/11, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9-11 (2004) ISBN 1-56656-552-9The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions ISBN 1-56656-584-7 and (2006) Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 ISBN 0-664-23117-9.

Griffin supports the ideas that the United States government was complicit in the September 11 attacks, that they placed explosives in the Twin Towers and that something other than a commercial jet hit the Pentagon in Washington, DC. He was interviewed about his beliefs on CBC News Sunday [32]. When questioned about what hit the Pentagon he conceded that "Oh, it may have well been a plane, but not a giant airliner". He dealt with questions about his lack of scientific evidence, and the scientific consensus behind the 'official version', by claiming that 'Well, you can always get scientists to say anything if they're paid sufficiently' and called the Popular Mechanics book debunking 9/11 conspiracies 'one of the most disgraceful publications that has ever appeared'.

He also believes that the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 was a plot by the U.S. Government, then headed by Jimmy Carter. “The mullahs did not come to rule in Iran on the basis of their own power; they were placed in power by men more evil than they – who would use the depravity of backwardness for their own ends” [33].

William Norman Grigg

In an article by William Norman Grigg, the senior editor of the John Birch Society's magazine, The New American, called "Did We Know What Was Coming?" [34], Grigg states that according to three FBI agents he interviewed, "the information provided to Schippers was widely known within the FBI before September 11." Grigg believes President Bush to be "the figurehead of a murderous power elite" [35] and that neo-conservatives are actually "neo-Trotskyite" [36].

Rodger Herbst

Rodger Herbst, bachelor of aeronautical and astronautical engineering and mechanical engineer, has written two papers Mysteries of the Twin Towers and Notes on The 9/11 Omission Report. These papers claim that the twin towers were demolished by explosives hidden in the buildings and have not appeared in peer reviewed journals.

Jim Hoffman

Jim Hoffman, a software engineer, analyzes the collapses of the WTC Twin Towers and WTC Building 7, as described on his website 911research.wtc7.net. Hoffman is co-author, with Don Paul, of the book Waking Up From Our Nightmare: The 9/11/01 Crimes in New York City[37] ISBN 0-943096-10-3. Some of his more popular analysis papers include The Pentagon No-757-Crash Theory: Booby Trap for 9/11 Skeptics, his response to Popular Mechanics [38], and his review of the Final Report on the Collapses of the WTC towers by NIST, Building a Better Mirage. Hoffman's research was also used in the Steven E. Jones paper Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?. His most recent DVD is '9/11 Guilt: The Proof is in Your Hands'. Hoffman has been attacked by other 9/11 conspiracy believers [39] for maintaining that an airliner did strike the Pentagon, rather than a drone or missile. Such 'researchers' see Hoffman as a pawn of 'CoIntelPro', supposedly a shadowy government propaganda department.

Daniel Hopsicker

Daniel Hopsicker runs the site Mad Cow Morning News [40] and is the author of the book Welcome to Terrorland: Mohamed Atta & the 9.11 Cover-up in Florida (ISBN 0-9706591-6-4). Hopsicker says his research in Florida revealed that Mohammed Atta, supposed Islamic fundamentalist, lived with a stripper, drank vodka, and used cocaine. Hopsicker concluded that Atta and the Florida flight school he attended enjoyed special government protection and that there had been an official cover-up of this following the attacks. Hopsicker's work would appear to support the accusations of those who argue for U.S. government complicity in the September 11th attacks, yet Hopsicker himself scorns such notions. In radio interviews, he has embraced the essence of the official September 11th narrative - that Arab Islamic fundamentalists were responsible for the attacks - and mocked the "conspiracy theorists."

Eric Hufschmid

Eric Hufschmid is the author of Painful Questions: An Analysis of the September 11th Attack ISBN 1-931947-05-8, a book used as reference for both David Ray Griffin's and Andreas von Bülow's own research. Hufschmid believes [41] that "Israeli and British officials were involved in the 9-11 attack", "The criminal network behind the 9-11 attack was also involved in other crimes, such as the Oklahoma City bombing and the assassination of President Kennedy" and that "The media executives are high ranking members of the criminal network." He also claims that "From 120 to 200 Israelis were arrested in the USA, but rather than be investigated for their role in the 9-11 attack, they were sent back to Israel." and that "Most of the media executives and other people who are supporting the official story of 9-11 are Jewish. If this is just a coincidence, then nobody would care if we mention it since it would merely be interesting. After all, if most of these people had red hair, who would care if we mentioned such a coincidence? But if it is not a coincidence that most of these people are Jewish, then there will be a serious attempt to suppress this fact." He maintains that 9/11 'researchers' such as 911truth.org who don't accept his version of events are part of a 'bowel movement' and are being manipulated by the Government to confuse the public.

Jared Israel

Jared Israel published his first critique of the official story, "Criminal Negligence or Treason, four days after 9-11. He and Illarion Bykov wrote the three-part series, "Guilty For 9-11: Bush, Rumsfeld, Myers," which charges that fighter jets at Andrews Air Force base were in position to intervene on 9-11 and that the reported behavior of George Bush on 9-11 and Vice President Cheney's subsequent appearance on "Meet the Press" betray consciousness of guilt. These and other writings, analyzing documentary evidence and Bush and other leaders' public behavior are published on Emperor's Clothes. Israel and Bykov's work has been cited by subsequent researchers. Jared Israel also argues that the media demonizes Israel and that contrary to their stance of fighting Islamic extremism, "the US and European establishments have a two-faced geopolitical strategy" which fosters Islamism, and that they have pushed Israel to adopt an approach that he calls a "concede - punish - retreat" approach which, he argues, empowers Islamic political extremism.

Alex Jones

Alex Jones, a documentary film producer and radio host, credits himself with predicting the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and its responsibility officially being laid with Osama Bin Laden months before it happened. Jones believes that elements within the U.S. government sponsored the 9/11 attacks in order to usher in a police state, and believes that world affairs and business are heavily influenced by elite round-table groups such as the Bilderberg Group and the Council on Foreign Relations. Among the notable people he has interviewed are: Representative Ron Paul; journalist Greg Palast; former Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution Paul Craig Roberts; Bev Harris; Former 27 year CIA member Ray McGovern; former Minister for Research and Technology in Germany Andreas von Bülow; and the chief prosecutor for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, David Schippers.

Steven E. Jones

Steven Earl Jones is a former professor of physics at Brigham Young University and a former member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Since late 2005, Jones has been defending the hypothesis that the collapse of the World Trade Center was due to a controlled demolition using thermite. On September 7, 2006, he was placed on paid leave while his university reviewed the scientific basis of his work in this area. Subsequently, Jones and the university reached an agreement on his retirement from BYU (See Steven E. Jones).

John Judge

John Judge is a researcher and co-founder of 911 Citizens Watch, a grassroots watchdog group guided by the 9/11 Families Advisory Group. It was set up to demand transparency and a thorough investigation by the National Commission on Terrorist Acts Upon the United States. It succeeded in forcing the commission to address many issues they would not have included otherwise. He is described as 'independent researcher and lecturer on political assassinations, covert operations, hidden history, and the rise of fascism in America' on a site documenting his writings [42]. He also claims that the mass murder at Jonestown, Guyana was 'linked' to military intelligence and a CIA program called MK-ULTRA. He is a long time investigator into the Kennedy Assassination and "claims to have found links between the characters, assassins, funding and operations in the subsequent murders of Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and numerous other public figures and eye witnesses to the killings." [43]. He does not believe Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. [44].

Kenneth L. Kuttler

Kenneth L. Kuttler, Professor of Mathematics at Brigham Young University, has written a paper WTC 7: A short computation in which he states "I provide a short computation, focused on World Trade Center building 7. Based on very favorable assumptions for achieving a fast fall, including ignoring resistance due to intact steel columns, I could only get the building to fall in about 8.3 seconds, whereas the observed roof-fall time is approximately 6.5 seconds. The problem is the large number of floors and conservation of momentum in a collision. Some of the “official” explanations about progressive collapse are evocative but they do not explain the difficulty in the rapid fall of the building along with what is evidently taking place when the video of the falling building is observed." [45]

Peter Lance

Peter Lance is an investigative reporter, a former ABC News correspondent, and a five-time Emmy Award-winner. [46] He is the author of Cover Up : What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror ISBN 0-06-054355-8, in which he alleges that TWA Flight 800 was blown up by a bomb intended to disrupt the trial of terrorist Ramzi Yousef, the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and alleged planner of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. While this book does not state a conclusion that 9/11 was either carried out, or allowed to happen, by people within the US government, he cites much of the same evidence as those that who have come to those conclusions, such as the lack of a timely airforce response. Lance is harshly critical of what he views as a coverup by the official 9/11 Commission, unexplained inconsistencies in the official accounts, and obstruction by the Bush administration and Federal Government.

Lyndon Larouche

Lyndon Larouche concluded that the events of September 11 involved "an attempted military coup d'état against the U.S. government of President George W. Bush." He has written that the most likely possibility is that high-ranking military officers shut down key elements of security that would have otherwise prevented the attacks. See Political views of Lyndon LaRouche.

Frank Legge

Frank Legge, PhD, with Logical Systems Consulting, Perth, Western Australia, has written four papers which can be found at the Journal of 9/11 Studies, "9/11 - Evidence for Controlled Demolition: a Short List of Observations", "9/11 – Evidence Suggests Complicity: Inferences from Actions", "NIST Data Disproves Collapse Theories Based on Fire" and "9/11 - Acceleration Study Proves Explosive Demolition". These are peer reviewed papers. It is not publically known who the reviewers are but it is the policy of the journal that they select people with appropriate scientific and mathematical qualifications. In the first paper he briefly describes several lines of evidence for the use of explosives. In the second he lists observations such as extreme secrecy which imply complicity of authorities. In the third he shows that the initiating event required for all progressive collapse theories based on heat from the fires could not have occurred as the cores were too cold or cooling at the time of collapse. In the fourth a detailed study of the rate of acceleration of the roof of WTC 7 shows it to be very close to free fall, impossible without explosives. [47]

John-Paul Leonard

John Leonard is a 9/11 activist who has edited and published several books on 9/11 under the Progressive Press[48] imprint: The War on Freedom by Nafeez Ahmed (2002) ISBN 0-930852-400; Enemies by Design by Greg Felton (2004) ISBN 0-930852-567; Conspiracies, Conspiracy Theories and the Secrets of 9/11 by Mathias Bröckers (2005) ISBN 0-930852-230; 9/11 Synthetic Terror by Webster Tarpley (2006) ISBN 0-930852-370; and Truth Jihad by Kevin Barrett (2007) ISBN 0-930852-990.

David Lynch

Appearing on Dutch television station VPRO on December 3, 2006, Lynch played clips from Loose Change where he discussed his doubts about the September 11, 2001 attacks. He suggests that an airliner didn't hit the Pentagon because such a crash should have left a "bigger hole". He offers no opinion on what happened to Flight 77, what did hit the Pentagon or how much damage an aluminum plane should cause when crashing into a heavily reinforced concrete structure.

Jim Marrs

Jim Marrs is the author of Inside Job, Unmasking the 9/11 Conspiracies ISBN 1-57983-013-7, replaced in Sept. 2006 by The Terror Conspiracy: Deception, 9/11 and the Loss of Liberty ISBN 1932857435 with Barbara Honegger.

Michael Meacher

Michael Meacher UK Minister of Environment (1997 - 2003) has published an essay “The War on Terrorism is Bogus.” in The Guardian, September 6, 2003. “The war on terrorism is a smoke screen and that the US knew in advance about the September 11 attack on New York but, for strategic reasons, chose not to act on the warnings. He says the US goal is ‘world hegemony, built around securing by force command over the oil supplies’ and that this Pax Americana ‘provides a much better explanation of what actually happened before, during and after 9/11 than the global war on terrorism thesis.’ Mr. Meacher adds that the US has made ‘no serious attempt’ to catch the al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.” and ”The conclusion of all this analysis must surely be that the "global war on terrorism" has the hallmarks of a political myth propagated to pave the way for a wholly different agenda - the US goal of world hegemony, built around securing by force command over the oil supplies required to drive the whole project.” Mr Meacher also believes that President Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour but chose not to act to defend the US fleet [49]. In May 2007 he withdrew from a challenge for the leadership of the Labour Party, citing a lack of support, after Tony Blair announced his intention to step down.

Peter Meyer

Peter Meyer is the author of the Serendipity website. The first version of his World Trade Center Demolition article appeared there two days after 9/11. Since then he has published on Serendipity numerous other 9/11-related articles, both by himself and by others. Meyer's site also features claims which many in the 9/11 movement do not agree with, such as the idea that commercial jets did not hit the WTC towers, but instead, something else caused the destruction and fake canisters of debris were ejected out of the towers when the planes impacted the towers.

Thierry Meyssan

Thierry Meyssan a French political leader and chairman of the anti-imperialist conference Axis for Peace. He is the author of the books L'Effroyable Imposture (9/11: The Big Lie) ISBN 1-59209-026-5 and Pentagate ISBN 1-59209-028-1. He was the first to suggest that a truck bomb or a missile—instead of a plane—hit the Pentagon. As editor of the Voltaire Network, he did not travel himself from Paris to Washington but use correspondents to interview the eyewitnesses. Its work is more an analysis of the political consequences of 9/11, than an inquiry on the attacks. Some other researchers have come to the conclusion that this was an effort to distract from undisputed evidence such as the fact the Pentagon was struck in the mostly empty, under "reconstruction" part, which minimized casualties (thousands could have been killed if any other "wedge" had been hit). Meyssan believes that Osama bin Laden was an agent of the U.S. who was used by President Bush to destroy secret CIA offices in the World Trade Centre.

John Newman

John Newman spent 21 years in Army Intelligence and served as Assistant to the Director of the National Security Agency. He also served as an attaché in China. He is a history professor at UMD and has been teaching courses on counterterrorism for 10 years. Newman's writings are widely published. Newman is working on a manuscript about the events leading up to 9/11. In his contribution and Errors in the Commission's Final Report at the Rep. McKinney 9/11 Congressional Briefing he stated "It falls to me this morning to bring to your attention the story of Saeed Sheikh, whose full name is Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and his astonishing rise to power in Al Qaeda, his crucial role in 9/11, which is completely, utterly, missing from the 9/11 Commission report…and also to deal with what US Intelligence knew about his links to the ISI, (Pakistani Intelligence), and what, if anything, was said or not said in the Commission report about these things."

Rosie O'Donnell

Emmy Award-winning talk show host Rosie O'Donnell has stated on the air that WTC Building 7 must have been brought down by controlled demolition. [50] In questions and answers on her blog she stated that "i believe there is more to 9 11 than we have been told" (sic) and that she believed President Bush had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks -"shock was the look on everyone elses face that morning not his" (sic) [51].

Greg Palast

Greg Palast a New York Times- bestselling author and a journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation as well as the British newspaper The Observer. Palast believes that intelligence agencies attempting to investigate before the 9/11 attacks were 'blinded' because of restrictions on investigating members of the House of Saud. He does not believe the attacks had any involvement by US insiders.[52]

Don Paul

Don Paul is the author of the book 9/11, Facing our Fascist State [53] (ASIN B0006S7LS0). The book examines questions about the destruction of the Twin Towers and building WTC 7 and discusses World Trade Center ownership and insurance coverage. Paul is also the co-author, with Jim Hoffman, of the book Waking Up From Our Nightmare: The 9/11/01 Crimes in New York City [54] ISBN 0-943096-10-3. His website [55] sells self published musical albums including such works as '5 SONGS for the BUSH REICH'.

Morgan Reynolds

Morgan Reynolds, a former chief economist for the United States Department of Labor during the administration of George W. Bush, is the highest-ranking public official to criticize the government account of 9/11, calling the government story "bogus" and saying the WTC towers most likely fell from a controlled demolition. Reynolds was critiqued by other 9/11 researchers who disagree with his questions about whether the planes that hit the WTC towers were real commercial jets or not[56]. He has also put forward the notion that the U.S. government employed a space-based "high-energy beam" to destroy the towers.

Mark Robinowitz

Mark Robinowitz is the webmaster for OilEmpire.us, and his work has been praised by Michael Ruppert, "Compelling work by 9/11 investigator Mark Robinowitz adding more knowledge to how the pieces fit together."

Gordon Ross

Gordon Ross holds degrees in both Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, graduating from Liverpool John Moores University. He has written a paper Momentum Transfer Analysis of the Collapse of the Upper Storeys of WTC 1 in which he concludes: "An energy balance is derived showing that there is an energy deficit before completion of the plastic shortening phase that would not allow the collapse to continue under the constraints of this paper." [57]. This paper did not appear in any peer reviewed journal. On his website he states that "the collapse of the towers was deliberately caused by the use of explosive and or incendiary devices placed at identified points within the structure." [58].

Michael C. Ruppert

Michael C. Ruppert is a former narcotics investigator for the LAPD and the author of CROSSING THE RUBICON: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil. Ruppert claims the Bush Administration had advance knowledge of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In his book "Crossing the Rubicon" ISBN 0-86571-540-8 he names Vice President Dick Cheney as the prime suspect in 9/11 and alleges that on the day of the attacks the Vice President was running a command and control communications system which superseded orders being issued by the FAA, the Pentagon, and the White House Situation Room.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth

Scholars for 9/11 Truth or S9/11T is an association of academics dedicated to "exposing falsehoods and to revealing truths behind 9/11". The association was founded by James H. Fetzer and Steven E. Jones. "S9/11T members are convinced their research proves the current administration has been dishonest about what happened in New York and Washington, D.C." and the group call for verification and publication by an international consortium. [59] [60] Opinion piece in Miami Herald. Scholars for 9/11 Truth has launched a petition to Congress, for the release of 9/11 information [61]. Jones resigned from the Scholars organization amid disagreement over the plausibility of space-based energy beams and small nuclear detonations as possible alternative theories for the destruction of the WTC and surrounding structures.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice

Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, or STJ911, a group of people dedicated to performing scientific research, and publicizing the results, on the events of 9/11 were originally members of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, but voted to separate from that group in January of 2007, and to form a new group along with Steven E. Jones, Kevin Ryan, Jim Hoffman, Frank Legge, and others. Jim Fetzer remains in control of the original group. The new scholars group had over 200 members as of February of 2007.

Peter Dale Scott

Peter Dale Scott is a Canadian poet and former English professor who served as a Canadian diplomat from 1957-1961. Scott is currently completing a book with the working title The Road To 9/11. He has made numerous presentations with researchers such as Michael Ruppert and has published numerous books on politics since the 1970s, one notable example being Deep Politics and the Death of JFK ISBN 0-520-20519-7. He made a contribution for Rep. McKinneys' 9/11 Congressional Briefing titled in Historical Perspective: Flawed AssumptionsThis paper centers around the connections between Al Qaeda and the CIA.

Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen is an actor who appears in the sitcom 'Two and a half men'. On March 20, 2006, Sheen revealed during an Alex Jones interview that he questions the "official story" concerning the September 11, 2001 attacks. Sheen stated during the interview, "...it just didn't look like any commercial jetliner I've flown on any time in my life and then when the buildings came down later on that day I said to my brother, 'Call me insane, but did it sorta look like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?'" [4] During a March 22, 2006 appearance on CNN's Showbiz Tonight, Sheen stated "...19 amateurs with box cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting 75 percent of their targets, that feels like a conspiracy theory."[5]. "I was up early and we were gonna do a pre-shoot on Spin City, the show I used to do, I was watching the news and the north tower was burning. I saw the south tower hit live, that famous wide shot where it disappears behind the building and then we see the tremendous fireball...There was a feeling, it just didn't look any commercial jetliner I've flown on any time in my life and then when the buildings came down later on that day I said to my brother 'call me insane, but did it sorta look like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?" He did not reveal what he thought hit the twin towers if not hijacked airliners nor if the brother he referred to was Ramon Estevez or Emilio Estevez.

Webster G. Tarpley

Webster G. Tarpley has published 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA ISBN 0-930852-31-1 in which he starts from the official story of 9-11 - nineteen Arab hijackers, al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, the laptop in the cave in Afghanistan - and aims to show that this story is a myth fabricated during the ten days after 9-11 by media leaks from George Tenet and Richard Clarke, remarks by Colin Powell, and Bush's September 20 address to Congress. Tarpley's analysis is shown in the historical context of terrorism. Tarpley's website proclaims his belief that George Bush has committed a "COUP AGAINST WORLD CIVILIZATION" [62].

Paul Thompson

Paul Thompson is the pen name of the author of The Terror Timeline, A Comprehensive Chronicle of the Road to 9/11 and America's Response ISBN 0-06-078338-9. Thompson wrote his book with the help of the Center for Cooperative Research.[63] A film based on Thompson's book has been created, entitled, 9/11 Press For Truth.

Victor Thorn

Victor Thorn, along with Lisa Guiliani, presents Wing TV, an internet video show, focused on conspiracy theories, in which researchers are often interviewed by phone. Thorn has been involved in a number of public quarrels and attacks with those active in 9/11 research (including Alex Jones, Jack Blood, Jeff Rense, and Mike Ruppert). Many of his competitors say that he is a disinformation agent sent in to disrupt the work of serious 9/11 research. [64][65] Thorn's real name is Scott Makufka. He is the author of several books, including The New World Order Exposed (2003), 9/11 on Trial (2005) and 9/11 Evil (2006).

Jesse Ventura

Jesse Ventura, former Minnesota Governor and retired profressional wrestler, expressed skepticism of the official 9/11 account in a September 2006 press conference. [66]

James W. Walter

James W. Walter who is better known as "Jimmy" Walters is an American venture capitalist and political activist. He produced a video entitled reopen911 which came to public prominence in December 2004 when he offered a $100,000 reward to any engineering student who could prove that the September 11, 2001 attacks were carried out as described by the September 11 Commission. [67] The reward was increased to $1 million in September 2005. However a number of 9/11 researchers do not agree with his beliefs that mini-nukes were used in NYC at the WTC. In an interview with the New York Times on November 8 2004, quoted in a piece entitled 'A Hidden Story Behind Sept. 11? One Man's Ad Campaign Says So' Walters stated that "no plane flew into the Pentagon".

Ian Woods

Ian Woods is the publisher of Global Outlook, the Magazine of 9/11 Truth,[68] appearing in book form as 9/11: The Greatest Crime of All Time - The Best of Global Outlook in Nov. 2006 ISBN 0973110937.

Howard Zinn

Referring to David Ray Griffin's work, Howard Zinn wrote, "His book has already encouraged many thousands to debate the case for possible government complicity and at the very least to demand a full, transparent and truly independent public inquiry." [69]

Barrie Zwicker

Barrie Zwicker is an award-winning Canadian journalist who was one of the first from the mainstream press to go public with his opinion that 9-11 was an inside job. He has spoken at numerous venues and published two videos on the subject: The Great Deception in early 2002, and The Great Conspiracy: The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw in which he mischaracterized President Bush's incriminating 9/11 witness statements[70]. His book Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-up of 9/11 was published in Sept. 2006. Although he worked in the past for a number of North American publications his entry at 'Sources Directory' indicates he is no longer employed in the mainstream press [71].

See also

• 9/11 conspiracy theories
• 9/11 Truth Movement
• Amateur investigators researching the 2001 anthrax attacks
• Casualties of the September 11, 2001 attacks
• Collapse of the World Trade Center
• Controlled demolition hypothesis for the collapse of the World Trade Center
• Flight 11
• Flight 77
• Flight 93
• Flight 175
• Guantanamo Bay
• The Mossad
• Organizers of the September 11, 2001 attacks
• Osama bin Laden
• The Pentagon
• Project for a New American Century
• September 11, 2001 attacks
• U.S. government response to the September 11, 2001 attacks
• USA PATRIOT Act
• War games in progress on September 11, 2001
• World political effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks
• World Trade Center
• World Trade Center bombing (1993)

External links

Rational Discussion of evidence of US government complicity

• [72] Popular Mechanics article.
• [73] Debunking 9/11
• [74] Journal of Debunking 9/11

Discussion and purported evidence of US government complicity

• 911Busters.com - Video Presentations critical of mainstream view of 9/11
• 911CitizensWatch.org - '9/11 Citizens Watch' (messageboard to track the official Commission and support whistleblowers)
• 9-11 Research at wtc7.net
• 911review.com - '9-11 Review: A Resource for Understanding the 9/11/01 Attack' (exposes common errors in the "9/11 skeptics" literature)
• 911Truth.org - 'A Campaign to Expose the Truth of 9/11' (outlines alleged US government coverup of the true cause of 9/11)
• CommunityCurrency.org - 'The Difference Between Money and Real Wealth', Creating Community Currencies (from Deception Dollar publisher)
• CooperativeResearch.org - 'Our objective is to provide the public with a means to collaborate on investigations at the grassroots level', Cooperative Research ("Complete 9/11 Timeline" collection of articles)
• DTIC.mil (pdf) - The June 1, 2001 Joint Chiefs of Staff directive changing regulations on interception of hijacked planes, requiring SecDef approval and specifically forbidding the shooting down or seizure of "pirated" airliners
• EMediaWire.com - 'Scholars Repudiate Official Version of 9/11: Scholars claim government's account violates laws of physics and engineering', PRWEB, (January 27, 2006)
• Flight93Crash.com - 'How Did United Flight 93 Crash?' (examination of different theories of Flight 93's crash and evidence that Flight 93 may have been shot down)
• FromTheWilderness.com - ' Crossing the Rubicon: the Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, Michael Ruppert
• InfoWars.com - '9/11: The Road to Tyranny: what really happened on 9/11, and who stands to gain, Alex Jones
• OilEmpire.us - 'were remote controlled planes used to minimize casualties? Flight 77 hit the Pentagon in the nearly empty, recently reinforced and strengthened section' (theory on why the Pentagon building was hit in the nearly empty, recently reconstructed and strengthened sector)
• Truth911.net Attempt to debunk official account using mainstream media articles
• OurWorld.compuserve.com - 'Research in Political Economy, Volume 23: The Hidden History of 9-11-2001', editor: Paul Zarembka, State University of New York at Buffalo
• Ratical.org - 'The 9-11 bombings Are Not Acts of War: The 9-11 bombings Are Crimes Against Humanity', Rat Haus Reality

Attempts to debunk specific claims or overall conclusions of US government complicity

• AboveTopSecret.com - 'Above Top Secret 4.0 » 9/11 & 7/7 Conspiracies » 9/11: A Boeing 757 Struck the Pentagon' (discussion board posting argues a 757 plane did crash into the Pentagon)
• Archive.org - 911 Conspiracy Rebuttal (video partially rebutting "In Plane Site" and Pentagon flash animation), Gordon McDowell, Internet Archive (2004)
• OilEmpire.us - 'The Pentagon Attack: the "no plane" theories discredit 9/11 skepticism and distract from proven evidence of complicity'

• OilEmpire.us - '"No Planes on 9/11" hoaxes: traps to distract and discredit the 9/11 truth movement'

• PopularMechanics.com - 9/11: Debunking The Myths Popular Mechanics March 2005
• PublicEye.org - ' The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11, by David Ray Griffin' (book review) Chip Berlet (skeptical review; includes Griffin's response)
• Snopes.com - 'Claim: The damage to the Pentagon on September 11 was caused by something other than a hijacked Boeing 757's being crashed into its side. Status: False.'
• usinfo.state.gov - 'The US State Department official refutation of a 9/11 conspiracy. "...passenger and crew remains from American Airlines flight 77 were recovered at the Pentagon crash site."'
• Jean-Pierre Desmoulins, a 9/11 independent researcher, claims that flight 77 was used as a missile, carrying a warhead in it's luggage compartment, probably under electronic control, to attack the Pentagon. His overall analysis of the 9/11 event refers to the "Help It Happen On Purpose" (HIHOP) view, sometimes called "hijack the hijackers", arguing that the attack was foreknowledged and taken under control under the cover of war drills occurring this same day.'
• 911 Myths - debunks popular 9/11 theories. Quote: "the spreading of false claims helps no-one" and "We’re not about debunking entire conspiracies, then, but will use this site to zoom in on what we think are the more dubious stories, revealing the misquotes, the distortions, the inaccuracies that are so common online."
• 9-11 Loose Change Second Edition Viewer Guide - Scene by scene guide to popular 9/11 video 'Loose Change Second Edition' which espouses the theory that no plane hit the pentagon, criticized by many within the 9/11 Truth Movement.

Answers to the Questions raised by Researchers

• FAQs from the NIST - Answers questions regarding the collapse of the World Trade Center.

Other lists of persons questioning the official 9/11 narrative

• 911Truth.org - list of 162 signatories to a demand for a "Deeper Investigation into the Events of 9/11," Oct. 2004.
• www.wanttoknow.info Senior Military, Intelligence, and Government Officials Question 9/11 Commission Report, a list by Fred Burks, erstwhile Presidential interpreter.

References

• Cziesche, Dominik; Jürgen Dahlkamp, Ulrich Fichtner, Ulrich Jaeger, Gunther Latsch, Gisela Leske, Max F. Ruppert (2003). Panoply of the Absurd. Der Spiegel. Der Spiegel. URL accessed on 2006-06-06.

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