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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-Qaida 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.

Conspiracy theories

Since the attacks, a variety of conspiracy theories abound suggesting actors other than al-Qaida were responsible, including the U.S. government, the government of Israel, the Iraqi government, or their respective intelligence agencies. Some of the claims include the following:

  • One witness said the aircraft that hit the Pentagon looked like a cruise missile.
  • There is surveillance footage of the fireball at the Pentagon, but none showing a plane hitting the building. The brazilian newspaper Relatório Alfa (Alfa Report) has promoted the theory that the Pentagon was hit by a missile, mostly based on this footage. According to his editor, at the time, journalist Aldo Novak "we want to believe in the official story, but this new view seems to have more support from tech community". Many South American TV shows and news editions gave him voice to support this theory.
  • The initial hole created by the aircraft that hit the Pentagon was too small to have been made by a Boeing 757.
  • One witness said the aircraft that hit the north tower of the WTC was a business jet. Other witnesses have stated that there were no windows on the aircraft.
  • There was possible video evidence that shows that one of the aircraft's wing roots may have been a missile pod, but was later identified as a structural component of the Boeing 767's wing.
  • Five Israeli citizens set up a camera atop of a minivan in New Jersey and filmed the WTC complex during and after the airliner rammings on September 11 and were smiling as the towers burned in the background. After investigation, the FBI concluded "To date, this investigation has not identified anybody who in this country had pre-knowledge of the events of 9/11". The men's lawyers and the Israeli Embassy ascribe their behavior to "immature conduct". In September 2004, four of the detained Israelis filed a $250 million lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice claiming that they were unlawfully incarcerated for an extended period of time and that they were subjected to physical abuse during their two months in prison.
  • Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11 suggested that there was, during the post-9/11 grounding of all flights, an airlift to Saudi Arabia of bin Laden family members in the USA, leading to claims that potentially useful witnesses had been allowed by the U.S. government to escape a thorough investigation . Moore's claims have been challenged with evidence that bin Laden family members and other Saudi Arabian citizens were airlifted to assembly points inside the United States and were made available for FBI interview before being allowed to leave the country when normal civilian flights were resumed on 14th September and after Richard Clarke granted approval, but it has been evidenced that these flights took place by a Florida airport.
  • Some claim that a U.S. military plane shot down the airliner Flight 93 over Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
  • Another theory is that President George W. Bush and his cabinet were the true perpetrators of the attack in an attempt to raise his failing approval ratings and to justify a war on the Middle East.

Conspiracy claims regarding Jews or Israel

Main article: 9/11 conspiracy claims regarding Jews or Israel

Unresolved claims regarding prior advance warning

In the months preceding September 11, the governments of at least four countries—Germany, Egypt, Russia and Israel— are said to have given specific "urgent" warnings to the US of an impending terrorist attack, indicating that hijacked commercial aircraft might well be used to attack targets in the USA. , full list of July-August 2001 intelligence warnings here. The Egyptian and French warnings to the USA are claimed to have originated from Mossad and German intelligence. .

The exact dates these warnings were received is unknown, the warnings only being made public in the aftermath of 9/11.
  • German intelligence service BND told both US and Israeli intelligence agencies in June that Middle East terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." (Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001)
  • Egypt sent an urgent warning to the US June 13. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told the French newspaper Le Figaro that the warning was originally delivered just before the G-8 summit in Genoa, and was taken seriously enough that antiaircraft batteries were stationed around the Genoa airport. According to Mubarak, "an airplane stuffed with explosives" was mentioned. (Source: New York Times, September 26, 2001)
  • Russian intelligence notified the CIA during the summer that 25 terrorist pilots had been specifically training for suicide missions. In an interview September 15 with MSNBC, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he had ordered Russian intelligence in August to warn the US government "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings. (Source: From The Wilderness web site; MSNBC).
  • The Israeli Mossad warned FBI and CIA in August that as many as 200 followers of Osama bin Laden were slipping into the country to prepare "a major assault on the United States." The advisory spoke of a "large-scale target," and The Los Angeles Times cites unnamed US officials confirming Mossad's warning had been received. (Source: Sunday Telegraph, September 16, 2001; Los Angeles Times, September 20, 2001)
  • The Independent, a liberal daily in Great Britain, published an article asserting the US government "was warned repeatedly that a devastating attack on the United States was on its way." The Independent cited an interview given by Osama bin Laden to a London-based Arabic-language newspaper, al-Quds al-Arabi, in late August. (Source: Independent, September 17, 2001)

See also

External links

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