Misplaced Pages

9/11 conspiracy theories

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Bonus Onus (talk | contribs) at 00:48, 9 March 2005 (changed blatant POV, which called the widely accepted account a "conspiracy theory"). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 00:48, 9 March 2005 by Bonus Onus (talk | contribs) (changed blatant POV, which called the widely accepted account a "conspiracy theory")(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

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 alleging 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.
  • That one 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.
  • Some surveilance videos of the attacks have been confiscated by the FBI. To date, these videos have not been released.

See also

External links

Categories: