Conspiracy Theory: 9/11
Over the past two years, scores of highly regarded individuals have gone public to express their serious doubts about 9/11. These include former presidential advisor and CIA analyst Ray McGovern, the father of Reaganomics and former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, BYU physics Professor Steven Jones, former German defense minister Andreas von Buelow, former MI5 officer David Shayler, former Blair cabinet member Michael Meacher, former Chief Economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush’s first term Morgan Reynolds and many more.
More than ninety-five stories below the impact point of the first plane to hit the North Tower, mechanics walked up the stairs to the third sub-basement to find the machine shop completely gone. A fifty-ton hydraulic press was blown to bits. The parking garage on the floor above was also gone. “There were no walls, there was rubble on the floor, and you [couldn't] see anything”, said Mike Pecoraro. Two more floors up, the 300-pound steel and concrete fire door was wrinkled up “like a piece of aluminum foil” and lying on the floor. The underground damage he describes can not have been the result of shaking from the impact above — nothing short of an explosion could have reduced the contents of the machine shop to rubble. William Rodriguez, the last person pulled from the rubble of the North Tower, stated, “There was an explosion that came from under our feet, we were pushed upwards lightly by the effect, I was on basement level 1 and it sounded that it came from B2 and B3 level. Rapidly after that we heard the impact far away at the top.”
According to the conspiracy theorists, the damage to the parking garage and the North Tower lobby simultaneous with the first plane impact are indicative of the effects of high explosives, with widespread blast damage and fine dust covering the entire scene. The oft-cited explanation is that the fall of jet fuel down one of the elevator shafts caused on explosion. Instead of the expected soot or fuel residue that would be expected from such an explosion, there are blown-out windows and a fine dry dust covering the entire lobby — very much the signature of high explosives.
Building 7 of the World Trace Center was not hit by a plane, nor was it even adjacent to the twin towers. Yet it collapsed within its own footprint and did not topple over. Brigham Young University physics professor Steven E. Jones says that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that the all three buildings fell due to controlled demolition. Firefighters in the buildings proclaim their witness to demolition-style implosions.
A CNN transcript from September 11 quoted an unidentified female who said, “I was watching TV, and there was this sonic boom, and the TV went out. And I thought maybe the Concorde was back in service, because I’ve heard about that sonic boom. And I went to the window — I live in Battery Park City, right next to the twin towers — and I looked up, and the side of the World Trade Center exploded. At that point, debris started falling.” Her claim is that she had enough time to react to a loud explosion, go to the window, and then witness the fireball.
I have been highly skeptical of these theories and findings, but — like in every well-discussed conspiracy theory — there exists compelling evidence to at least consider the possibilities. The radio tower at the top of the North Tower began its collapse before the rest of the tower, indicating one or more failures in the central core — the strongest part of the building that consisted of 47 enormous steel core columns. There are several published observations of molten metal in the basements of all three buildings which was still red hot weeks after the event. Yet the maximum flame temperature increase for burning jet fuel in ideal conditions in air is about 1000 degrees, while structural steel is yellow at 1975 degrees, white at 2200 degrees, and melts at about 2750 degrees. The yellow-to-white hot molten metal dripping from the South WTC Tower shortly before its collapse is consistent with a thermite reaction attacking the steel columns in the Tower, thus weakening the building just prior to its collapse. Thermite reactions, commonly used in the destruction of steel, produce temperatures in excess of 4500 degrees with the end products of aluminum oxide and molten iron.
Interesting coincidences about the attack include:
- Marvin Bush and Wirt Walker III (the president’s brother and cousin, respectively) were principals of the company in charge of security for the World Trade Center;
- The passport of one of the hijackers on Flight 11 was allegedly found in the rubble, having survived not only the fire but also whatever caused everything in the north tower except its steel to be pulverized into dust;
- An examination of the buildings’ steel columns could have shown whether explosives had been used. But virtually all of the steel was quickly sold to scrap dealers, trucked away, and sent to Asia to be melted down;
- CNN reporter Jamie McIntyre, reporting live from the Pentagon on 9/11, said: “From my close-up inspection, there’s no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon.” The damage suffered by the Pentagon is inconsistent with the damage caused by a 757 (especially if the WTC footage is to be believed), and there are no visible plane parts;
- President Bush, while in Florida, was protected with surface-to-air missiles on the rooftop of the hotel in which he stayed. The only other time surface to air missiles were used to protect the president was during Bush’s visit to the World Trade Organization’s meeting in midsummer in Genoa;
- At the precise time of the attacks, the US military was on full alert, holding a terrorism training exercise at the Offutt base. Minutes before the attacks on the WTC, an army base 50 miles south of New York City began preparation for a terrorist attack exercise
- Warren Buffett, the world’s second richest man and one of the insurers of the World Trade Center, was scheduled to host his “last annual golf charity event” which just happened to be at the U.S. Strategic Command headquarters located at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, the same place President Bush flew later in the day for “safety.” Buffett is not in the habit of supporting charities;
- Also in attendance was the CEO of Fiduciary Trust International Ann Tatlock whose office was where Flight 175 crashed into the second tower. Ann Tatlock has ties to some of the dozen distinguished microbiologists that have mysteriously died within five months of each other shortly after 9/11, some of them world leaders in developing weapons-grade biological plagues;
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owns NetJets Inc. which in turn owns the executive company jet that was “tracking” Flight 93 when it crashed in an open field in Shanksville, PA;
- Another of Warren Buffett’s subsidiaries, FlightSafety International Inc., is reported to have trained at least one of the alleged 9/11 hijackers, and its director was safely in Omaha with Buffett at the time of the attacks;
- Another flight school with corporate ties to both NetJets and FlightSafety, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, trained one of the other hijackers;
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns significant portions of SunTrust Banks, one of the banks in which the alleged 9/11 hijackers reportedly set up 14 bank accounts using fake social security numbers;
- US Attorney General Dan Ashcroft stopped flying commercial airlines in early August;
- The Pentagon canceled all scheduled flight reservations the day before 9/11.
Did the US government know in advance of the attacks, or could it have even been involved? It wouldn’t be the first time the US government considered engaging in domestic terrorism. Operation Northwoods was a plan by the highest US military authorities to create a series of incidents involving loss of American and Cuban exile lives through the actions of phony Cubans in order to persuade the US public to go to war against Cuba. According to an ABC News report:
“Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities. The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba’s then new leader, communist Fidel Castro. America’s top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: “We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba,” and, “casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.”
Details of the plans are described in Body of Secrets (Doubleday), a new book by investigative reporter James Bamford about the history of America’s largest spy agency, the National Security Agency. However, the plans were not connected to the agency, he notes. The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy’s defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.”
I don’t really wholly subscribe to these theories, but they are food for thought…
[...] According to the conspiracy theorists, the damage to the parking garage and the North Tower lobby simultaneous with the first plane impact are indicative of the effects of high explosives, with widespread blast damage and fine dust covering the entire scene. The oft-cited explanation is that the fall of jet fuel down one of the elevator shafts caused on explosion. Instead of the expected soot or fuel residue that would be expected from such an explosion, there are blown-out windows and a fine dry dust covering the entire lobby — very much the signature of high explosives. [Read further] [...]
Doesn`t James Bamford`s latest book denie many of the 9-11 conspiracy theories main points regarding the hijackers and their competence to fly large aircraft?
Bamford in his book “The Shadow Factory” states that Hani Hanjour was indeed competent.
“Warren Buffett, the world’s second richest man and one of the insurers of the World Trade Center, was scheduled to host his “last annual golf charity event” which just happened to be at the U.S. Strategic Command headquarters located at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, the same place President Bush flew later in the day for “safety.” Buffett is not in the habit of supporting charities;”
I think your conspiracy theories lost credibility when you tried to link Warren Buffett’s golf outing to the 9/11 attacks. And some of the other stuff is just outright false:
“President Bush, while in Florida, was protected with surface-to-air missiles on the rooftop of the hotel in which he stayed. The only other time surface to air missiles were used to protect the president was during Bush’s visit to the World Trade Organization’s meeting in midsummer in Genoa;”
The Secret Service has been deploying shoulder-launched S2A countermeasures since Clinton was in office.
I can agree there are some suspicious things about 9/11. But the outlandish claims and twisting of facts in this article just gives the detractors more ammo to call you crazy.