Numerous unfounded conspiracy theories about the September
11 attacks continue to circulate, especially on the Internet. Some of the most
popular myths are:
1) The World Trade Center (WTC) twin towers were destroyed
by controlled demolitions.
This is how the collapses may have appeared to non-experts,
but demolition experts point out many differences:
• Demolition professionals always blow the bottom
floors of a structure first, but the WTC tower collapses began at the upper
levels, where the planes hit the buildings.
• Non-experts claim that debris seen blowing out of
windows was evidence of explosive charges, but experts identify this as air and
light office contents (paper, pulverized concrete, etc.) being forced out of
windows as floors collapsed on each other.
• Demolition firms had very sensitive seismographs
operating at other sites in Manhattan on September 11. None recorded signs of
any explosions prior to the tower collapses. Instead, seismic spikes were
noted when
debris began hitting the ground.
• Cutting away walls, insulation, plumbing, and
electrical conduits to place numerous charges on the towers’ structural columns
in advance would not have gone unnoticed.
• Clean-up crews found none of the telltale signs of
controlled demolitions that would have existed if explosive charges had been
used.
2) No plane hit the Pentagon on September 11. Instead,
it was a missile fired by elements “from inside the American state apparatus.”
Conspiracy theorists making this claim ignore several facts:
• The remains of the bodies of the crew and passengers
of American Airlines flight 77 were found at the Pentagon crash site, and
positively identified by DNA.
• The flight’s black boxes were also recovered at the
site.
• Numerous eyewitnesses saw the plane strike the
Pentagon. Some saw passengers through the plane’s windows. Missiles don’t have
windows or carry passengers.
• Numerous photographs show airplane debris at the
crash site, as was also witnessed by survivors and rescue personnel. See
sections 4:57 to 6:00 of the
“911 Case Study: Pentagon
Flight 77” video for pictures of airliner debris.
3) United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in
Pennsylvania, was shot down by a missile.
• The cockpit voice recorder of this flight was
recovered and showed that the passenger revolt caused the hijackers to
deliberately crash the plane. The hijackers controlled the plane until its
impact. See
full
transcript.
• The U.S. military did not learn that flight 93 had
been hijacked until several minutes after it crashed, as
tapes
released in 2006 demonstrate.
• The military never gave interceptor pilots
authorization to shoot down United flight 93. See an
article
on the tapes.
• Listen to the
45-second message to
her husband left by flight attendant CeeCee Lyles on her home answering
machine.
The Pentagon attack site on September 14, 2001. (© AP
Images)
4) World Trade Center building 7 was destroyed by a
controlled demolition.
• This allegation was fueled by a comment by the WTC
owner that, after WTC 7 was judged to be unstable, he recommended pulling a
group of firefighters out of the building, using the phrase “pull it” in
reference to the contingent of firefighters.
• Conspiracy theorists have interpreted the “pull it”
remark as slang for demolishing the building with explosives. But demolition
experts say “pulling” a building means attaching long cables to a weakened
structure and literally pulling it down with bulldozers and other powerful
machinery — not using explosives.
• The audio tracks of video recordings of the WTC
collapse showed no evidence of the extremely loud sounds that would have
indicated the use of explosives. Also, seismographs recorded no telltale spikes
or anomalies.
• An exhaustive three-year investigation by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) concluded that fires
caused by the collapse of the nearby WTC north tower caused fires that burned
out of control in WTC 7. These fires caused steel beams to expand and buckle,
leading to the collapse of the building.
5) The planes that hit the World Trade Center towers
were remotely controlled.
• Boeing, which manufactured the planes that struck
the towers, stated that all its commercial jet transports are configured so
that they cannot be controlled from anywhere except the flight deck of the
aircraft.
• Passengers onboard the flights made several phone
calls. All reported that hijackers had commandeered the planes.
6) Insider trading in the stocks of United Airlines
and American Airlines just before September 11 is evidence of advance knowledge
of the plot.
• The 9/11 Commission investigated this issue in
detail, concluding, “Some unusual trading did in fact occur, but each such
trade proved to have an innocuous explanation.”
• For example, it stated, “much of the seemingly
suspicious trading in American [Airlines stock] on September 10 was traced to a
specific U.S.-based options trading newsletter, faxed to its subscribers on
Sunday, September 9, which recommended these trades.”
7) Four thousand Jews failed to show up for work at
the World Trade Center on September 11.
• It appears from media reports that some 10 percent
to 15 percent of WTC victims were Jewish, indicating there were no mass
absences.
• The “4,000” figure apparently came from an early
statement by the Israeli Foreign Ministry that some “4,000 Israelis” were
believed to be in the New York and Washington areas, where the attacks
occurred. This figure was apparently seized upon by conspiracy theorists, in an
attempt to bolster the false rumor.
8) Al Qaida is not responsible for the September 11
attacks.
• Al Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, have
repeatedly confirmed that they planned and carried out the September 11
attacks.
• In an audiotape released on May 23, 2006, bin Laden
stated, “I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers … with those raids..”
• In a November 2001 tape, bin Laden said, “We
calculated in advance the number of casualties … who would be killed. … I was
the most optimistic of them all. … Due to my experience in this field, I was
thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure
of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors
above it only.”
Out of the depths of sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of
mankind.
