9/11 Truth Movement
Encyclopedia
Adherents of the movement assert that the explanation of the 9/11 events put forth by the United States government and mainstream media contains significant inconsistencies which suggest, at the least, a cover-up
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
, and at worst, complicity by insiders.
Adherents analyze evidence from the attacks and discuss different theories
9/11 conspiracy theories
9/11 conspiracy theories are theories that disagree with the widely accepted account that the September 11 attacks were perpetrated solely by al-Qaeda. These theories arose because of what proponents of the conspiracy theories believe to be inconsistencies in the official conclusions or some...
about how the attacks happened and call for a new investigation into the attacks.
Some of the organizations state that there is evidence that individuals within the United States government may have been either responsible for or knowingly complicit in the September 11 attacks. Motives given include the use of the attacks to initiate the launch of wars in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
and Iraq, and in creating the opportunities to curtail civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
.
Name
"9/11 Truth movement" is the collective name of loosely affiliated organizations and individuals that question whether the United States government, agencies of the United States or individuals within such agencies were either responsible for or purposefully complicit in the September 11 attacks. The term is also being used by the adherents of the movement. Adherents also call themselves "9/11 Truthers", "9/11 skeptics" or "truth activists", while generally rejecting the term "conspiracy theorists".Adherents
Adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement come from diverse social backgrounds. The movement draws adherents from people of diverse political beliefs including liberals, conservatives, and libertarians. A 2010 study of Facebook users affiliated with a 9/11 Truth group known as "We Are Change" found that most members of this group are males in their late 20s. Most members of this group are involved in right-wing politics.Lev Grossman of Time magazine has stated that support for the 9/11 Truth movement is not a "fringe phenomenon", but "a mainstream political reality." However, others, such as Ben Smith of Politico
Politico (newspaper)
The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...
and the Minneapolis Star Tribune have stated that the movement has been "relegated to the fringe". The Washington Post editorial staff went further describing the movement as "lunatic fringe." Mark Fenster, a University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
law professor and author of the book Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture, says that "the amount of organisation" of the movement is significantly stronger than the organization of the movement related to doubts about the official account of the assassination of former United States President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, though this is likely the result of new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
technologies, such as online social networks, blogs, etc.
The 9/11 Truth movement is active in the United States as well as in other countries.
In 2004, John Buchanan
John Buchanan (American politician)
John Howard Buchanan is a freelance journalist, and was a fringe Republican candidate in the 2004 Presidential election. Buchanan was previously based in Florida and currently lives in rural Georgia....
ran for president on a 9/11 Truth platform.
Views
Many adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement suspect that United States government insiders played a part in the attacks, or may have known the attacks were imminent, and did nothing to alert others or stop them.Some within the movement who argue that insiders within the United States government were directly responsible for the September 11 attacks often allege that the attacks were planned and executed in order to provide the U.S. with a pretext for going to war in the Middle East, and, by extension, as a means of consolidating and extending the power of the Bush Administration. According to these allegations, this would have given the Bush administration the justification for more widespread abuses of civil liberties and to invade Afghanistan and Iraq to ensure future supplies of oil. In some cases, even in the mainstream media, hawks in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, especially former Vice President Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, and members of the Project for the New American Century
Project for the New American Century
The Project for the New American Century was an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. that lasted from 1997 to 2006. It was co-founded as a non-profit educational organization by neoconservatives William Kristol and Robert Kagan...
, a neoconservative think tank, have been accused of involvement in or awareness of the alleged plot.
Many adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement allege that the buildings of the World Trade Center were destroyed by controlled demolition, a theory of major importance for the 9/11 Truth movement.
Communication
The Internet plays a large role both in the communication between adherents and between local groups of the 9/11 Truth movement and in the dissemination of the views of the movement to the public at large.History
In the years after the September 11 attacks, different interpretations of the events that questioned the account given by the U.S. government were published. Among others, Michael RuppertMichael Ruppert
Michael C. Ruppert is an American author, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer, and investigative journalist and peak oil theorist....
and Canadian journalist Barrie Zwicker
Barrie Zwicker
Barrie Wallace Zwicker is a Canadian alternative media journalist, documentary producer, and political activist. He is most famous for his documentary work, which has dealt primarily with 9/11 conspiracy theories.-Biography:...
, published criticisms or pointed out purported anomalies of the accepted account of the attacks. French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
author Jean-Charles Brisard
Jean-Charles Brisard
Jean-Charles Brisard is an international expert and consultant on international terrorism. He authored the first and most exhaustive study ever written on the financial network of the Bin Laden organization, "The economic environment of Osama Ben Laden"...
and German authors Mathias Bröckers
Mathias Bröckers
Mathias Bröckers is a writer, journalist and longtime editor of the Berlin newspaper 'taz' . He is most widely known for his writings casting doubt on the commonly accepted version of events regarding the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.He first wrote on the matter in...
and Andreas von Bülow
Andreas von Bülow
Andreas von Bülow is a German writer, lawyer and former SPD politician. He has been working on books about intelligence agencies, including In the Name of the State. CIA, BND and the criminal machinations of secret services. and The CIA and September 11...
published books critical of media reporting and advancing the controlled demolition thesis of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers.
In September 2002, the first "Bush Did It!" rallies and marches were held in San Francisco and Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
organized by The All People's Coalition.
In October 2004, the organization 9/11 Truth released a statement, signed by nearly 200 people, including many relatives of people who perished on September 11, 2001, that calls for an investigation into the attacks. It also asserted that unanswered questions would suggest that people within the administration of President George W. Bush may have deliberately allowed the attacks to happen. Actor Edward Asner, former presidential candidate Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
, former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia Ann McKinney is a former US Congresswoman and a member of the Green Party since 2007. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. In 2008, the Green Party nominated McKinney for President of the United States...
, former assistant secretary of housing Catherine Austin Fitts
Catherine Austin Fitts
Catherine Austin Fitts is the president of Solari, Inc., the publisher of The Solari Report, managing member of , and managing member of .-Background:...
, author Richard Heinberg
Richard Heinberg
Richard Heinberg is an American journalist and educator who has written extensively on energy, economic, and ecological issues, including oil depletion. He is the author of ten books...
, Enver Masud
Enver Masud
Enver Masud is founder and CEO of The Wisdom Fund, and the recipient of the 2002 Gold Award from the Human Rights Foundation for his book The War on Islam. He is also a co-author of Islam: Opposing Viewpoints, and 9/11 and American Empire....
, founder of The Wisdom Fund, professors Richard Falk of the University of California, Mark Crispin Miller
Mark Crispin Miller
Mark Crispin Miller is professor of media studies at New York University, and the author of the book: Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections. He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform...
of New York University, Douglas Sturm of Bucknell University, Burns H. Weston of the University of Iowa College of Law and others signed the statement. In 2009, Van Jones
Van Jones
Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones is an American environmental advocate, civil rights activist, and attorney. Jones is a co-founder of three non-profit organizations. In 1996, he founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a California non-governmental organization working for alternatives to violence...
, a former advisor to President Obama, said he hadn't fully reviewed the statement before he signed and that the petition did not reflect his views "now or ever."
In 2006, Steven E. Jones, who became a leading academic voice of the demolition theory, published the paper "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?". He was placed on paid leave by Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
following what they described as Jones's "increasingly speculative and accusatory" statements in September, 2006, pending a review of his statements and research. Six weeks later, Jones retired from the university.
In the same year, 61 legislators in the U.S. State of Wisconsin signed a petition calling for the dismissal of a University of Wisconsin lecturer Kevin Barrett
Kevin Barrett
Kevin James Barrett is a former university lecturer, Muslim convert. He is a member of the Scientific Panel for the Investigation of 9/11 , and is a founding member of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance , established October 30, 2004 with the stated aim of improving "interfaith dialogue,...
, after he joined the group Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Citing academic freedom
Academic freedom
Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Academic freedom is a...
, the university provost
Provost (education)
A provost is the senior academic administrator at many institutions of higher education in the United States, Canada and Australia, the equivalent of a pro-vice-chancellor at some institutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland....
declined to take action against Barrett.
Several organizations of family members of people who have died in the attacks are calling for an independent investigation into the attacks. In 2009, a group of people, including 9/11 Truth movement activist Lorie Van Auken and others who have lost friends or relatives in the attack, appealed to the City of New York to investigate the disaster. The organization New York City Coalition for Accountability Now collected signatures to require the New York City Council to place the creation of an investigating commission on the November 2009 election ballot.
The group collected more than enough signatures to put the proposal before the voters, but Supreme Court Justice Edward Lehner ruled that the petition overstepped what is allowable by city law, and ruled that, despite wording in the petition to allow for elements ruled invalid to be stricken, it would not be allowed to appear on the ballot.
9/11 Commission Report reaction
To the consternation of the families and adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement, many of the questions that the 9/11 Family Steering Committee9/11 Family Steering Committee
The 9/11 Family Steering Committee was an organization of twelve relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Members of the Committee included the Jersey Girls...
put to the 9/11 Commission
9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to...
, chaired by former New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
Governor Thomas Kean
Thomas Kean
Thomas Howard Kean is an American Republican Party politician, who served as the 48th Governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990. Kean is best known globally, however, for his 2002 appointment as Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, widely known as the...
, were not asked in either the hearings nor in the Commission Report. Lorie Van Auken, one of the Jersey Girls
Jersey Girls
The Jersey Girls or Jersey Widows refers to four American women who lost their husbands in the September 11 attacks. All four, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Lorie Van Auken, and Mindy Kleinberg, were residents of New Jersey, and helped lobby the U.S...
, estimates that only 30% of their questions were answered in the final 9/11 Commission Report, published July 22, 2004.
The 9/11 Family Steering Committee
9/11 Family Steering Committee
The 9/11 Family Steering Committee was an organization of twelve relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Members of the Committee included the Jersey Girls...
produced a website summarizing the questions they had raised to the Commission, indicating which they believe had been answered satisfactorily, which they believe had been addressed but not answered satisfactorily, and which they believe had been generally ignored in or omitted from the Report.
In addition, the 339-page book The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions by David Ray Griffin
David Ray Griffin
David Ray Griffin is a retired American professor of philosophy of religion and theology. Along with John B. Cobb, Jr., he founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973, a research center of Claremont School of Theology which seeks to promote the common good by means of the relational approach...
, claimed that the report had either omitted information or distorted the truth, providing 115 alleged examples. He has characterized the 9/11 Commission Report as "a 571-page lie".
On May 26, 2008 adjunct religious studies professor Blair Gadsby began a protest and a hunger strike outside the offices of Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
and Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
nominee for President John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
's office requesting McCain meet with the principal scientists and leaders of the 9/11 Truth movement, specifically Richard Gage, Steven Jones, and David Ray Griffin. McCain had written the foreword to the book Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts, published by the magazine Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics is an American magazine first published January 11, 1902 by H. H. Windsor, and has been owned since 1958 by the Hearst Corporation...
. Arizona Republican State Senator Karen Johnson joined the protest in support. On June 10 Johnson with Gadsby as her guest and other 9/11 Truth movement members in the audience spoke before the Arizona State Senate espousing the controlled demolition theory
Controlled demolition hypothesis for the collapse of the World Trade Center
The World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory which contends that the collapse of the World Trade Center was not caused by the airliner crash damage that occurred as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks, nor by resulting fire damage, but by explosives...
and supporting a reopening of the 9/11 investigation. In response to a question, McCain said he did not meet Gadsby, adding: "Because I don't take well to threats."
NIST Report reaction
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...
(FEMA) Report (May 2002) NIST Report, numerous responses were written by members of the 9/11 Truth movement. Many of these responses claimed that it ignored key evidence suggesting an explosive demolition, "distorted reality" by using deceptive language and diagrams, and attacked straw man
Straw man
A straw man is a component of an argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position, twisting his words or by means of [false] assumptions...
arguments, such as the 2005 article by Jim Hoffman
Jim Hoffman
Jim Hoffman is a website engineer in Oakland, California, who created several web sites about the September 11, 2001 attacks that analyze and suggest alternative accounts for the events of that day, often described as 9/11 conspiracy theories. His primary website, , serves as an archive of...
entitled, Building a better mirage: NIST's 3-year $20,000,000 Cover Up of the Crime of the Century.
In the fall of 2005, Steven Jones, then a professor at Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
, announced a paper criticizing the NIST Report and describing his hypothesis that the WTC towers had been intentionally demolished by explosives. This paper garnered some mainstream media attention, including an appearance by Jones on MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
. This was the first such programming on a major cable news station. Jones was criticized by his university for making his claims public before vetting them through the approved peer review process. He was placed on paid leave and has since retired. He continues to remain a focus of public interest for his 9/11 research.
Accordingly, in April 2007, some 9/11 victims' family members and some members of the new Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice submitted an additional request for correction to NIST, containing their own views on the defects in the report. NIST responded to this request in September 2007 supporting their original conclusions; the originators of the request wrote back to them in October 2007, asking them to reconsider their response.
Criticism
In 2006, a book critic with TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine noted that a major problem with films such as Loose Change and most 9/11 conspiracy theories in general is that "the more one thinks about them, the more one realizes how much they depend on circumstantial evidence, facts without analysis, quotes taken out of context, and the scattered testimony of traumatized eyewitnesses".
Matt Taibbi
Matt Taibbi
Matthew C. "Matt" Taibbi is an American author and journalist reporting on politics, media, finance, and sports for Rolling Stone and Men's Journal, often in a polemical style. He has also edited and written for The eXile, the New York Press, and The Beast.- Early years :Taibbi grew up in the...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
assessed that the movement "gives supporters of Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
an excuse to dismiss critics of this administration" and expressed concerns about the number of people who believe in 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Stand-up comedian Bill Maher
Bill Maher
William "Bill" Maher, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, author and actor. Before his current role as the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher hosted a similar late-night talk show called Politically Incorrect originally on Comedy Central and...
has repeatedly denounced 9/11 conspiracy theorists as "lunatics."
Linguist Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
has dismissed the evidence base of 9/11 conspiracy theories, arguing that even when a scientific experiment is carried out in a controlled environment, and even in the "best laboratories in the world," coincidences and unexplained phenomena inevitably crop up. Chomsky further stated that while the American government stood to benefit from the incident, "every authoritarian system in the world gained from September 11th." He also suggested that the great likelihood of an information leak
Leak
A leak is a hole or other opening, usually unintended and therefore undesired, in a container or fluid-containing system, such as a tank or a ship's hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can enter the container...
and the political consequences of exposure for those planning the attack would have made such a conspiracy foolish to attempt.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
engineering professor Thomas W. Eagar was at first unwilling to acknowledge the concerns of the movement, saying "if (the argument) gets too mainstream, I'll engage in the debate." In response to Steven E. Jones publishing a hypothesis that the World Trade Center was destroyed by controlled demolition, Eager said that adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement would use the reverse scientific method to arrive at their conclusions, as they "determine what happened, throw out all the data that doesn't fit their conclusion, and then hail their findings as the only possible conclusion.
Former President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
dismissed 9/11 conspiracy theories saying "Nine-eleven was not an inside job, it was an Osama Bin Laden job with 19 people from Saudi Arabia, they murdered 3,000 Americans and other foreigners including Muslims".
In a research paper written in 2008, Professors in Law Cass R. Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule conclude that theories supported by 9/11 truth movement members "typically spread as a result of identifiable cognitive blunders, operating in conjunction with informational and reputational influences. A distinctive feature of conspiracy theories is their self-sealing quality. Conspiracy theorists are not likely to be persuaded by an attempt to dispel their theories; they may even characterize that very attempt as further proof of the conspiracy...those who hold conspiracy theories typically suffer from a crippled epistemology [...] the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups".
Calling conspiracy theorists "the truthers", Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
states they "...threw out all the evidence of al-Qaeda's involvement, from contemporaneous calls from hijack victims on the planes to confessions from al-Qaeda leaders both in and out of captivity that they had indeed done it. Then, recycling some of the right's sophistry techniques, such as using long lists of supposed evidence to overcome the lack of any real evidence, the "truthers" cherry-picked a few supposed "anomalies" to build an "inside-job" story line".
Al Qaeda has sharply criticized Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over his suggestions that the U.S. government was behind the Sept. 11 attacks as "ridiculous."
Organizations
Since the publication of the official reports, a number of interconnected 9/11 Truth movement organizations have been formed.Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth
Controlled demolition hypothesis for the collapse of the World Trade Center
The World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory which contends that the collapse of the World Trade Center was not caused by the airliner crash damage that occurred as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks, nor by resulting fire damage, but by explosives...
and are calling for a new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and WTC 7. The group is collecting signatures for a petition to the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
that demands "a truly independent investigation with subpoena power" of the September 11 attacks, which, according to the organization, should include an inquiry into the possible use of explosives in the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings. Richard Gage, a San Francisco Bay area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
based architect, founded Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth in 2006.
Investigations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...
and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) have concluded that the buildings collapsed as a result of the impacts of the planes and of the fires that resulted from them. Gage criticized the government agency NIST for not having investigated the complete sequence of the collapse of the World Trade Center
Collapse of the World Trade Center
The twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, as a result of al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks, in which terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners, flying one into the North Tower and another into the South Tower...
towers and claims that "the official explanation of the total destruction of the World Trade Center skyscrapers has explicitly failed to address the massive evidence for explosive demolition." To support its position, the group Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth points to the "free fall" pace of the collapse of the buildings, the "lateral ejection of steel", and to the "mid-air pulverization of concrete", among other things.
9/11 Truth
9/11 Truth was launched in June 2004 and has become a central portal for many 9/11 Truth movement organizations. It is run by Janice Matthews (Executive Director), David Kubiak (International Campaign Advisor) and Mike Berger (Media Coordinator), among others, and its advisory board includes Steven E. JonesSteven E. Jones
Steven Earl Jones is an American physicist. For most of his career, Jones was known mainly for his work on muon-catalyzed fusion. In the fall of 2006, amid controversy surrounding his work on the collapse of the World Trade Center , he was relieved of his teaching duties...
, Barrie Zwicker
Barrie Zwicker
Barrie Wallace Zwicker is a Canadian alternative media journalist, documentary producer, and political activist. He is most famous for his documentary work, which has dealt primarily with 9/11 conspiracy theories.-Biography:...
and Faiz Khan.
The organization co-sponsored opinion polls conducted by the U.S. market research and opinion polling firm Zogby International
Zogby International
IBOPE Zogby International is an international market research, opinion polling firm founded in 1984 by John Zogby. The company polls and consults for a wide spectrum of business media, government, and political groups, and conducts public opinion research in more than 70 countries...
that have shown substantial numbers of people believing the government did not tell the full truth about the September 11 attacks. Of the people surveyed, those in lower education and income brackets were more likely to express disbelief in government accounts, rather than those in higher income/education brackets.
Scholars for 9/11 Truth
The original Scholars for 9/11 Truth, founded by James H. FetzerJames H. Fetzer
James Henry Fetzer is an American philosopher, professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and a well-known conspiracy theorist. He has written on the philosophy of science and on the theoretical foundations of computer science, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science...
and Steven Jones
Steven E. Jones
Steven Earl Jones is an American physicist. For most of his career, Jones was known mainly for his work on muon-catalyzed fusion. In the fall of 2006, amid controversy surrounding his work on the collapse of the World Trade Center , he was relieved of his teaching duties...
on December 15, 2005, was a group of individuals of varying backgrounds and expertise who rejected the mainstream media and government account of the September 11 attacks. Initially the group invited many ideas and hypotheses to be considered, however, leading members soon came to feel that the inclusion of some theories advocated by Fetzer—such as the use of directed energy weapons or small nuclear bombs to destroy the Twin Towers—were insufficiently supported by evidence and were exposing the group to ridicule. By December 2006, Jones and several others set up a new scholars group titled Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, whose focus was in the use of the scientific method in analysis. The original members took a vote on which group to join and the majority voted to move to the new group. By 2007, James Fetzer had been openly rejected by the 9/11 Truth Movement, banned from and criticized on popular forums and no longer invited to public 9/11 events.
Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice
Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice (STJ) formed in January 2007 and is "a group of scholars and supporters endeavoring to address the unanswered questions of the September 11, 2001 attack" with a focus on scientific research. The group is composed of more than 900 members, including Richard Gage, Steven E. Jones
Steven E. Jones
Steven Earl Jones is an American physicist. For most of his career, Jones was known mainly for his work on muon-catalyzed fusion. In the fall of 2006, amid controversy surrounding his work on the collapse of the World Trade Center , he was relieved of his teaching duties...
, Jim Hoffman
Jim Hoffman
Jim Hoffman is a website engineer in Oakland, California, who created several web sites about the September 11, 2001 attacks that analyze and suggest alternative accounts for the events of that day, often described as 9/11 conspiracy theories. His primary website, , serves as an archive of...
, David Ray Griffin
David Ray Griffin
David Ray Griffin is a retired American professor of philosophy of religion and theology. Along with John B. Cobb, Jr., he founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973, a research center of Claremont School of Theology which seeks to promote the common good by means of the relational approach...
, Peter Phillips, former Congressman Daniel Hamburg
Daniel Hamburg
Daniel Hamburg is an American politician and a former Democratic Party Congressman and 1998 Green Party Gubernatorial candidate from California. He remains active in both the Democratic Party and Green Party.-Early life:...
, and Kevin Ryan. Most members support the conspiracy theory that the World Trade Center Towers and the third skyscraper, WTC 7, were destroyed through explosive demolition
Controlled demolition hypothesis for the collapse of the World Trade Center
The World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory which contends that the collapse of the World Trade Center was not caused by the airliner crash damage that occurred as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks, nor by resulting fire damage, but by explosives...
.
In 2008 and 2009, several Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice members published essays in science and engineering journals. In April 2008, a letter by members Steven E. Jones
Steven E. Jones
Steven Earl Jones is an American physicist. For most of his career, Jones was known mainly for his work on muon-catalyzed fusion. In the fall of 2006, amid controversy surrounding his work on the collapse of the World Trade Center , he was relieved of his teaching duties...
, Frank Legge, Kevin Ryan, Anthony Szamboti and James Gourley, was published in The Open Civil Engineering Journal. In July 2008, an article by Ryan, Gourley and Jones was published in the Environmentalist. In October 2008, a comment by STJ member James R. Gourley describing what he considers fundamental errors in a Bažant and Verdure paper was included in an issue of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics. And in April 2009, Danish chemist and STJ member Niels H. Harrit, of the University of Copenhagen, and eight other authors, some also STJ members, published a paper in The Open Chemical Physics Journal, titled, 'Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe'. The paper concludes that chips consisting of unreacted and partially reacted nano-thermite ('super-thermite') appear to be present in samples of the dust.
9/11 CitizensWatch
The group was formed in 2002 by John Judge and Kyle Hence and, along with the Family Steering Committee9/11 Family Steering Committee
The 9/11 Family Steering Committee was an organization of twelve relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Members of the Committee included the Jersey Girls...
, played an active role in calling for the establishment of the 9/11 Commission, and monitoring the commission closely.
9/11 Commission Campaign
Founded in 2011 by Senator Mike GravelMike Gravel
Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel is a former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election....
, the 9/11 Commission Campaign's objective is to enact subpoena-capable, state-level commissions through state ballot initiatives, namely in Oregon, Alaska and California. These commissions are envisioned as citizen-driven, independent organizations that would form a semi-unified grassroots national presence by exercising joint powers authority
Joint Powers Authority
A Joint Powers Authority is an entity permitted under the laws of some states of the USA, whereby two or more public authorities can operate collectively. Joint Powers Authorities may be used where:*an activity naturally transcends the boundaries of existing public authorities...
.
Hispanic Victims Group
The Hispanic Victims Group is a group created after the 9/11 attacks, founded by William RodriguezWilliam Rodriguez
William Rodríguez was a janitor at the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks and was in the basement of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building. After the attacks he received several awards for heroism for helping in the...
, an adherent of the 9/11 Truth movement. The group was one of the key forces behind the creation of the 9/11 Commission. William Rodriguez, as founder of the group, was a member of the Families Advisory Council for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation was formed in July 2002, after the September 11 attacks to plan the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan and distribute nearly $10 billion in federal funds aimed at rebuilding downtown Manhattan....
.
Conferences
Members of the 9/11 truth organizations, such as 911truth.org and Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, regularly hold meetings and conferences to discuss ongoing research about 9/11 and to strategize about how best to achieve their goals. Many of these conferences are organized by 911truth.org, and some have been covered by the international media.Internal critique
While there is general agreement within the movement that individuals within the United States government may have played a role in some aspects of the attacks, whether it be cover-up or complicity, alternative theories differ about what may have happened. There have been a number of articles and responses written by members critiquing the methods and theories of other members in the Journal of 9/11 Studies. Sites such as 911 Research and 911 Review typically include essays or pages analyzing claims in the movement which are erroneous, have little basis in evidence, or which appear to misinform readers.While Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice states that they advocate the use of the scientific method and civil research activities over public debate, Jim Fetzer's group, Scholars for 9/11 Truth, "has emphasized that science can only proceed by considering a full range of alternative hypotheses", and held a conference which invited the public to "review the most hotly debated 9/11 theories and evidence". The range of hypotheses considered at the conference held by Fetzer's group was described in a Madison Times article, which stated: "Saturday focused on many of the more popular theories, beginning with inconsistencies at the site of the Pentagon crash and moving on to a controlled demolition of the towers. By Sunday the conference had covered weather control, weapons from space, and the idea that the planes that struck the towers never existed at all."
Books
A prominent author of the 9/11 Truth movement literature is theologian David Ray GriffinDavid Ray Griffin
David Ray Griffin is a retired American professor of philosophy of religion and theology. Along with John B. Cobb, Jr., he founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973, a research center of Claremont School of Theology which seeks to promote the common good by means of the relational approach...
. His two books, The New Pearl Harbor
The New Pearl Harbor
The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 is a book written by David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of philosophy at the Claremont School of Theology. It draws analogies between the September 11, 2001, attacks and the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941...
: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 (March 2004), which claimed to outline a methodical, deductive framework for researching 9/11, and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions (October 2004), became best-sellers. His Debunking 9/11 Debunking (May 2007) looks at the way magazines such as Popular Mechanics have sought to debunk the alternative 9/11 theories. His 2008 book, The New Pearl Harbor Revisited: 9/11, the cover-up, and the exposé, was written to update his original book, The New Pearl Harbor, reflecting information and insights from five major developments that have occurred since his original publication, while The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7: Why the Final Official Report About 9/11 Is Unscientific and False, published in 2009, examines the credibility of the official investigations into and hypotheses about the destruction of the third skyscraper, WTC 7, focusing on the final official report published in November 2008.
In September 2004, the interactive "Complete 9/11 Timeline" website by Paul Thompson, which is a collection of mainstream media reports presented chronologically, was made into the book The Terror Timeline
The Terror Timeline
The Terror Timeline: Year by Year, Day by Day, Minute by Minute: A Comprehensive Chronicle of the Road to 9/11 — and America's Response is described by its publisher as a compilation of over 5,000 reports and articles concerning the September 11, 2001 attacks.The book was compiled by a...
.
Films
Films made by people associated with the 9/11 Truth movement include:- The Great Conspiracy: The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw (2004) by Barrie ZwickerBarrie ZwickerBarrie Wallace Zwicker is a Canadian alternative media journalist, documentary producer, and political activist. He is most famous for his documentary work, which has dealt primarily with 9/11 conspiracy theories.-Biography:...
- Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State (2005) by Alex JonesAlex Jones (radio)Alexander Emerick "Alex" Jones is an American talk radio host, actor and filmmaker. His syndicated news/talk show The Alex Jones Show, based in Austin, Texas, airs via the Genesis Communication Network over 60 AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations across the United States and on the Internet...
- 9/11: Press for Truth9/11: Press for Truth9/11: Press for Truth is a 2006 documentary film about the September 11 attacks on the United States, directed by the American filmmaker Ray Nowosielski, and partially based on The Terror Timeline, by Paul Thompson.-Development and release:...
(2006) - 911 Mysteries: Demolitions (2006)
- 9/11: Blueprint for Truth (2007) and updated 2008 Edition by Richard Gage
- Loose Change: An American Coup (2009) by Korey RoweKorey RoweKorey Rowe is a producer of Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup, a film by Dylan Avery. Rowe was born in Oneonta, New York and currently lives in upstate New York. He is a former US soldier who served six months in Kandahar, Afghanistan and one year in Kuwait and Iraq...
- New World OrderNew World Order (film)New World Order is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel. It explores activists who are committed to vigorously opposing what they perceive to be an emerging "New World Order".-Subject Matter:...
(2009) by Luke Meyer and Andrew NeelAndrew NeelAndrew Neel is an American filmmaker. He was born in Vermont in 1978.Neel co-founded SeeThink Productions together with Ethan Palmer, Luke Meyer and Tom Davis in 2001 after graduating from Columbia College with a BA in film studies...
Details
These documentaries present a range of alternative theories about how the attacks might have been carried out.9/11 Press for Truth (2006) documents the struggle by the Jersey Widows to open a full investigation of the events, and their frustration while monitoring the 9/11 Commission as part of the Family Steering Committee
9/11 Family Steering Committee
The 9/11 Family Steering Committee was an organization of twelve relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Members of the Committee included the Jersey Girls...
.
Alex Jones, 9/11 and New World Order conspiracy theorists are the subject of the documentary film New World Order
New World Order (film)
New World Order is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel. It explores activists who are committed to vigorously opposing what they perceive to be an emerging "New World Order".-Subject Matter:...
directed by Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel
Andrew Neel
Andrew Neel is an American filmmaker. He was born in Vermont in 1978.Neel co-founded SeeThink Productions together with Ethan Palmer, Luke Meyer and Tom Davis in 2001 after graduating from Columbia College with a BA in film studies...
that debuted on the Independent Film Channel
Independent Film Channel
The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...
on May 26, 2009. The documentary, while not endorsing the movement, is described as giving the movement "more sympathetic, or less critical, airing than they've yet had (except among the converted)".
See also
- Criticisms of the 9/11 Commission Report
- World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories
- 9/11 advance-knowledge debate9/11 advance-knowledge debateThe 9/11 advance-knowledge debate is the ensemble of discussions about whether institutions or individuals other than the perpetrators had foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks and should have taken action to try to prevent them....
- Casualties of the September 11, 2001 attacks
- Collapse of the World Trade CenterCollapse of the World Trade CenterThe twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, as a result of al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks, in which terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners, flying one into the North Tower and another into the South Tower...
- Health effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacksHealth effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacksThere has been growing concern over the health effects arising from the September 11 attacks in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. Within seconds of the collapse of the World Trade Center, building materials, electronic equipment, and furniture were pulverized and spread over the area.In...
External links
- 9/11 Truth
- 911 Truth News
- 911 Research
- 9/11 Review
- Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
- The Journal of 9/11 Studies
- Scholars for 9/11 Truth And Justice
- Artists for 9-11 Truth
- Mounting Evidence book and bibliography