911 conspiracy fools
The cranks — and what would we do without them? They provide so much entertainment value don’t they? They seek to give meaning to their lives by chasing shadows and showing all of us that only they know the real story.
From UFO abductions, to the “one world government” freaks to the Free Mason fans, to “The Protocol of The Elders of Zion” crowd, to the British Royal family-killed-Diana troopers, to the Moon landing-was-faked folks – you name it.
They all show up the week we remember the day September 11, 2001.
In terms of conspiracy culture, it must be said that in the early days of JFK assassination studies, researchers like Donald Freed and Mark Lane as well as New Orleans’s Prosecutor Jim Garrison (made famous by Oliver Stone’s film JFK, despite the fact that there is much to Stone’s conclusions that were wrong), and others, were vilified and placed in the “crank” category too. Later on, in the mid-70s, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that yes, indeed, there was a conspiracy in the murder of JFK.
But that doesn’t mean that everything is a conspiracy.
Consider this about 9/11: we all saw planes hit the buildings; we all knew that Osama Bin Laden declared war on America and the “Crusader” nations; the intelligence community also knew of Bin Laden’s earlier attacks on American embassies in Africa and the USS Cole; furthermore, we all know how easy it is to have a committed hit team, willing to sacrifice themselves, highjack an undefended, open, airliner cockpit.
Many of us who have studied politics over the years are well aware of “The Project for a New American Century,” which openly declared that Iraq should be invaded and that the U.S. military should actively promote America’s “full-spectrum” dominance — openly admitted to, publicly declared, a strategy in writing, with signatures and named names. For its doctrinal Fathers wanted to be known, and to take credit for the military approach. They were the Neo-Conservatives, former Liberals, who believed that the military efforts of the state could be marshaled to further American power generally, corporate needs of America specifically, as well as American special interest groups, including the Israel lobby.
They were not hiding. There was no secret society.
9/11 “Truthers” (what a joke that is), say that there must be something else: the buildings were brought down by planted explosives other than the planes themselves; that the heat from the planes burning wouldn’t be hot enough to melt metal.
Let’s look at that one, the one about explosives blowing up the towers. First of all, why?
Whether the building actually collapsed or not, the political and terror effect would’ve been the same. The Pentagon didn’t need to be totally destroyed for the point to be made by al Qaeda. So, this whole issue about explosives at the base and demolishing it and having it covered up by plane strikes, or assisted by plane strikes, is simply stupid, ludicrous.
Why would someone in the U.S. government want to have the attacks in the first place? Conspiracy drips call 9/11 a “Reichstag Fire” — where, in the 1930’s, Hitler promoted panic to accrue concentrated political power by committing arson on capital buildings and blaming the communists.
The authors of the “Project for a New American Century” openly discussed utilizing a “Pearl Harbor” style attack as a galvanizing opportunity to move forward. We all understand that such an event always had the power to mobilize the masses. So did the Neo Cons. Nothing was secret, hidden.
But if 9/11 was an “inside job,” why weren’t any of the highjackers Iraqi? Why weren’t weapons of mass destruction planted in Baghdad? Why can you plant explosives at the World Trade centre and then time it for live explosions when the planes strike, but not plant inert WMD in Iraq?
Why would America have to distract itself with a war in Afghanistan if the real goal was oil domination of Iraq? Iraqi highjackers would’ve solved that problem. Yet, they weren’t there. None of the 9/11 terrorists came from Iraq.
One 9/11 conspiracy crackpot even went so far as to doubt whether or not there were even any highjackers at all; that the Boeing corporation makes airplanes that can be remotely piloted.
The fact that these crazy notions by outrigtht cranks and crackpots exist despite the fact those who were victimized aboard the doomed airliners called out to their loved ones on their cell phones before the end and told the world what was going on.
Then there is the problem of the U.S. government response to the events on the day of 9/11. Instead of the obvious: shock, dismay, and outright bumbling by security forces, the “inside job” crowd says that there must be something else. The late scrambled jets must’ve been intentionally kept away from the attacks that day to ensure that the attacks occurred.
Was the 1993 basement bombing by al Qaeda a conspiracy too? Where were these conspiracy clowns then?
I guess Israel bombs itself too. The suicide bombers must all be Mossad.
When confronted by rabid Trekkies, William Shatner once challenged them. “Get a life,” he said.
Oh, but I forget. Captain Kirk was a Freemason. Or is he Jewish? Mossad perhaps?
September 12th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I don’t think there was any conspiracy at all in 9/11. The only thing I think we should consider however is, did the Bush administration allow this to happen? Based on your own test Andrew, the Neo-Cons needed a polarizing event, when you see one coming why would you stop it?
September 13th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Andrew, I love your show and am an avid listener since you began. I’ve learned much by listening to your show and to the informed individuals you have in studio and on the lines as guests. You’ve instilled a desire in me to learn much about politics and more importantly global politics. Keep up the good work and the hilarious comments to strange callers and uninformed critics/guests.
Jason
September 13th, 2008 at 9:04 am
“Let’s look at that one, the one about explosives blowing up the towers. First of all, why?”
Someone who would ask such an asinine question after 7+ years of Bush co. antics and murder should hand in his reporter card.
The rest of your hit piece is similarly daft - unless this is an extremely sarcastic 911 truth support piece - it’s really nothing more than the ramblings he ascribes to the those in the truth movement.
How long are you gonna play dumb - 911 was an inside job. if the media weren’t so corrupt this skulduggery wouldn’t have gone on nearly so long.
Hell - BBC had advance warning of the tower 7 demolition - how do you explain that, smart guy?
Hope you feel good propping up the US-corporate genocide in Iraq.
September 13th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I have one question for you Andrew. Have you seen one of the movies on the subject? If you tell me that you’ve seen Loose Change or Zeitgeist and still feel that way then so be it. I thought it was the craziest thing I’d ever heard too, until I saw some of the movies. There isn’t a little evidence out there, or a few questionable points to ponder. There is a MASSIVE amount of evidence pointing to the fact that the events of that day were far different than we have been led to believe. You should really take the time too look for yourself before you dismiss the ‘truthers’ who have the courage to speak their beliefs and take a stand for the truth. There are many, many people who know this truth as well, and the numbers are growing. I guarantee you that I could change your mind on this subject in a couple of hours in front of a computer. That’s how powerful the evidence is. I submit that an open debate on the evidence is far more civilized and productive than name calling and dismissive insults. By the way, I posted a comment on your Afghanistan blog in which I mentioned 9/11 possibly being an ‘inside job’. It’s been 2 weeks now and this comment says it’s still ‘awaiting moderation’. So, we’ll see if this post suffers the same fate. Again, I urge you to take me up on my offer to discuss this issue. Don’t be one of the last people around to figure this out.
September 14th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
9/11 conspiracy theorists are ridiculous. If I believed in spirituality I’d hope that the ghosts of the 9/11 victims would eternally haunt the theorist’s souls….but I don’t believe in spirituality so I hope that they just shut up.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:15 am
It is obvious that that the finacial collapses of major investment banks in the U.S. reflect corruption on a scale never seen before. Further.the cozy relationships and bailouts of their corporate friends by the current U.S.Government -using public funds-reveals massive corruption. In the U.S.,the poor end up in jail and the crooked rich are honored.
Historically,Britain and the Soviets experienced major military defeats in Afghanistan. Canada and the U.S.military forces are experiencing the same fates. Canada is one of the world’s greatest sources of oil and natural gas:there is no valid reason to spill young Canadian blood so that the oil and gas pipelines crossing asia and the middle east generally and Afghanistan particularly are being militarliy protected for the benefits of corrupt multinationals and drug warlords. Canada’s military has no legitimate reason to be in Afghanistan. The reasons given by the Canadian Government are lies ,fabrications and smokescreens.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Well, my first two replies got censored, let’s give it a third and final try:
If you honestly claim you’ve looked into this and come up with a coherent way to discount the following, I’d really like to hear it.
1. Terrorist hijackers known and working with American military. Atta protected, operation Able Danger shutdown never discussed, official state of emergency in US continues.
2. American air-defense system practicing drills of planes being hijacked on 9/11, still can’t catch anything with more than ample time, Pentagon fires non of it’s anti-aircraft missiles, Generals in charge quickly promoted.
3. Financial backer of 9/11 hijackers (Pakistani ISI chief Mahmoud Ahmad) meets with top-level lawmakers including Joe Bidden, on 9/11 - nobody asks them why.
4. Patriot act pre-written, quickly pushed through under emergency measures, Anthrax used to punish dissenting representatives, Cipro prescribed to White House insiders weeks in advance; the cover-up of this US Government Anthrax operation continues in full swing to this day, M$M appears baffled.
5. BBC and others announce tower 7 collapse 20 minutes early on the evening of 9/11, their reporter’s satellite connection cuts out minutes before this 52-story building implodes violently at free-fall speed. 7 year investigation a total scientific whitewash, SEC files on Enron supposedly destroyed.
6. Thermate residue found in vaporized dust of world trade centers analyzed by independent researchers. No tests for explosives ever conducted by responsible authorities, steel, concrete and bodies shipped for disposal in China, black box data digitally manipulated, plane identification never completed by NTSC, Fema turns ground zero into a clean-up operation upon retrieving Nova Scotia’s gold.
7. Official commission is lied to, fought by government lawyers every step of the way, headed by know NeoCon war criminal Kissinger and PNAC devote and Condoliza Rice colleague Philip Zelikow. Zelikow later busted for clearing everything through Karl Rove.
Now, I can respect it if you really believe the official story still, but I think you should know that when 90% of Pakistanis, 88% of Russians, 30% or so of Americans and 22% of Canadians think Bush co. did 911*, you’re going to have to do a far, far more convincing sell to keep this Bushevik propaganda afloat.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_opinion_polls
September 16th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Interesting blog…I just can’t understand what these people are thinking that spout this garbage. They haven’t read any history of American foreign policy in the Middle East, period; they also have absolutely no concept of basic structural engineering, which is my field.
Why is not possible, so unthinkable, for these people to believe that the all-powerful US of A simply got caught with its pants down on September 11, 2001? A simple crack in the armor that some very determined individuals exploited with catastrophic effect. An objective study of American foreign policy by any rational layperson would help answer the question ‘why do they hate us so much?’
In regards to the towers, videos like ‘loose change’ (the force behind much of this) throw all these impressive quantities of building materials at the viewers and wonder how could these planes have brought down these towers without assistance??? For those who don’t know anything about buildings this may sound ominous but it’s such bull. It doesn’t matter how big the damn building is or how much concrete and steel is in it; a building is a structural system and the way those towers were designed the impact from the planes and explosions that followed were more than enough to bring them down. You don’t have to have melted steel to have a failure. The enormous fire was enough to weaken the steel, which is enough to cause failure (not to mention the critical structural damage from the impact). People seem to forget that Osama bin Laden’s family own a very large construction company, the Saudi BinLadin Group, and he himself has an engineering background….go figure.
Thanks for the space to vent.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Cranks (as Andrew calls them) are attracted to these types of alternative accounts of reality because reality is at times too absurd to believe. There is probably a lot more to 9-11 than we’ve been told, I get that, but that doesn’t mean the conspiracy theory’s are true. Movies like Loose Change and Zeitgeist are entertaining to watch, in an X-Files kind of way, but they fail to provide anything in the way of factual information. Facts, not conclusions drawn from a collection of obscure coincidences and than repackaged to shock to viewer. Thats entertainment, not truth.
I don’t think we should believe everything the media is spilling down our throats, and yes we need to remember how to think about these things logically before buying into them. But remember that people make a living selling sensationalized versions of reality.
But what really bugs me about conspiracy theories like 9-11 is that if there were in fact some minute element of truth in there somewhere, it would be lost under all the sensationalism. You had me right up until you put on your aluminum foil hat. Great column.
October 28th, 2008 at 7:56 am
All these excuses.
When you see a dead body on the floor, and bullet casings strewn about, should you:
1) look at the evidence
2) claim that you would have ‘heard about this murder by now’
3) explain that no body wanted this person dead, so it must be fake
The answer is 1). First evaluate the facts, then you can consider what motives may have been at play or why you have not heard of this yet (you are hearing about it NOW!)