Jaclyn Stine
Professor Goffene
ENGL 121: 8am
15 March 2012
9/11 Truthers: Conspiracy Theory True or False
Citizens of New York City are just going through their regular day, noticing a plane flying above them towards the twin towers, but this wasn’t normal because the plane was flying too low. The next thing they know they hear a crash, the plane just ran into the twin towers. The twin towers are collapsing, killing many people. Why did this happen? How did such event happen to the United States? And the most important question, that this paper is mainly about, who did this terrible attack? The official and accepted version of these questions is that terrorist from Al-Qaeda hijacked four planes of our planes, two of which hit the twin towers, and set off to attack. Some people do not agree with this version and they have come up with different theories of the attack, which is called a conspiracy theory. One of the conspiracy theories over the 9/11 attack was that the government was posing a cover-up over the attack. The group that propose this theory is called the 9/11 Truthers. What is the true answer to the 9/11 attack and if the official version of the story is correct then why is the government still holding secrets about the attack? In this paper I will discuss each side of the story: 9/11 Truthers side and Governments side. I will also discuss the reasons of each side. If the official story of 9/11 is a lie, than is the 9/11 Truthers theory correct?
The 9/11 Truthers are a group of people who are determined to find the true answers of the 9/11 attack. The 9/11 Truthers believe that the truth is being actively concealed by the United States government. They believe that someone hiding inside the government planned the attack on 9/11 or at least allowed the attack to happen. This group believes the government is withholding information from the citizens of the United States. The 9/11 Truthers believe that this attack was only an excuse and ploy to convince us to invade and start a war with terror/Afghanistan/Iraq. There was a lot of information that was not given and told to the American public. In the website http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf, Turkel states that the movie Zeitgeist claimed, “The idea is that the US committed the 9/11 attacks, and made them look like they were carried out by a foreign country, in order to raise support for a war in the Middle-East to protect American oil interests there. The film also proposes that the US either constructed or allowed the sinking of the Lusitania, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Gulf of Tonkin incident in order to enter World Wars I and II, and Vietnam, respectively.” (8). Not only does the 9/11 Truthers believe the government didn’t tell us the whole truth about the attack, but a majority of the United States citizens believed that too. As Turkel stated, “A New York Times/CBS News poll taken in 2006 showed that 16% of Americans believed the Bush administration’s story of 9/11 and over 50% felt something was being hidden.”(12).
Many think this group is stupid for believing the theory, but the 9/11 Truthers do believe their theory for very good reasons. One of the reasons was found on the website, http://tvnewslies.org/html/9_11_facts.html, and it stated the government had been working on a plane defense system specifically for the kind of attack 9/11 was like and it had been functioning properly for many months and then when the attack happened the defense system failed. The 9/11 Truthers suspect that someone from the inside had control over the defense system and denied it from working on the day of the attack. Another reason is that the government apparently did have threats from the Al-Qaeda terrorist about this specific event as stated in the website, http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-05/news/bush-s-9-11-secrets/, but the government just ignored them and didn’t do anything to further protect the places the terrorist were telling them about. In the threatening calls from the terrorist, they stated, “In September 1998, the [Intelligence Community] obtained information that Bin Laden’s next operation might involve flying an explosive-laden aircraft into a U.S. airport and detonating it. In the fall of 1998, the [Intelligence Community] obtained information concerning a Bin Laden plot involving aircraft in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas. In March 2000, the [Intelligence Community] obtained information regarding the types of targets that operatives of Bin Laden’s network might strike. The Statue of Liberty was specifically mentioned, as were skyscrapers, ports, airports, and nuclear power plans.” The government could have easily had more of a defense system set up at the points they were stating, but instead the government did nothing.
Another defense of the 9/11 Truthers is not of the present time of the attack but the governments past history of purposely hurting America. Past scandals of the government would be the Watergate scandal, scandals of the president’s affairs, the government taking away some rights of the people every-so-often, and many more. Throughout the book, Scandal: How “Gotcha” Politics is Destroying America, Lanny Davis gives examples of how media has hurt the United States more than it would have without it through further discussion and debates of the government’s scandals and making it more of a big deal. Davis states, “Today’s scandal culture and the seemingly endless cycle of gotcha politics practiced by the extremist ideologues of the left and the right in both parties have their roots in the political and culture wars of the 1960s and the Watergate scandal that immediately followed them in the 1970’s.” (Davis 1). As stated in the quote, there have been many scandals in politics in the past and it has more to come in the future. Since there have been plenty of scandals on both sides of the political spectrum, there is a possibility that there was another scandal within 2001 such as 9/11. The government has been known for keeping dangerous secretes from the citizens and it could get them kicked out of office, so, as 9/11 Truthers believe, there could be even more scandalous behavior happening that is secretes about the 9/11 “terrorist” attack.
Never-the-less there is another part of the theory of the 9/11 Truthers about what actually happened at the attack cite. Turkel states that one of the theories the Truthers claimed was, “the Twin Towers (in addition to WTC 7, another building in the complex that collapsed due to being struck from significant amounts of debris) actually collapsed as the result of a controlled demolition.” (Turkel 8). In the end their theory was confirmed when Kay, author of Among the Truthers, stated, “World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein publicly admitted that one of the WTC buildings had been “pulled down” by internal demolition.” (7). Since their prediction and theory was proved right, then they could also be right about the other theories. If the attack of 9/11 was planned by the terrorist group, then why was there a planned internal demolition within one of the buildings before the actual attack?
Even though there is evidence that there is a possibility the government is hiding something and that it could be a cover-up, there are still many people who believe the Truthers are wrong. A quote from Mark Fenster states, “…that the 9/11 “Truthers” are going through the motions that occur every time a major event happens in American history. The only reason it has become so large and had such an impact is because of the ease of communication, collaboration and sharing of ideas through the highly connected 21st century world.” (Turkel 13). This basically says that it is common to have a lot of conspiracies over all the big events that go on in the United States and it is not much of a big deal. Since conspiracies happen regularly, it should not be taken seriously. Also, Turkel has found it common that in the 9/11 Truthers movement there was a lot of people within it that despised the Bush administration for many other conflicts that are unrelated to the attack and believes that the attack made them hate the administration more (Turkel 13).
To over step the argument of the issue of doing nothing after getting threatening calls from the terrorist group Rice stated to the Village Voice, “She said the warning was “generalized”—no date, place, or method.”(http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-05/news/bush-s-9-11-secrets/). Also, to further the discussion of the calls, from the website http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf, Turkel states that, “The Bush administration had advanced knowledge that Bin Laden was planning some sort of attack, but had little information and little way to do anything to prevent it. Saying that it intentionally allowed 9/11 to happen is certainly a stretch of reasoning.”(10). Therefore, the argument for the government is that they did not have enough information in order to take precaution over the threats and areas threatened. Since there was not enough information for preparing a more secure country, the government chose not to take any precautions in case of an attack.
Many believe that the 9/11 Truthers conspiracy is as stupid and unstable as the other conspiracies within the United States. Turkel, from the website http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf claims that, “What is interesting about the 9/11 Truth movement is that, while some members simply question the mainstream account due to problems they see with it and request a fuller investigation, a large and vocal part of the movement is not trying to find out the truth, but to disseminate a truth they’ve already “discovered” based on anecdotal evidence, out-of-context quotes, unprofessional opinions and a sensationalized disdain for the government.” (Turkel 11-12). So basically, some people believe that the 9/11 Truthers are fudging the official story to their side by over thinking the evidence and coming up with false evidence against the story. Turkel has his own opinion of what the definition of conspiracies. Turkel states, “Conspiracism is as much a psychological coping mechanism as it is a political ideology or scientific argument.” (Turkel 14). This meaning that Turkel believes that conspiracies are just to cope with extreme events but it is not a scientific argument.
Never the less, there are other reasons for people to be against the 9/11 Truthers that are based off of their personal being. One of the reasons that is against the 9/11 Truthers theory would be just because they are confident in their belief, it does not mean that their theory is true. For example, Turkel states, “Such large conspiracies, with such large followings, allow for conspiracists to gain confidence and legitimacy thanks to the comfort of the group.” (Turkel 15). Since the conspiracies are so big and powerful they feel their safe to state what they want and have complete confidence it is right. Henry Steele Commager stated, “We are on the road to a paranoid explanation of things. . . . The conspiracy theory, the conspiracy mentality, will not accept ordinary evidence. . . . There’s some psychological requirement that forces them to reject the ordinary, and find refuge in the extraordinary.” (Turkel 15). Henry is pretty much saying that it is a mentality to be thinking like a conspiracists since they over analyze things and become paranoid about it so they reject it and find another solution. Through this reasoning, people believe the 9/11 Truthers theory cannot be true and must be based on confidence and not reasonable facts.
Throughout all the information I have gathered for and against the 9/11 Truthers theory, I have gathered a concluding stance on the issue. My theory is that the terrorist were the ones who were the ones who attacked on 9/11 but there are questions that still haven’t been answered by the government. So I believe the government is hiding something about the attack and covering-up their failure to the country on preventing the attack. There may have been an insider within the government who prevented the protection of the country. I believe the 9/11 Truthers made really good points on the issue and had a more compelling argument, but it might not have been as reasonable as the government’s view points. The 9/11 Truthers have a very good argument with the issue of the knowledge of the attacks and the government doing nothing to protect the United States from them. With the issue of the government receiving threatening calls from the terrorist group, they could have maybe intensified the airport security more and all the places and skyscrapers the terrorist mentioned in the phone calls. It wouldn’t matter when the attack would happen or the details of it, they should have at least made the security of the places more secure than they were, so the government could have done something. But in the end, I believe there is some truth to the 9/11 Truthers and the official story.
Work Cited
“9/11 Facts.” 301 Moved Permanently. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://tvnewslies.org/html/9_11_facts.html>.
Davis, Lanny J. Scandal: How “gotcha” Politics Is Destroying America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print.
Kay, Jonathan. Among the Truthers: A Journey through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground. New York: Harper, 2011. Print.
Ridgeway, James. “Bush’s 9-11 Secrets.” The Village Voice [New York] 5 Aug. 2003. The Village Voice News. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-05/news/bush-s-9-11-secrets/>.
Turkel, Daniel G. “The Significance of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories in Understanding the Sociopolitical Climate of the 21st Century.” The Significance of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories in Understanding the Sociopolitical Climate of the 21st Century (2010): 1-26. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://danturkel.com/papers/911conspiracies.pdf>.
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