Conspiracy Theories About The September 11th Attacks

All week long the History Channel has been broadcasting programs dealing with the devastating airplane attacks on the United States nine years ago today. Viewing the tragedy from many perspectives, one show focused on the many Americans who still believe that the whole incident was a sinister conspiracy pulled off by George Bush and our own government, rather than by Al-Qaeda hijackers under the leadership of Osama bin Laden.

The program, “9/11 Conspiracies: Fact/Fiction,” approached the subject by presenting specific allegations by groups such as the “9/11 Truth Movement,” and putting them to the test using research done my Popular Mechanics Magazine with over seventy consulting experts in every field of disaster forensics. In the course of an hour, then, each main conspiratorial charge was explored and answered using real world scientific and engineering measurements. And on each point, the allegations of the conspiracy theorists were disproved, that is, when rigorous academic scrutiny replaced suspicion and raw emotion.

Conspiracy theory is nothing new in America. I know that first hand having spent many hours of my young adulthood reading books like Mark Lane’s, “Rush To Judgment,” that denounced the Warren Commission’s Report on President Kennedy’s assassination as a blatant cover-up. And while I agreed with that conclusion at the time, I took it even one step farther by leaning towards the “Mafia hit” theory of the tragedy. That I based on my personal knowledge of their documented reliability in such matters.

Suspicion about historical events, then, seems to be in our blood. Whether it’s Roosevelt knowing about the pending attack on Pearl Harbor but letting it happen anyway, or the Apollo Moon Landing being faked and filmed on a Hollywood sound stage, nothing seems to go unquestioned. Even during Katrina, there were allegations that the government blew up the levies to direct flood waters toward poor black neighborhoods in order to save the homes of affluent whites in others.

Did I learn anything new from this 9/11 documentary, then? Other than regenerating the horrors of that day in my mind, not too much. But it did make me realize that I might have more in common with conspiracy theorists than I thought. Like them, I have a deep distrust of the degree to which our government really cares about its citizens. And like them, I’m convinced our ruling class would lie to us in a second if it felt an untruth would benefit its position on any given issue.

Similarly, I believe that those in power will always favor secrecy over transparency if it means unfettered expansion of their power over the people. And I‘m convinced they employ a cadre of underlings who are paid handsomely to come up with self-serving schemes of all types. Unlike the "truthers," however, I just don’t believe these government stooges are smart enough to pull off anything beyond the rudimentary, or to keep their mouths shut about it if they do.

So everything said, do I believe the World Trade Towers were brought down by a controlled demolition carried out by secret government agents? Absolutely not. Do I believe an uncontrolled government is demolishing our democratic traditions and quality of life? Absolutely YES. Considering that, other than our disagreement about what actually happened on 9/11, I guess the conspiracy crowd and myself aren’t really so different after all.