Hot dicussion of the month! Last Move to top.

The biggest problem with any conspiracy theory is that for any real questions there are a dozen hair-brained ideas as to what happened. No matter what happened on 9/11, the event has become a new Kennedy assassination in the lore of possible conspiracies, with theories ranging from stupidity and a failure of leadership in the face of direct warnings to an Operation Northwoods-type government operation. Those making accusations carry varying levels of credibility, further muddying the waters of the debate.

Kevin Barrett believes the U.S. government might have destroyed the World Trade Center. Steven Jones is researching what he calls evidence that the twin towers were brought down by explosives detonated inside them, not by hijacked airliners.

These men aren’t uneducated junk scientists: Barrett will teach a class on Islam at the University of Wisconsin this fall, over the protests of more than 60 state legislators. Jones is a tenured physicist at Brigham Young University whose mainstream academic job has made him a hero to conspiracy theorists.

According to polls, some Americans believe in 9/11 conspiracy theory.

With the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks quickly approaching, skepticism about the circumstances surrounding the tragedy is strong, as one in three Americans believe officials in the federal government either assisted or took no action to stop the attacks, according to a recent survey. About 36 percent of the 1,010 respondents in a national Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll said that they thought U.S. government officials were involved in the Sept. 11 atrocities because they wanted the U.S. to go to war in the Middle East.

Some accusations come from unusual sources.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s publishing arm has released a book that says President Bush organized New York’s Sept. 11 attacks. The decision by the 160-year-old Westminster John Knox Press, the trade and academic publishing imprint of the Presbyterian Publishing Corp., to attribute the attacks on the World Trade Center brings into the U.S. religious mainstream a conspiracy theory long held by the world’s jihadists.

In ‘Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action,’ author David Ray Griffin calls the United States the world’s ‘chief embodiment of demonic power, says he initially scoffed at 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Of course, there are also many who dismiss conspiracies. There are a number of people loudly decrying conspiracy theories, so not all the noise is from those thinking the government was behind 9/11.

So what do you think? Ignorance, conspiracy, or terrorist act?



  1. Chris says:

    Seriously, I can’t wait for the liberals to take back the Presidency, the House and the Senate. Then we conservatives can get back to claiming conspiracy theories as you guys do now. Ah, remember the days of Mena, Arkansas, Ron Brown, and Vince Foster….

    Conspiracy theories will always exist. And, in all cases, they are never proven. But, some people will always reach for the concept that fits their worldview, regardless of logic or facts. If you think otherwise, go checkout http://www.abovetopsecret.com . Now THAT site has some wackos…

  2. Awake says:

    Wow, interesting bunch of comments.
    John Dvorak wins the “largest amount of conspiracy nuts in a Blog” award.
    Some of the comments are so ridiculous and ignorant that you don’t know if you should laugh or be afraid.

  3. Improbus says:

    There will always be conspiracy theories because those that have wealth and power are inherently untrustworthy.

  4. Frank IBC says:

    I think a lot of conspiracy theorists see themselves as “misunderstood geniuses”. They are quite intelligent, but their lack of social skills leads them to believe that the world is against them, and their smugness leads them to dismiss simple explanations offered by lesser mortals, in favor of diabolically complicated (and contradictory) scenarios.

  5. Named says:

    Awake.

    Well, which one wins either category? Or are you going to wait until we hit number 911?

  6. Named says:

    Frank,

    Could be. Inquisitiveness, cynicism, edumacation and life experience probably has as much to do with it as your claim to hyper egoism and ignorance. All together and you have a very potent super villan in fact!

  7. Frank IBC says:

    LOL, “Awake”.

    I scrolled from the bottom, and saw your name before I read your post – no offense intended, but “Awake” sounds like the name of a conspiracy nut, so I was expecting to find a rant. 🙂

  8. Improbus says:

    You conspiracy nuts need to shave with Occam’s razor.

  9. James Hill says:

    I enjoy watching conspiracy nuts shit on the memory of those who died on 9/11 in the same way JFK conspiracy hounds shit on his legacy.

    While I believe in the later cover-up more, it cannot be argued that this “fact finding” somehow is done in the name of those who died. It’s done in the name of people looking for 15 minutes of fame, and nothing more.

    Pathetic.

  10. Pmitchell says:

    ohh my god !!!
    I had no Idea so many fruitcakes were actually believing this dribble

    check out this link
    before you believe the half truths and lies of the conspiricy idiots

    also look at some real demolitions and see what it takes to bring a building down and how they fall. they collaspe from top into a pile on the bottom not from the middle down

  11. Frank IBC says:

    “Named” –

    I just ask questions

    That’s right, you ask questions, you receive a simple logical explanation, it goes in one ear and out the other, and then you ask the same questions again. {Repeat 5000 times over a five-year period.}

  12. Frank IBC says:

    The only thing the collapse of the WTC and “controlled demolitions” have in common is gravity.

  13. Named says:

    Frank, actually, you didn’t answer any questions… Good try though.

    Go back and read your posts. You’ll see…

  14. Andrew says:

    Some people get really defensive about this subject, my god! Firstly, they call anyone who questions the official story an idiot, cause its easier to belive people with other opinions are idiots then question their perspective. Second, they chose one, maybe two of the areas of investigation and try to debunk it with either a one line lowest common demoninator assesment or point to one of many websites made by other such refuters and call it definitive proof. Third, they try and make the 9/11 investigators look either dangerous, criminal or silly by brining up one incident of some over enthusiastic people, try and claim that they belive the Isrealis did it or try to assert that they belive that martians controled the planes or other such non-sense. How many times have I seen this pattern? Many, many, many times. People, we need to start calling out people who do this for who there are, scared, close-minded children. Adults question the world around them, keep their mind open to new opinions, but I guess when you have a government like this… The are the same people who until a few months ago still insited that there were WMD in Iraq, that the NSA wouldn’t wiretap us, and if they did they were only using it to find terrorists, that the Anthrax scare was from terrorists, that Secret NSA Eastern European prisons and Gitmo were being properly used and everyone in there was a terrorist, that the administration did all they could after Hurricane Katrina, that the patriot act would never be used against American citizens, that our President does value and defend the constitution of these United States. All conspiracies, now all news, all since 9/11, by the coporate controlled media no less!

  15. Smartalix says:

    Let’s keep our comments on the discussion and not one another, please. Insults do not help anyone.

     Firstly, they call anyone who questions the official story an idiot, cause its easier to belive people with other opinions are idiots then question their perspective.

    Generalizations like that are part of the problem as well. How many times did the word “idiot” appear in any of the links provided?

  16. Tim Champ says:

    #46 – excellent link. Well written, and done by people who actually KNOW how these things work – not burger flippers and office workers who haven’t a clue.

  17. Andrew says:

    Ummm….. I am…. I don’t see how talking about how people receive these “Conspiracy Theories” and their “bold” “assertions” is off topic

  18. Smartalix says:

    #53,

    Ask Bush the same question about Afghanistan. Better yet, why not ask him why the Taliban is still openly operating in the southern provinces of the country? Even better, ask him where the f*ck is Bin Laden now? An Ad Hominem argument only demonstrates the ignorance of the interlocutor.

    This post is about 9/11 conspiracy theory. Debate the war in our Cage Match Forums.

    #54,

    Note that I quoted what I found offensive. Do you disagree with what I said concerning that portion of your comment? Note I made no reference to any other part of your message. You are only reinforcing my argument.

  19. Frank IBC says:

    infowars.com, prisonplanet.com, “whatreallyhappened”.com? BS, Michelle.

  20. Smartalix says:

    #59,

    That has noting to do with this, thay’s why.

  21. Frank IBC says:

    “Named” –

    Did you bother to read the Popular Mechanics article that Pmitchell linked to in #46?

    At the bottom of page 5 is a discussion of the collapse of WTC Building 7.

    But I’m sure that you’ll ignore this, too, and ask the same question for another five years, claiming no one has answered you.

  22. scott says:

    Improbus has it right – for everyone wondering why the government doesn’t come out to disprove conspiracy theories, the answer is they don’t have to and they don’t want to. The government always keeps things secretive, and they never disclose more than they have to (at least not on purpose). This is proof of nothing.

    As for the charges that supposedly appeared as the buildings fell, those were nothing more than windows blowing out as the buildings panckaked.

  23. J says:

    IT WASN”T A 12′ HOLE!!!!

    The problem with conspiracy theorists is they make stupid claims in the form of a question. Like “How did they get an airliner thru that 12 foot hole in the Pentagon?” You see it is like a magician and slight of hand. You hear the question and then say well I can’t answer that because you can’t fit an airliner through a 12′ foot hole. BUT. The facts are IT WASN”T A 12′ HOLE!!!!! Have you seen the photos? If that is an example of your observation and judgment I hope you don’t have a job were peoples lives are on the line.
    All you need to do is look a the photos and do a little research and measuring and you will find that the damage on the pentagon is very very close to the exact dimensions of a 757. Which is way more than 12′ across Even the narrowing of the damage is in accordance with the shape of the plane.

  24. scott says:

    “Panckaked” …. dar… Safari has a bug whereby the bottom of the page isn’t visible, hence I could only see half of what I was typing… @#%@#%#@

  25. Pmitchell says:

    #59 prison planet thows lots of accusations but no facts, lots of some guy saw, people who were there claimed. no true facts ,also the building that burned for over 24 hours was concrete, look at the after picture the steel in it was melted and hanging down the sides but the concrete held (concrete is a composite stone and it melts at about 2 to 3 times the temp of steel and it doesnt weaken when heated like steel) more piss poor claims for monitary gain lots of buy my books go to my store show your support buy my crap, follow the money and you will really find the conspiracy

  26. Gibson says:

    The world is truly near the end…as I am agreeing with Frank IBC here.

    OMGZ…isn’t that one of the signs?!?!

    Yes, 19 hijackers with box cutters. Simplicity itself. I suppose all the cell phone calls about that from the plane that went down in Pennsylvania were all just lying also? They didn’t really crash? It was just a wild coincidence?

    Come on people…if you go looking for conspiracies, you’ll find others that agree with you. Doesn’t mean they’re true. How could something of this magnitude be kept secret? In THIS administration no less? Sure, if it were just 2 or 3 people that planed and executed everything, maybe they could keep a secret. But we’re talking about MASSIVE logistics here to pull something like this off. Missiles fired from who? From where? How many people at the site where the missiles were fired were there? Who are they and why are they keeping quiet? How many people would it have taken to plant explosives in BOTH towers AND keep the whole thing under wraps? Who were those people? Why are THEY keeping quiet?

    If it was a missile that slammed into the Pentagon, where did the real flight end up? I mean, there WAS a real flight, with REAL people on it. I take it all the ATC people who were tracking the flight just shut up about where it actually ended up? No one has come forward? For fear of…what? Being killed by the conspirators?

    Or how about this, 19 people hijacked airlines threatening to cut people with box cutters and calming their fears just telling them they were taking them to Canada or to the Mid East or something….and before they knew what was really happening to them, it was too late. Why is that so hard to believe? Because it’s too simple? You’d rather think there’s some massive cover-up?

    And if that isn’t proof enough, why didn’t Oliver Stone make his 9/11 movie about this conspiracy? He just focused on two firefighters who survived in the rubble. Come on, if that’s not proof there was no cover-up, I don’t know what is. What more do you people want?

  27. Frank IBC says:

    LOL, Gibson.

    For an explanation for what happened to the people on the planes, please scroll up to #21. 🙂

  28. xrayspex says:

    Come on people…if you go looking for conspiracies, you’ll find others that agree with you. Doesn’t mean they’re true. How could something of this magnitude be kept secret?

    I *do* get tired of hearing this argument.

    We all pretty much know (even if we forget quickly) how many and how often “secrets” are leaked. However, by definition, it’s impossible to know how many secrets are NOT leaked. Isn’t it? At least in most cases.

    I’ll tell you about some secrets that haven’t been leaked, if you want just one example: Groom Lake. Lots of employees, lots of money being spent, lots of projects, and it’s been going on for a long long time. How much do we know about what goes on there? Nothing?

    Exactly.

  29. Gibson says:

    #72

    “Blast expert Allyn E. Kilsheimer was the first structural engineer to arrive at the Pentagon after the crash and helped coordinate the emergency response. “It was absolutely a plane, and I’ll tell you why,” says Kilsheimer, CEO of KCE Structural Engineers PC, Washington, D.C. “I saw the marks of the plane wing on the face of the building. I picked up parts of the plane with the airline markings on them. I held in my hand the tail section of the plane, and I found the black box.” Kilsheimer’s eyewitness account is backed up by photos of plane wreckage inside and outside the building. Kilsheimer adds: “I held parts of uniforms from crew members in my hands, including body parts. Okay?”

    from the Popular Mechanics article about debunking the myths.

  30. Mike Voice says:

    I’m with Jason in #18 [and Mike in #1, and improbus in #11]:

    18 Option 2:

    One of the greatest coverups, frauds and deceptions the world has ever seen. Conducted on a public controlled by media and infiltrated by governement operatives at all levels.

    If it is option II – there is no hope …

    If “they” were able to pull this off, “they” have enough power to infiltrate/influence any investigation into this… so who am I to believe, alomst 5-years [and counting] after the fact?


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