9/11 truth movement

Template:911tm Template:Sep11 The 9/11 Truth Movement is the name adopted by the loosely-connected organizations and individuals that question the official account of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States. Those involved with it and associated campaigns convene through the Internet and national and international conferences. The movement has attracted enough attention to result in refutations published in mainstream-media sources, though movement supporters deny that their claims have been debunked. There is also controversy over whether the claims of the movement should be considered a conspiracy theory.

Characteristics

Members

The common proposition among all of the movement supporters is that the official account of the events of 9/11 is not true, and that the truth has been covered up by high-level officials and the official investigators.

Most proponents of the 9/11 truth movement believe that the perceived cover-up and anomalies in the official account can only be explained by the theory that members of the US Government planned, carried out and covered up the attack or deliberately allowed the attacks to take place in order to pursue their own agenda. There is a wide range of alternative theories about how the attacks might have been actually carried out, but many believe that the air defenses (NORAD) were deliberately rendered ineffective, that the three World Trade Center Towers were demolished in a controlled fashion, and that the motive for the attacks was to justify overseas wars and increased domestic control.

A smaller fraction of the movement has united in attempting to show that the more speculative theories - those involving controlled demolition, missiles, space beam weapons, and other unsubstantiated claims - are false information distracting the movement from investigating the more crucial issues of the 9/11 attacks. They would prefer the focus to be on issues such as information collected on several of the hijackers by the U.S. Army intelligence unit 'Able Danger,' Israeli spy rings in the U.S. with classified involvement in the 9/11 attacks, and possible Pakistani involvement in financing Mohammed Atta through Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.

Goals

The primary goal of the 9/11 Truth Movement is to force a new investigation into the events of 9/11. Many international, national and local organizations have formed to pursue that goal, including evidence gathering and research (such as Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice), awareness (such as the 9/11 Visibility Project) and litigation organizations (such as Justice for 9/11).

The central portal for the thousands of websites relating to 9/11 is 911truth.org, an organization formed in June 2004 to coordinate the efforts of the various regional 9/11 Truth Alliances. This organization describes a two-step approach to what it refers to as “9/11 Truth”: To understand the official account and the numerous objections it has raised and to confront the implications of that knowledge. The website itself focuses on the first step by presenting it’s own articles “Reasons to doubt the official story of September 11th, 2001,” the 9/11 Family Steering Committee “Review of the 9/11 Commission Report,” and “The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-page lie,” an article by David Ray Griffin based on his book “Omissions and Distortions.”

Media

The movement has received relatively little attention in the mainstream media, though it is discussed by the alternative media, especially on the Internet, including talk radio hosts like Alex Jones. Some individuals in the movement come together through regional and national meetings, events and demonstrations, but the internet is the main discussion forum.

Movement members have produced such books as Webster Tarpley's 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA (2005), David Ray Griffin's The New Pearl Harbor (2004), Michael Ruppert’s Crossing the Rubicon, Paul Thompson’s The Terror Timeline, Eric Hufschmid’s Painful Questions (2002) and Nafeez Ahmed’s The War on Freedom. (2002)

Some of the movement's popular videos have been The Great Deception (2002) and The Great Conspiracy by Barrie Zwicker, Truth and Politics and 9/11 and American Empire by David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Mysteries (2006) and 9/11 Press for Truth (2006).

Reception

The movement has received criticism from a variety of sources. MIT engineering professor Thomas W. Eagar states:

These people (in the 9/11 truth movement) use the 'reverse scientific method’… 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.

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has written that he has "two basic gripes with the 9/11 Truth Movement”:

The first is that it gives supporters of Bush an excuse to dismiss critics of this administration. I have no doubt that every time one of those Loose Change dickwads opens his mouth, a Republican somewhere picks up five votes.... Secondly, it's bad enough that people in this country think Tim LaHaye is a prophet and Sean Hannity is an objective newsman. But if large numbers of people in this country can swallow 9/11 conspiracy theory without puking, all hope is lost.

A May 2006 Zogby public opinion poll indicated that:

42% of Americans more likely agree with people who believe that ‘the US government and its 9/11 Commission concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks, saying there has been a cover-up.’

On September 3, 2006: Time Magazine published a lead article, "Why the 9/11 Conspiracies Won't Go Away", noting that:

The population of world No. 2 [the 9/11 Truth Movement] is larger than you might think. A Scripps-Howard poll of 1,010 adults last month found that 36% of Americans consider it "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that government officials either allowed the attacks to be carried out or carried out the attacks themselves. Thirty-six percent adds up to a lot of people. This is not a fringe phenomenon. It is a mainstream political reality.

History

The 9/11 Families Movement

Immediately following the attacks, the vast majority of people believed the official account – that the attacks were carried out solely by Al-Qaeda, and were not prevented presumably due to various incompetences by US officials. But in the weeks and months that followed, various questions were raised about the official account, including…

• Why had NORAD failed to protect the skies of America and the known terrorist targets, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
• Despite numerous apparent warnings, why did the intelligence and security services fail to prevent the attacks from taking place?
• Why was President of the United States George W. Bush allowed to stay in a Florida school classroom for over 10 minutes after being told that America was under attack?
• No previous steel-framed skyscrapers had ever totally collapsed due to fires, so why did it happen three times on September 11?

The majority of people believed that these questions would be answered in due course and that individuals and organizations within the government would be reprimanded for not preventing the attacks. However, the Bush Administration was reluctant to carry out an official investigation and, with the mainstream media and the general public apparently uninterested in finding answers to these questions, it was left to the families of the victims to lead the press for a full investigation, beginning what became known as the ‘Families Movement.’

On January 8, 2002 in San Francisco, a rally and march on Senator Dianne Feinstein's office took place to demand a Congressional investigation of 9/11. A delegation of activists from peace and human rights organizations met with Senator Feinstein's and Senator Barbara Boxer's staff and raised key questions about 9/11. That month, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to limit the investigations to "intelligence failures."

In June 2002, the group Unanswered Questions held an event at the Washington National Press Club. Various officials and some 9/11 family members used the event to call for an investigation of the events of 9/11. Eventually, on 27 November 2002, the 9/11 Commission was set up to “prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks", including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks.

The 9/11 Family Steering Committee and 9/11 Citizens Watch were formed to monitor the work of the commission. They submitted hundreds of questions for the public hearings. The 9/11 families were told by the 9/11 Commission that their questions would be used as a "road map" by the Commission, and would be answered in the final report.

The beginnings of the 9/11 Truth Movement

Even before the commission formed, a minority of people, took the view that the only reasonable explanation for the supposed anomalies in the official account, and the perceived cover-up, was that (a faction of) the government either deliberately allowed the attacks to take place, or were actively involved in the planning and carrying out of the attacks. This was the beginning of what has become known as the ‘9/11 Truth Movement’. In 2002, U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) became an icon of the movement when she questioned whether George W. Bush had foreknowledge of 9/11. Examples of ‘9/11 truth’ media produced before the 9/11 Commission Report include:

• Alex Jones claims to have predicted the attacks in July 2001, on his syndicated radio show at infowars.com, even mentioning the World Trade Center as a potential target and that Bin Laden, the known Central Intelligence Agency asset, might be used as a ‘patsy’. He launched a campaign to try to stop the attacks, which he called “Operation Expose The Government Terrorists”. Jones has been referred to as the progenitor of the movement.
• Numerous websites, for example those connected with Indymedia, had a major role in promoting the questioning of the mainstream media account of 9/11 early on.
• The publication and website From The Wilderness by Michael Ruppert.
• Canadian journalist Barrie Zwicker aired a series on Vision TV titled "The Great Deception" in January and February 2002, the first televised questioning of the common account that charged a deliberate effort to allow the attacks to happen via suppression of the normal air defense systems over New York City and Washington, D.C..
• The book 9/11 The Big Lie, by Thierry Meyssan, President of Voltaire Network, was published in France in March 2002. He emphasized purported anomalies in the photos of the Pentagon. His work has since been the subject of multiple critiques (including critiques written by prominent Truth Movement researchers), some of which allege that Meyssan's book is a form of misdirection and is generally discredited.
• Around the same time, the book "Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth" was published in France by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, documenting media reports in publications like the Times of India that said the US government had told numerous allies it was going to invade Afghanistan several months before 9/11.
• The first work in English was "The War on Freedom" by Nafeez Ahmed in July 2002, emphasizing geopolitical motives.
• This was followed by Michel Chossudovsky's book, "America’s 'War on Terrorism'"
• In September 2002 Eric Hufschmid's Painful Questions was published, which promotes a controlled demolition thesis of the destruction of the World Trade Centre towers.
• Numerous books became best-sellers in Germany, including Conspiracies, Conspiracy Theories and the Secrets of September 11, by Mathias Bröckers, The CIA and September 11" by Andreas von Bülow, and Operation 9/11 by Gerhard Wisnewski.

To raise awareness of the issues to a wider audience, there have been a number of campaigns and demonstrations. In September 2002, the first "Bush Did It!" rallies and marches were held in San Francisco and Oakland, California organized by The All People's Coalition. Starting in October 2002, "Deception Dollars", an anti-Bush parody of the dollar bill that includes addresses of websites which say they prove that 9/11 was an inside job, began being produced and handed out at protests and rallies. They proved extremely popular, with over six million being distributed.

The 911 Visibility Project was formed in autumn 2003 with the aim of raising public awareness of the unanswered questions and the Bush Administration's 'ongoing efforts to obstruct an inquiry'. In January 2004, they organized a demonstration at Ground Zero; activists stood behind a large banner that read "The Bush Regime Engineered 9/11," and held signs reading "Support the Families: Stop 9/11 Cover-Up" and "Bush Knew". Thousands of leaflets were handed out pointing out supposed inconsistencies in the official account.

On 20 March 2004, more than 100,000 people turned out for an anti-war demonstration in New York. 9/11 truth activists distributed thousands of "STOP the 9-11 COVER-UP" signs and the movement received national press exposure.

Truth Movement reaction to the 9/11 Commission Report

To the consternation of the families and the ‘9/11 skeptics’ in general, many of the questions that the Family Steering Committee put to the 9/11 Commission were allegedly not asked in either the hearings or in the Commission Report. Lorie Van Auken, one of the ‘Jersey Widows,’ estimates that only 30% of their questions were answered in the final 9/11 Commission Report, published 22 July 2004. The story of the Families Movement and their monitoring of the commission is documented in the film 9/11 Press For Truth (2006).

The 9/11 Family Steering Committee produced a 25-page report 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, points out 115 places in which, it is claimed, the report has either omitted important information or distorted the truth. He summarizes his book in the article "The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-page lie", claiming that “the entire Report is constructed in support of one big lie: that the official story about 9/11 is true.”

Truth Movement reaction to the NIST Report

At the time, many people, including engineers, were surprised at the way the World Trade Center Towers, particularly Building 7, had completely collapsed. But within hours, the explanation that the impact damage and fires had led to a ‘progressive collapse’ was presented in the mainstream media. And in weeks and months that followed, articles in scientific journals explained that the global collapses of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers were inevitable, with most asserting that the impact damage and intense heat of the fires caused the floor trusses and the vertical columns to weaken and fail, and the ‘pancake’ effect of floors crashing down on top of one another brought down the entire structure. The initial government investigation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Report (May 2002), reached similar conclusions, but recommended a more thorough investigation. The full Report into the collapses of the Twin Towers by the official investigators, NIST, was published in June 2005.

Following the NIST Report, numerous responses were written by members of the 9/11 truth movement, many of them criticizing it for supposedly ignoring key evidence suggesting an explosive demolition, ‘distorting reality’ by using deceptive language and diagrams, and attacking straw man arguments. The popular truth movement article by Jim Hoffman is entitled: “Building a better mirage: NIST’s 3-year $20,000,000 Cover Up of the Crime of the Century” (December 2005).

In the autumn of 2005, retired Brigham Young University Physics professor Steven Jones announced a paper criticizing the NIST Report and describing his hypothesis that the WTC towers had been intentionally demolished by explosives. This paper garnered a small amount of mainstream media attention, including an appearance by Jones on MSNBC. This was the first such programming on a major cable news station. Jones has to date failed to get his paper published in any established, peer reviewed mainstream science journal, other than publications produced by fellow truth movement members. Although Jones has been criticized by his university for publicizing his claims before vetting them through the approved peer review process , he continues to remain a focus of public interest for his 9/11 research.

In March, 2007, leading members of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, Dr. Judy Wood and Dr. Morgan Reynolds, submitted several requests for corrections to the NIST with the Department of Commerce These documents were filed with the legal guidance of another prominent member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, attorney Jerry V. Leaphart.

In April 2007, 9/11 Family Members and the Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice submitted an additional request for correction to NIST.

Truth Movement organizations

Since the publication of the official reports, a number of interconnected truth movement organizations have been formed to research the events of the day, to promote the 9/11 truth movement to the general public, and to try and force a new investigation.

911truth.org

This organization was launched in June 2004 and has become the central portal for all the 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 it’s advisory board includes Steven Jones, Barrie Zwicker and Faiz Khan.

The organization co-sponsored the Zogby Polls that have shown an increasing number of people believing the government has covered-up the real story of 9/11. A few of it’s sister and spin-off organizations include the 9/11 Visibility Project and Justice For 9/11. It also organizes gatherings and events, promotes ‘scholarly’ research, warns about the discrediting effect of extreme alternative theories, and attempts to affect mainstream media coverage.

In October 2004, an alliance of over 114 prominent Americans and 48 family members of those killed on 9/11 who signed the 911Truth.org statement in which they demand for a new and 'deeper' investigation into the events of 9/11.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth

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The original Scholars for 9/11 Truth was a group of hundreds of people of varying backgrounds and expertise, who rejected the mainstream media and government account of the September 11, 2001 attacks and offered a wide range of alternative hypotheses in its stead. It was founded by James Fetzer and Steven Jones on December 15, 2005.

At first, the group invited many ideas and hypotheses to be considered; however, leading members soon felt that the inclusion of some theories which were only weakly supported by the evidence -- ideas such as the use of directed energy weapons or mini-nukes at the WTC destruction -- was discrediting to the group and could prevent its message from being heard.

In January 2007, the group took a vote and members decided on which group to join. In that vote of 226 members, 10 members voted to stay with the original group run by Jim Fetzer, while 168 members voted to move to the new group, whose interest was in the use of the scientific method in analysis, rather than primarily debate. The new group was called the Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice and included Steven Jones and Kevin Ryan, and later Jim Hoffman and AIA architect Richard Gage. Later, Richard Gage formed his own group, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

James Fetzer, a retired philosophy professor, remains the head of the original group, Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Since January 2007, he has strengthened his view that the Scholars should continue to consider the possibility that thermite cutter charges may not have been used. Fetzer argued that "If we don't consider the full range of possible alternative explanations, we may arrive at false conclusions by eliminating the true hypothesis from serious consideration because it seems farfetched or even absurd." Judy Wood and Morgan Reynolds, leading proponents of the ideas that directed energy weapons were used to bring down the World Trade Center buildings and that no Boeing 757's nor 767's were used on 9/11, were invited to rejoin the group.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice

Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice is the group that formed when a majority of members of the original scholars group chose to leave and form their own group in January 2007. Among its 400+ current members are:

• Richard Gage, American Institute of Architects architect
• Steven E. Jones, physics professor and co-founder of the original group
• Jim Hoffman, creator of the research site, "9-11 Research"
• Peter Phillips, co-creator of Project Censored
• Kevin Ryan, chemist and 9/11 whistleblower
• Lon Waters, formerly of Sandia National Laboratories
• Barrie Zwicker, Canadian journalist, writer and political activist

Members of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice have critiqued some theories as untenable, such as the mini-nuke claims and the issue of the directed energy weapon as a plausible theory. Many members of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice believe the evidence suggests the World Trade Center Towers were destroyed by a controlled demolition using pre-placed thermite cutter charges, among other possible methods, such as the use of RDX or other explosives.

The Scholars for Truth and Justice also emphasize the importance of perception and propaganda in discussions about 9/11. In particular the way misinformation, straw man arguments, and the label of 'conspiracy theorist' are used to divert, divide and discredit skeptics of the official account. Many articles written by members are collected at the Journal for 9/11 Studies.

9/11 Research

9/11 Research is a consortium of a few volunteer independent researchers led by software engineer Jim Hoffman. Their websites are popular among members of the 9/11 truth movement and are endorsed by 911truth.org and the Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice. Their main site, 911research.wtc7.net, explores the background to the attacks, the evidence of the attacks themselves and the supposed misinformation contained in the official account, mainstream media and scientific journals. It also presents an analysis of the evidence and what it considers to be a ‘more likely’ generalized alternative theory, Attack Scenario 404.

It’s companion site, 911review.com, discusses the means of attack, the motives, and historical examples of ‘false flag’ operations. It also points out a large number of what it calls ‘errors’ that have become prevalent within the 9/11 truth movement - misinterpretations of evidence, untenable alternative theories and ‘hoaxes’.

9/11 Citizens Watch

9/11 Citizens Watch is a "citizen-led watchdog network established to support independent investigation, research and analysis into the attacks of September 11th and its political and economic aftermath." The group was formed in 2002 by John Judge and Kyle Hence and, along with the Family Steering Committee, played an active role in calling for the establishment of the 9/11 Commission Report, and monitored it closely.

Since the Report was published, 9/11 Citizens Watch has produced it’s own commentary, "The 9/11 Omission Report", and co-sponsored the 9/11 Citizens Commission and Zogby Polls surveying public opinion on the subject.

Hispanic Victims Group

The Hispanic Victims Group is a group created after the 9/11 attacks and headed by William Rodriguez, the last civilian survivor pulled from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, who is now an outspoken member of the 9/11 truth movement. The group was a key force behind the 9/11 Commission, and was among the Families Advisory Council for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The group helped secure an amnesty for undocumented Hispanic workers who perished.

Conferences

Members of the 9/11 truth organisations, such as the Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, regularly hold meetings and conferences to discuss alternative theories about 9/11 and to strategise about how best to acheieve their goals. Many of these conferences are organised by 911truth.org and some have been covered by the international media.

The 9-11 Citizens Commission

One such conference that attracted the attention of the mainstream media was "The 9-11 Citizens Commission", held in New York on September 9 2004. This was a meeting by a group of United States citizens who were skeptical of the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report, and who purported to launch their own investigation into the events of September 11, 2001.

The event was billed as being modeled after the United States Congressional hearings which were conducted by the 9/11 Commission. A group of citizens heard testimony provided by witnesses, authors, experts and whistle blowers. The witnesses gave their testimony after having been sworn in, and were then questioned by the citizen panel. An audience and representatives from the press were also present. In the introduction, Kyle Hence said that citizen-panelists were not sworn in at the beginning of the 9/11 Commission, and that swearing in had only started after "we made some noise about it, and the press started to ask some questions." The world premiere of Barrie Zwicker's The Great Conspiracy was performed after the end of the hearings and questions.

Citizen-panelists included Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, local Imam and Doctor Faiz Khan, and father of one of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, Bob McIlvaine.

A list of participants include:

• Barry Zelman - lost his brother Kenneth in the North Tower
• Mindy Kleinberg - widowed, single mother. Video testimony from her hearing to the 9/11 Commission.
• Jenna Orkin - plaintiff in potential lawsuit against Environmental Protection Agency, gave environmental hazard negligence testimony.
• John Judge - co-founder of 911 CitizensWatch.
• Barrie Zwicker - Canadian television journalist.
• Michael Springmann - former Diplomat for the United States Department of State, attorney, regarding giving Visas to alleged terrorists.
• Paul Thompson - author of The Terror Timeline.
• Michael Ruppert - founder and editor of From The Wilderness.
• Indira Singh - lived and worked at Ground Zero, she read a letter from Sibel Edmonds, and talked about Ptech.
• Nicholas Levis - talked about The Omissions Dossier.
• Carolyn Betts - attorney, addressed options for future, for example courts.
• Tom DeLonge- former blink-182 guitarist/vocalist and current Angels & Airwaves guitarist/vocalist.

Other major conferences

• 11 September 2003: Major 9/11 Truth Movement Conference in Berlin
• 26-28 March 2004: International Citizens’ Inquiry Into 9/11: Phase One
• 25-30 May 2004: International Citizens’ Inquiry Into 9/11: Phase Two
• 22 July 2005: Cynthia McKinney convened an all-day briefing on Capitol Hill focusing on the truth and lies of 9/11. Several members of the 9/11 truth movement took part, including Michael Ruppert, Wayne Madsen, Ray McGovern, Peter Dale Scott, David Ray Griffin and Barrie Zwicker. Only one other US Representative attended (Carolyn C. Kilpatrick); former CIA official Melvin Goodman was quoted as saying "Congresswoman McKinney is viewed as a contrarian and I hope someday her views will be considered conventional wisdom."
• 22-24 July 2005: "Emergency Truth Convergence" in Washington DC.
• 23 February 2006: "Question 9/11- A Call to Action" in San Francisco.
• 2-4 June 2006: "9/11: Revealing the Truth - Reclaiming our Future" in Chicago. The Mission Statement of the conference was "to find strategies and solutions to demand accountability for the crimes of 9/11. There is overwhelming evidence of government complicity, as we move forward and direct our focus on actions that further the cause of accountability. We aim for unity within our movement to accomplish these goals."
• 24-25 June 2006: "9/11 + The Neo-Con Agenda" in Los Angeles.
• 2 September 2006: "Science Applied to the WTC Collapses" in Kansas.
• 28-29 October 2006: "Research on 9/11: Why the Official Story Cannot Be True" in Denver and Colorado.
• 11 November 2006: "Lifting the Fog: The scientific method applied to the World Trade Center disaster" in California.
• 23-25 February 2007: "9/11 Accountability: Strategies and Solutions Conference" in Chandler, Arizona.
• 22-24 June 2007: "9/11 Truth Conference" in Vancouver, Canada.

Smaller conferences regularly take place in New York , across America and in Europe.

Argument-counterargument

Attempts to debunk alternative theories

In response to the growing truth movement, several mainstream media publications and independent researchers have produced articles that purport to expose and debunk the alternative theories. Among these are:

• The Popular Mechanics article “Debunking the 9/11 Myths” (March 2005, published as a book in August 2006)
• The Scientific American article “Fahrenheit 2777: 9/11 has generated the mother of all conspiracy theories” (June 2005)
• Implosionworld.com article “A Critical Analysis of the Collapse of WTC Towers 1,2 & 7 From an Explosives and Conventional Demolition Industry Viewpoint” (August 2006)
• NIST’s fact-sheet: “Answers to Frequently Asked Questions” (August 2006)
• E-Skeptic.com article: “Conspiracy Theories: The 9/11 Truth Movement in Perspective” (September 2006)
• The Time Magazine article: "Why the 9/11 Conspiracies Won't Go Away" (September 2006)
• The Government Counter Misinformation Team article ”The Top Sept 11th Conspiracy Theories” (September 2006)
• Counterpunch.org “Special Report: Debunking the Myths of 9/11” (November 2006)
• Debunking911.com
• 911Myths.com

Truth Movement responses to refutations

Members of the 9/11 truth movement have responded to much of the alleged debunking media directly, accusing them of: misrepresenting their views, ignoring the ‘strongest pieces of evidence’ in debunking some arguments, and attacking straw man arguments and ‘hoax’ theories. They also accuse the debunking media of grouping the truth movement under the term ‘conspiracy theorists,’ thus linking them with holocaust deniers, fake moon landing theorists and UFO hunters and invoking the idea of the ‘conspiracy theorist’, in order to discredit the movement. For example:

• Jim Hoffman: “Popular Mechanics Attacks Its "9/11 LIES" Straw Man” (February 2005)
• Jim Hoffman: “Scientific American's Dishonest Attack On 911Research” (July 2005)
• Sean Glazier: “Why the NIST ‘Fact Sheet’ Just Won't Do” (September 2006)
• Kevin Ryan: “Counterpunch’s Manuel Garcia Sees Physics That Don't Exist.” (December 2006)
• Jim Hoffman: “Critique of Counterpunch’s Manuel Garcia's The Physics of 9/11” (December 2006)
• Rob Rice: “NIST and ‘The Foot Of God’ Hypothesis” (September 2006)
• David Griscom: ""Hand Waving" the Physics of 9/11" (February 2007)
• David Ray Griffin: “Debunking 9/11 Debunking” (May 2007)

Critique within the Truth Movement

While there is general agreement within the movement that the government is responsible for the attacks, alternative theories differ about what may have happened. Many in the 9/11 truth movement have come to recognize that what they believe are ‘genuine’ objections and ‘plausible’ alternative theories are discredited by association with unscientific and extravagant ‘conspiracy theories’ without a basis in evidence. There have been a number of articles and responses written by members critiqing the methods and theories of other members, often in a scholarly format, as in the Journal of 9/11 Studies. There are also website articles reviewing some of the papers, books and films produced by other researchers. Some examples include:

• Jim Hoffman: “The Pentagon No-757-Crash Theory: Booby Trap for 9/11 Skeptics” (November 2004)
• Jeremy Baker: "911 - In Plane Site: A Critical Review" (2004)
• Michael Green: “Loose Change: An Analysis” (August 2005)
• Michael Green: “The Company We Keep” (February 2006)
• Jim Hoffman: “ScholarsFor911Truth.org: Muddling the Evidence” (February 2006)
• Joseph Firmage: “Intersecting Facts and Theories on 9/11” (August 2006)
• Eric Salter: “A Critical Review of WTC ‘No Plane’ Theories” (October 2006)
• Arabesque “The Pentagon Honey Pot” (July 2007)
• Victoria Ashley “Discrediting By Association: Undermining the Case for Patriots Who Question 9/11” (August 2007)

Many scientists and professionals involved in the truth movement increasingly are seeking groups and websites which use the scientific method to research the events of 9/11/01. In particular, the group which includes Steven Jones as a member, "Scholars of 9/11 Truth and Justice," supports scientific and civil research. However Jim Fetzer's group, "Scholars for 9/11 Truth," believes that the scientific method is unnecessary and that any imaginable event is worthy of advocating to the public as a potential cause for the events of 9/11, including nukes, space beams and holograms, as shown in a conference held in Madison WI in 2007, covered in a Madison Times article which stated, "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." Hence, scholars and researchers not connected to Jim Fetzer's "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" have written many papers refuting claims such which do not have support in meaningful evidence, such as the idea that mininukes were used to destroy the WTC towers, or that energy weapons from space may have been used:

• Jim Hoffman: “A Critical Review of Morgan Reynolds' Why Did the Trade Center Skyscrapers Collapse?”(June 2005)
• Morgan Reynolds: "Revisiting the WTC Building Collapses" ([July 2005)
• Steven Jones: “Why Indeed Did the World Trade Center Buildings Completely Collapse?” (September 2005)
• Judy Wood and Michael Zebuhr: “Aluminum Glows” (March 2006)
• Judy Wood and Morgan Reynolds: “Why indeed did the WTC Buildings Disintegrate?” (August 2006)
• Steven Jones: “Applying the scientific method” (November 2006, updated April 2007)
• Judy Wood and Morgan Reynolds: “The Scientific Method applied to the Thermite Hypothesis” (December 2006)
• Gregory Jenkins: “The Overwhelming Implausibility of Using Directed Energy Beams to Demolish the World Trade Center” (February 2007)
• Stephen Phillips: “A Physicist Critiques Steven Jones' New Paper” (May 2007)

Prominent members of the 9/11 Truth Movement

Military, intelligence service, law enforcement and government officials

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a letter to President Bush said, “September eleven was not a simple operation. Could it be planned and executed without coordination with intelligence and security services – or their extensive infiltration? Of course this is just an educated guess. Why have various aspects of the attacks been kept secret? Why are we not told who botched their responsibilities? And, why aren’t those responsible and the guilty parties identified and put on trial?” He also wrote, “Some believe that the hype paved the way-- and was the justification-- for an attack on Afghanistan”.
• Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in remarks delivered on September 12, 2006 said that it was plausible the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks and that "The hypothesis is not absurd... that those towers could have been dynamited". The motive might have been "To justify the aggressions that immediately were unleashed on Afghanistan, on Iraq"

Architects, engineers, scientists and professors

• Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Author and political scientist, teaches at University of Sussex, Brighton, specializes in interdisciplinary security studies; author of several 9/11 books.
• James Fetzer, Distinguished McKnight University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Minnesota Duluth; co-founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth.
• David Ray Griffin, Retired professor of philosophy of religion and theology; has written several books exploring 9/11 attacks.
• Jim Hoffman, software engineer, Research Scientist and Mathematician; editor of 9/11 Research.
• Steven Jones, Retired Physics Professor, Brigham Young University; founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice.
• Peter Dale Scott, Canadian poet and a former English professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Major books and films

One of the best known authors of 9/11 truth movement literature is theologian David Ray Griffin. His two books, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 (March 2004), which outlined a methodical, deductive framework for researching 9/11, and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions (October 2004), became best-sellers. His most recent work Debunking 9/11 Debunking (May 2007) looks at the way scientific journals such as Popular Mechanics have sought to 'debunk' the alternative 9/11 theories.

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.

In October 2004, Michael Ruppert's Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil was published, which identified potential key insider suspects in the 9/11 attacks and provide an examination of their context: petroleum, geopolitics, narco-traffic, intelligence and militarism. Webster Tarpley's Synthetic Terror: Made in USA (2005) described a link between 9/11 and previous accusations of false flag state-sponsored terrorism such as Gladio or the Red Brigades.

In September 2006, Barrie Zwicker's Towers of Deception provides twenty-six 'exhibits' of evidence proving 'beyond a reasonable doubt' that 9/11 was an inside job. It then presents case histories of de facto censorship by mainstream media and examines the psychological phenomenon of denial. "False flag" operations and psychological warfare are dealt with in detail, as is the "invisible government" - the powers pulling strings behind the scenes.

There have also been a number of popular films made by the 9/11 truth movement. Loose Change (2005) and In Plane Site (2004) are amateur documentaries presenting a range of alternate theories about how the attacks might have been carried out, many of which have since been debunked by members within the movement itself..

9/11 Press for Truth (2006) documents the struggle by the Jersey Widows to get a full investigation of the events, and then their frustration while monitoring the 9/11 Commission as part of the Family Steering Committee. It is partly based on The Terror Timeline by Paul Thompson and also looks at warnings received by the US government prior to September 11 and several instances during the US invasion of Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda managed to escape from US forces and flee into Pakistan.

Alex Jones has made a number of films about historical instances of 'false flag' terrorism and points out similarities between them and the 9/11 attack. He has also explored how, he claims, the US government has used 9/11 to increase their domestic control via the Patriot Act, Homeland Security Bill and militarization of police forces.

Mainstream media coverage

• 2002 September 15 — New York Magazine
• 2004 March 25 — The Christian Science Monitor
• 2006 July 28 — National Post (Toronto, Canada)
• 2006 September 3 — San Francisco Chronicle,
• 2006 September 5 — The Guardian (United Kingdom)
• 2006 September 6 — Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

See also

• Amateur investigators researching the 2001 anthrax attacks
• Casualties of the September 11, 2001 attacks
• Collapse of the World Trade Center
• Controlled demolition hypothesis for the collapse of the World Trade Center
• Criticisms of the 9/11 Commission Report
• Project for a New American Century
• Scholars for 9/11 Truth
• USA PATRIOT Act
• War games in progress on September 11, 2001
• World political effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks
• World Trade Center bombing (1993)