Was 9/11 a Conspiracy?

Hardly a week passes without someone emailing, phoning or posting a DVD to the Globalise Resistance office championing the idea of 9/11 being an inside job.

A plume of dust below the level of impact at the same time, Bush’s reaction, the way the twin towers collapsed, the lack of ‘wings’ in the pentagon and numerous other pieces of ‘proof’ are pointed out and the finger turned to Bush and co.

While there is no doubt that Bush is capable of such an atrocity, I remain completely unconvinced. For a number of reasons. Let’s go through a few:

1. It is amazing how the words of one or two scientists (who’s credentials I have yet to examine) can make so many people experts in architecture and demolition. The fact is that there is no previous experience of planes being flown into extremely tall buildings with such a construction. The result of such a collision is nearly impossible to predict no matter how clever the scientists are.
2. Much of the evidence proffered as proof that 9/11 was an inside job (or even allowed to happen by the US State) does not stand up. For example, a section of CCTV coverage with the wrong date and time on it of one of the suspected terrorists doesn’t prove much more than a CCTV system with the wrong setting.
3. Linking to a website is not proof of much (even if it’s this website!), especially if the website is not addressing the same point, as is often the case with some of the tracts arguing 9/11 was an inside job.
4. If a scientist has a theory about such a matter the usual way of proving or otherwise the theory is to submit a paper to a scientific journal to put it in the arena for peer review and publication. There is no record of such a submission happening.
5. Given such huge doubt over the voracity of 9/11 theories, what would be the effects of a huge movement changing its focus from anti-imperialism and against the war to a monumental scandal? These effects are being seen – at least to a limited extent. Even, for arguments sake, Bush was responsible for 9/11 (and I don’t think this is the case); the greater crime of his government remains the Wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. The body count has been so much bigger, the effect on international relations and stability far higher and the risk of further terrorist attacks far higher.

But there’s more to argue. If we accept that the Bush coterie is capable and actually carried out the deed, not only are there thousands of co-conspirators who have thus far incredibly kept their mouths shut (in a country that first generated the phenomena of confessionary TV culture), doubtful. Calling for an independent inquiry into the events therefore would be a fanciful demand. If Bush was behind the outrage, what on earth is going to get him to agree to an independent inquiry? Bizarre to imagine he’d give it a moment’s contemplation.

And what does the idea of prioritising the theories mean for the resistance? We are in the ascendancy at the moment. We didn’t “Stop the War” as was our declared intention, BUT… Berlusconi’s gone, Blair’s gone, Syria beat back the Israeli attacks last year, the UK’s presence in Iraq is down to a pathetic 5000 troops, Spain is out of Iraq, as is Italy and there is a healthy global movement against US Imperialism. Sometimes even huge and global movements take a bit of time to score emphatic victories.

In almost every public meeting you might visit on the subject of opposing the war, there will be the words of the New York Times in the aftermath of the 15 Feb protests in 2003, the second superpower in the world is world public opinion. A fixation on 9/11 theories would be a huge distraction and an unwinnable one. Perhaps an independent public inquiry on the events that lead to the siege and sacking of Fallujah would be more beneficial and prove more damaging to Bush & Co and the system they represent than any of these theories.

There’s more detail in articles by George Monbiot, which I won’t repeat, but link to below. There’s also journals such as Popular Mechanics for those who want to study the nitty-gritty in detail. Where ever your research takes you or not, remember; we need systemic change and root and branch change in this world – not the chance that those who rule could get away with offering one of their most loyal servants as a sacrifice, which really would change very little indeed.

LiNKS:

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/02/12/short-changed/

Monbiot's excellent article, see also his article entitled "Bayonetting a Scarecrow"

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html

Popular Mechanics "Debunking the 9/11 Myth"

http://www.counterpunch.org/physic11282006.html

Very good COUNTERPUNCH article