9-11 Conspiracy Theory

Note: For a few real questions about the events of 9/11 go to the fantastic comments posted by RINF readers. Please feel free to highlight your own questions which the mainstream media (where this article originates from) does not want you to ask.

Mick Trevey

Could the attacks of September 11 have been planned by someone other than terrorists? Some people are blaming our own government.

The booming conspiracy theory movement claims the point was to launch wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are thousands of Web pages that talk about a cover up. The theorists believe it was an inside job. But their theories leave plenty to be proven.

“There isn’t a single word of truth in it,” begins Kevin Barrett. Barrett is a lecturer at UW Madison. He’s part of a group that calls itself the 9-11 Truth Movement. “I’m sure that the official story that we’ve been given about what happened is a lie,” he says.

His proof? The toppling of the twin towers. Barrett calls it a smoking gun. He doesn’t think the fire from the jets that crashed into the towers caused the collapse. His group believes it was explosives.

“It’s probably six or eight people - with backpacks on their backs - carrying the material in 40 pound packs and maybe making 10-12 trips,” says Tom Spellman.

The theory comes from pictures they believe show molten metal at ground zero. To them - - that’s proof of explosives - because jet fuel and office paper wouldn’t burn hot enough.

“Those combined can never generate enough heat to melt steel,” says Spelling.

But news footage from that day doesn’t show any molten metal here at ground zero. Instead some government experts say the collapse went like this. The planes hit the upper floors. The steel didn’t melt… It just weakened. That caused the floors to collapse. One on top of another… That set off a chain reaction… Where the trade center went straight down.

The 9-11 Truth Movement also believes a tape of Osama Bin Ladin confessing to the attacks… is a fake. They compare the tape to other pictures, and believe the “fake” Osama is too fat. They say the guys is obviously an imposter - a guy that weighs fifty pounds more than Osama ever did - and who has a completely different facial structure and looks about as much like Osama as Laurel looks like Hardy is in this video claiming responsibility for 9-11.

But President Bush and others continue to say the tape is, in fact, Osama Bin Laden… The 9-11 Commission also concluded Bin Ladin is behind the attacks.

“I think the evidence strongly indicates that 9-11 was a war trigger event - engineered by government insiders as a way to launch the U.S. into a series of pre-planned wars in the Middle East,” Barrett suspects.

Barrett has caught a lot of heat for his ideas because he teaches at UW Madison. The UW Provost says despite complaints against Barrett, he will be allowed to continue teaching.