Soon after the attacks of September 11, 2001, people started questioning some of the official explanations of events. These questions found a home online, where they blossomed into conspiracy theories, most of which hold that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job – carried out by the U.S. government against its own people. The online film “Loose Change” popularized many of these theories.
Here are some of the most popular conspiracy theories, and the evidence against them.
The World Trade Center collapse was a controlled demolition
The theory:
As the World Trade Center’s towers collapsed, you can clearly see small puffs of dust on floors below those that were struck by the planes. This is evidence that the collapse was not triggered solely by a terrorist attack, but by a controlled demolition – those are explosives going off on lower floors, designed to bring down the building.
WTC 1 collapse from DrVresig on Vimeo.
The evidence:
According to a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) investigation, the planes’ impact damaged support columns, tore away fireproof insulation and started huge fires fed by jet fuel. This progressively weakened the structure of the building until it could no longer support the weight of the top section. Support columns were pulled inward as floors sagged and the building collapsed from top to bottom.
The puffs of dust seen are air and debris being forced out the windows as floors progressively collapsed, compressing the air inside the building. There was no evidence of explosives within the building, said the NIST report.
The Pentagon was struck by a cruise missile, not a plane
The theory:
The hole left in the side of the Pentagon is far too small for the size of the plane that supposedly hit it, say conspiracy theorists. They also question the lack of debris around the Pentagon – why there weren’t more pieces of the plane around where it hit. This is evidence that a plane never actually hit the Pentagon – that it was a cruise missile or other deliberate explosion caused by the US government.
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Photo – Wreckage from the hijacked American Airlines FLT 77 sits on the west lawn of the Pentagon minutes after terrorists crashed the aircraft into southwest corner of the building. (U.S. Navy/Mark D. Faram)
The evidence:
According to the 9/11 Commission report, several phone calls were placed from the airplane before it crashed into the Pentagon. As to the hole, an inspection report from the American Society of Civil Engineers says that the hole was actually fairly large – about 75 feet wide. This is still much smaller than a Boeing 757 jet’s wingspan, but the report explains that the wings sheared off or were destroyed by the impact. They never cut into the building.
There are photos of airplane wreckage in and around the Pentagon. Most of the scraps are small and blackened from fires, but there was a lot of metal in the vicinity. The fuselage of the airplane was destroyed as it passed through the building, says the American Society of Civil Engineers report.
Fires in the World Trade Centre towers could not have caused their collapse
The theory:
The melting point of steel is used as more evidence that the collapse of the World Trade Centre towers was a deliberate act. Fire and an explosion could not have caused the buildings’ collapse, as the planes’ jet fuel would only burn at 800 to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. The melting point of steel is 2750 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, the fires could not have caused the collapse of the building, since the main supports were all made out of steel. So, something else, like controlled detonations, must have caused the collapse.
The evidence:
Steel doesn’t melt until 2750 degrees Fahrenheit, but it weakens to only 10 per cent of its strength at about 2000 degrees, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This could have happened as fires were burning in the towers, particularly given that the fireproofing had been damaged. So, says NIST, the steel did not melt, but it did buckle, enough to weaken the buildings’ structure and contribute to their collapse.
People knew about the attacks before they happened
The theory:
In the days before the attacks, many “put options” or bets that the stock price would fall, were placed on United Airlines and American Airlines stocks. This shows that some people had foreknowledge of the attack, and intended to make some money off of it if they could.
The evidence:
The 9/11 Commission Report does say that unusual trading occurred in the days before September 11, 2001. But it concludes that this trading was due to a single investor buying up put options in United Airlines as part of a larger trading scheme that also included buying shares of American Airlines on September 10. The American Airlines trades were recommended by a trading newsletter, which spurred activity in those stocks.
United Flight 93 was shot down
The theory:
In the official story, United Flight 93 was supposedly hijacked, then the highjackers were resisted by passengers. The struggle caused the plane to crash in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. But if the plane crash-landed, why was there so little debris at the site? All that was visible was a smallish smoking hole. Perhaps this indicates that Flight 93 was shot down by a fighter jet or by a missile, or that it landed elsewhere.
Photo – Emergency workers look at the crater created when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pa. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
The evidence:
There was indeed authorization from the Vice-President to shoot planes down if they did not respond, according to the 9/11 Commission report. But Flight 93 was not shot down – it crashed before any orders could be carried out, and there were few fighters nearby.
According to the report, several cell phone calls were placed by passengers aboard Flight 93. Recordings of these calls show that when passengers were informed of the attacks on the World Trade Center, many of them decided to rush the hijackers to prevent another incident. The plane’s flight recorder includes sounds of a scuffle. The hijacker flying the plane then deliberately rammed it into the ground.
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