intelligence had ample warnings of the
attacks, Russell says. “It adds up to a fair-
ly detailed picture.”
Russell also questions whether an air-
liner hit the Pentagon, pointing to the lack
of big jet wreckage and the relatively
small size of the impact. “It looks like
something else hit the Pentagon.” Another
thing that looks wrong is the implosion-
like collapse of a building adjacent to the
Trade Center housing CIA offices and per-
haps incriminating documents, he specu-
lates.
Judging by the increasing Internet vol-
ume, skepticism of the official version of
9/11 appears to be growing, Russell says.
A San Francisco webmaster is talking
about a convention to bring people togeth-
er to compare notes, he says. “There seems
to be more people getting interested in it.
It’s not cooling down.”
“I’m always combing the Internet” for
9/11 information says Bevin Gilmore of
Eugene. Gilmore says the “shocking” lack
of an in-depth, independent investigation
of the incident and any punishment for
FBI and CIA officials who failed to
uncover the plot has made her very suspi-
cious. “Until we have more information,
it’s really the only plausible thing to be
suspicious.”
Gilmore points to a Project for the New
American Century report by top adminis-
tration officials a few years ago that she
says appeared to call for a Pearl Harbor
like event to galvanize the American pub-
lic for war in the Middle East.
Gilmore, who had three cousins who
escaped the Trade Center, says the official
version of what happened sounds too fan-
tastic to believe. “It was not believable in
the real world,” she says, comparing it to a
Hollywood script.
DENIERS
The establishment has almost univer-
sally rejected these 9/11 theories simmer-
ing in the underground media.
Often the mainstream media has simply
ignored the theories rather than giving
them exposure by trying to debunk them.
In France, the French press debated ignor-
ing the popular book L’Effroyable
Imposture (The Horrifying Fraud) before
the book’s popularity forced detailed sto-
ries refuting its claims. The Pentagon
called the book too “stupid” to merit a
response.
Even the alternative press has largely
refused to bite on the conspiracy theories.
David Corn, a columnist with The Nation,
dismisses the theories of government
involvement as “absurd.” Corn says the
CIA is not capable enough, evil enough or
gutsy enough to be involved in such a
complicated plot involving the murder of
so many Americans.
Norman Solomon, director of the
— Michael Meacher , former British environ-
mental minister, quoted in The Guardian 9/8.
“With the worst kind of cynicism, George W.
Bush continues the hallucinatory link of Iraq to
the deaths of our loved ones on Sept. 11 …
Calling the invasion of Iraq ‘one of the swiftest
and most humane military campaigns in history’ is
not just a lie, but a damned lie. Between 6,000
and 10,000 civilians have been killed — two to
for a homosexual agenda in public
schools.
Humans appear to have a deep psycho-
logical attraction to conspiracy theories,
judging by the huge popularity of conspir-
atorial movies and books. Experts and
psychologists have offered a variety of
explanations. There’s a need to explain
major events with major plots.
Conspiracies thrive where rumor is the
only real source of news. The powerless
look for ways to explain their plight.
Scapegoats are popular. There’s enough
reality to fuel the theories. When reality
sounds like science fiction, conspiracies
offer more plausible explanations. They
fill a void left by the decline of religion.
Conspiracies are a way to deal with the
frightening reality of random death.
There’s a drive to feel in the know and
important. Humans look to make sense out
of confusing events. Facts that disagree
can be explained away as part of the con-
spiracy.
Conspiracy theories have lead to
‘THE DEBATE IS WHETHER THEY ALLOWED IT TO
HAPPEN OR MADE IT HAPPEN. THAT’S THE ONLY DEBATE. ’
MARK ROBINOWITZ
Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA), writes
a left-leaning media criticism column pop-
ular with many alternative papers and dis-
misses the theories of government com-
plicity as “preposterous.” While Bush
“certainly exploited” 9/11 to pursue his
war agenda, Bush did not wake up on
Sept. 11 knowing what was going to hap-
pen, Solomon says. “There’s zero evi-
dence of that, none, nada.”
Solomon says the conspiracy theories
are a distraction from the more frightening
and difficult to solve problem that the U.S.
has an “entire political economy based on
militarism, a military industrial media
complex.”
Rather than dwell on such speculative
conspiracies, people should be concerned
about real life scandals such as the six to
seven thousand civilians killed in Iraq by
the war, Solomon says. “That’s incontro-
vertible.”
David Zupan works with the IPA from
SPEAKINGOUT
“The so-called ‘war on terrorism’ is being used
largely as bogus cover for achieving wider U.S.
strategic geopolitical objectives … Given this, it
is not surprising that some have seen the U.S.
failure to avert the 9/11 attacks as creating an
invaluable pretext for attacking Afghanistan in a
war that had clearly already been well planned in
advance … The overriding motivation for this
political smokescreen is that the U.S. and the U.K.
are beginning to run out of secure hydrocarbon
energy supplies.”
Eugene and directs the Northwest Media
Project. “It’s important to stay focused on
a vision of a peace and a just world and we
need to not get distracted,” he agrees about
the conspiracy theories. Zupan is a leader
in organizing a local Peace Justice and
Media Conference Oct. 9-12. Zupan says
conference organizers rejected a push by
Robinowitz for a panel focused on 9/11
conspiracy theories because the theories
lacked credibility and were outside the
focus of the conference.
Sept. 11 skeptics bristle at the dismissal
of their theories. “They haven’t done their
own research to prove that we’re wrong or
that we’re crazy,” Robinowitz says.
“Disprove anything I say.”
Russell says he doesn’t object to the
conspiracy theory label. “There’s no ques-
tion it’s a conspiracy theory, and some
conspiracy theories are true and some are
false, and I think there’s a lot of evidence
for this one.”
Russell says he suspects some of the
more outlandish theories about 9/11, for
– Mark Robinowitz
example that Bush is actually a reptilian
space alien, are misinformation planted by
government agents to discredit true theo-
ries. “I have to believe it’s a conspiracy,”
Russell says.
Gilmore says questioning the official
9/11 line is patriotic. “You can’t be an
American and say I don’t want to know
about this,” she says. “We’re sending off
soldiers to die for our country and you
don’t want to ask questions.”
DEEPLY HELD
Conspiracy theories didn’t start with
9/11, they’re as old as the Republic and,
perhaps, Homo sapiens. The first human
explanations of creation and natural disas-
ters through a pantheon of plotting gods
were conspiracy theories. When the U.S.
first began, conspiracy theories of witches,
Free Masons and Papists were rife. In
modern-day Oregon, anti-gay ballot meas-
ures have targeted an alleged conspiracy
some horrible injustice in human his
tory: the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust
and McCarthyism to name a few. Many are
now saying Bush’s weapons of mass
destruction conspiracy theory lead to thou-
sands of unneeded deaths in Iraq.
But conspiracies can also be true.
Julius Caesar was assassinated by a con-
spiracy. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was
blown up to push the U.S. into the
Vietnam War. The CIA helped overthrow
popular governments in Chile and Iran.
The Watergate scandal was a conspiracy
against democracy.
Polls show that as many as three out of
four Americans still doubt the official
explanation for the Kennedy Assassination
40 years later. An official report from an
independent inquiry into 9/11 is due out
next year, but few doubt it will settle
the matter. Forty years from now, will
9/11 questions have finally been put to
rest?
ew
W O R D S O F W I S D O M F R O M T H O S E I N T H E K N O W.
three times the number who died on 9/11. To deny
the reality of these deaths is not only dishonest to
the innocent people of Iraq, but to the Americans
in whose name we are waging the ‘war on terror.’”
$200 billion. It now looks like it will exceed that.
Contrary to the impression given by Bush, the bulk
of the $87 billion will go to military-related activ-
ities, much of which will profit companies close to
his administration.”
— David Potorti , primary author, September
11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows:
Turning Our Grief into Action for Peace.
“Bush says he’s doing this to avenge the victims
of 9/11 and to make us safer. But with the course he
is taking us on, children are not yet born who will be
fighting over this. This isn’t about keeping us safe, but
because he wants to keep himself and his cronies
rich.”
— Rita Lasar , member, Peaceful Tomorrows,
formed by surviving families of 9/11.
“Former White House economic advisor
Lawrence Lindsay was ridiculed for estimating a
year ago that the invasion would end up costing
health care, education and veterans benefits to
pay for this war. And for what? Answer the ques-
tions, Mr. President.”
— Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH),
leader of anti-war opposition on Capitol Hill, during
consideration of a Defense Authorization bill.
— William Hartung , director, and Rida
Berrigan , senior researcher, World Policy Institute
Arms Trade Resource Center.
“This administration led this nation into a war
based on a pretext that Iraq was an imminent
threat, which it was not. The secretary of state
presented pictures to the world he said were
proof. Today, despite having total control in Iraq,
none of the very serious claims that the adminis-
tration made to this Congress, to this nation, and
to the world have been substantiated . . . Where
are the weapons of mass destruction? Indeed,
what was the basis for the war? We spend $400
billion for defense. Will we spend a minute to
defend truth? The American people gave up their
“This administration’s arrogance has begun to
produce a major citizen response — potentially as
broad as any since the height of the 1960s. We
saw this most visibly before the Iraq War. Many
who spoke out then are beginning to work toward
the 2004 election. Those of us who marched and
spoke out now need to reach out to friends,
neighbors, and communities about the stagger-
ingly destructive implications of a world where the
powerful do whatever they choose.”
— Paul Rogat Loeb , columnist and author,
Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction
in a Cynical Time.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2003 13