9/11 Conspiracy Theories Gain Ground, Study Finds

CNSNews ^ | September 11, 2007 | Matt Purple

[presidio9]

The idea that the Bush administration participated in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is not limited to fringe Web sites and conspiracy theorists, according to a poll commissioned by a Web site that promotes alternative explanations for the events of Sept. 11.

The poll, conducted by Zogby International for 911Truth.org and released last week, found that 31 percent of Americans do not accept the official explanation for Sept. 11 -- that "19 Arab fundamentalists executed a surprise attack which caught U.S. intelligence and military forces off guard."

Among that 31 percent, around 26 percent agreed that the American government "knew the attacks were coming but consciously let them proceed for various political, military, and economic motives." Almost 5 percent believed that U.S. officials "actively planned or assisted some aspects of the attack."

Among self-identified Democrats, 42.6 percent chose an explanation other than the official one, as did 19.2 percent of Republicans and 30.5 percent of Independents.

Those who doubted the official explanation also tended to be low-income, single, and young. They most frequently associated with a liberal or progressive ideology.

"The number of people who question is growing," Mike Berger of 911Truth.org, a leading 9/11 conspiracy Web site, told Cybercast News Service. "The issue is that there has not been mainstream media coverage of any of the anomalies, the omissions, the lies regarding what we know."

"The mainstream media have basically tried to dismiss anybody who raises questions," he said.

In addition to questioning the official explanation behind the events of September 11, other poll results indicated that some Americans are warming to the idea of alternative 9/11 explanations and reflected an extreme dissatisfaction with the Bush administration.

About 67 percent of those polled indicated they believe that the government should have properly investigated the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, which was not hit by a plane and crumbled eight hours after the Twin Towers. Tower 7's destruction is seen as a smoking gun by many conspiracy theorists, who contend that the building was brought down by explosives.

Others disagree. According to a Popular Mechanics investigation of many prevalent September 11conspiracy theories, Tower 7 was only a block from the Twin Towers and the rubble produced from their collapse started a fire that ultimately destroyed the building. Nevertheless, many in the 9/11 Truth movement were unconvinced.

Further, 31 percent of respondents believe that impeachment proceedings should be brought by Congress against President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, or both. This number was most heavily concentrated among self-identified progressives and liberals, 60 percent and 52 percent respectively.

The poll is based on 1,000 telephone interviews conducted by Zogby International and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The new media

According to Berger, alternative explanations for 9/11 were generally ignored by the mainstream press and gained traction only through alternative forms of media, such as Internet blogs.

"Rather than being a passive receiver of information as we have been in the past, you're able to go on the Internet and choose your own sources of news and evaluate [that information] yourself," he said. "And I think it shows that the young -- the people under 30 -- have a much different approach to information."

The 9/11 Truth movement has established itself almost entirely on the Internet, the most popular source of news for the 18-24 age group, which overwhelmingly disbelieves the official explanation for the Twin Towers collapse.

By contrast, older age groups, which are far more reliant on newspapers and television news shows for their information, are more likely to believe the official explanation. Among persons 55-69 years old, only 24 percent buy into alternative theories. For those 70 and older, the number is the same.

Berger said he is hopeful that the poll numbers indicate a groundswell of anti-authoritarianism among the generation that will soon be running America.

"These are the people who will be either drafted or sent off to fight these wars," he said. "They have a stake to question what they're being told, and it looks like they're very good with their skepticism of what they're being told through official sources. And I think that's a really uplifting number to see and it portends of a more activist youth."

"These are people who have a real stake in the future. It's a majority, a supermajority," he added.

The Internet has also become a home for Web sites such as debunking911.com and 911myths.com, which challenge and allegedly refute many claims made by 9/11 conspiracy theorists. There's even an online peer-reviewed journal, "The Journal of Debunking 9/11."

Criticism has also come from older mediums. Popular Mechanics magazine published a special report and later a book tackling 9/11 conspiracy theories. Conservative talk radio hosts frequently ridicule members of the 9/11 Truth movement. Even Comedy Central's animated show "South Park" ran an entire episode contending that 9/11 conspiracy theorists were "retarded."

But if the poll numbers are any indication, public momentum is currently moving in the direction of 911truth.org.

"It's being [promoted] by activists, by people who looked at the research and said, our whole world is being turned upside-down by this event, which, to this day, we still don't know what happened," Berger said.

[msnpatriot]

A little bit of research on Pearl Harbor you will find out the Republicans investigated FDR all through and after the war for conspiracy. They were serious, and it was reported that ‘Breakthrough witnesses’ usually radio code people were bought off or intimidated to change their statements of what they saw and heard. I once was in a hobby store and there was a group of Pearl Harbor veterans there. They all said it was obvious at the time FDR had foreknowledge. They explained to me that they knew because of buddies and acquaintances and what they said and told them.

A good book on this is ‘Day Of Deceit’ The author is featured in a History Channel piece that explains all this.

Another good book is the one on the American Ambassador to Japan, and his involvement with the Japanese and FDR.

I believe FDR planned and took advantage of the attack, and German intelligence claims they broke the code for ease-dropping on FDR and Churchill's scrambled phone conversations all through the war. They claim Churchill told FDR about the coming attack, and that his intelligence was ‘good’ that it would happen.

On 9/11 I don’t know, it’s too soon to draw conclusions. The next five years will tell alot more on info coming out. I don’t think the JFK conspiracy got going till after Garrison’s trial which was in 69-70?

I think 9/11 will eventually at least be the govt letting it happen, it’s very odd that Clinton didn’t do something about OBL when he was offered to him. It’s also possible he was told to not get him by intel.

Will be interesting to learn more in time.

***”My fear is that Bush and 9/11 will become like Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor. It’s pretty much taken as given by so many Americans that Roosevelt knew about the attacks, but let them proceed so that he could get the U.S. into WWII. It’s as if it is just common knowledge.

I’m afraid that 50 years from now people will take it as common knowledge that Bush new about 9/11, but let it happen so that he could get the U.S. into wars with Iraq and Afghanistan.”***

[Names Ash Housewares]

“You’re not trying to say the moon landings were real are you?”

I am going to bring back all the junk they left up there as scrap and sell it! ;)

[nicmarlo]

God bless America....and all the families who still grieve their loss.

[potlatch]

Bump to that, nic!!

[OESY]

You have written several illuminating essays, which I am only beginning to assimilate, coupled with relevant links, such as this on the Frankfurt School: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School. I reference it because I was intrigued by their chart (below).




However, as you allude, I had thought the Deconstructionism of Derrida, Heidegger and Levinas, would have played a more prominent role in destroying the institutions of western civilization, such as the family, church, school, military, political authority, etc. It was my impression the ability to change the intrinsic or traditional meaning of words in order to superimpose stereotypes or interpretations favorable to a particular zeitgeist was a critical tool. I have seen the pernicious effects of the Frankfurt School on American society without fully appreciating its origins. I shall pursue this investigation. Thanks for opening the door.

.

[presidio9]

Don’t forget a month of Bush’s first 8 months was spent dealing with the spy plane that was forced to land on Chinese sovereign territory. Plus, there was Gary Condit, and then all of those shark attacks in the summer of 2001.

[007girl]

but...but Mos Def says Bush brought down the towers!

I would post the link to the video but it will just piss everyone off! :]

[Amalie]

Is it pathological or just pathetic? This is a very sad commentary on the stupidity of the American public, and a very dangerous viewpoint to be holding in the current era. These are voters...

[RightWhale]

They mention Walter Benjamin as Frankfurt School. Don’t know if he is. Adorno is unreadable, but Benjamin is highly readable and claims to be seeing marx in everything but I don’t know that he is marxian so much as literate.
Derrida was the only Deconstructionist and was pretty well blown out of the water by Gadamer. Do not make more out of this loose association than necessary. Read One-Dimensional Man and then figure out how that sold 300,000 copies.

[DoughtyOne]

I am continually amazed that “progressive” ultimately means trying to turn back the clock to 1917 Russia for those who don’t want to be called liberals anymore.

[soccermom]

LOL! !9.2 % of Republicans? Sounds like the Ron Paul wing of the party!

[soccermom]

“Yeah. George W Bush, the stupidist president to ever live, was smart enough to mastermind an elaborate conspiracy that killed 3,000 people in just a few months.” .....And then forgot to plant the WMD is Iraq! That silly George — always forgetting the details! If he had just planted Iraqis on the airliners in the first place, he wouldn’t have had to plant the WMD anyway!

[ClaireSolt]

I have worried about this, but this gives me comfort. If all you have to do is call people up as in a poll, it would be possible to quickly identify these people. And then......

[KarinG1]

Ancient wisdom (learned from an old movie): Anybody who is going to get you killed is the enemy.

[soccermom]

It doesn’t concern me in the slightest. To paraphrase SouthPark, “25% of Americans are retarded.”

[Swordmaker]

The acceleration of gravity is 9.8 m/s^2 toward the ground.

That a very parochial viewpoint... The acceleration of gravity under the event horizon of a black hole is.. who knows?

But it probably isn't 9.8 Meters per second ² ...

I think the point that the original post was making was that the author of the website was confusing "speed" of gravity with "acceleration" of gravity. Two related but different qualities of motion.

I believe that there are some very smart scientists trying to figure out how to measure the "speed" of gravity (how fast does the effect of the force of gravity propagate?) and others attempting to figure out how to find the "acceleration" of light (if it even has any acceleration!). So far, neither group has had much luck... absent the discovery of gravity waves and a means to create said waves, I doubt we will be able to test for the speed of propagation of gravity.

[OESY]

Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Juergen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg


This is the list I saw. Beyond it, I’d have to defer to you and the General.

Theodor W. Adorno
Walter Benjamin
Erich Fromm
Jürgen Habermas
Axel Honneth
Max Horkheimer
Siegfried Kracauer
Otto Kirchheimer
Leo Löwenthal
Herbert Marcuse
Oskar Negt
Franz L. Neumann
Franz Oppenheimer
Friedrich Pollock
Alfred Schmidt
Alfred Sohn-Rethel
Karl A. Wittfogel

.

[Real Cynic No More]

Uh, acceleration and speed are not the same.

[Real Cynic No More]

Uh, acceleration and speed are not the same.

[Brent88]

Yeah. George W Bush, the stupidist president to ever live, was smart enough to mastermind an elaborate conspiracy that killed 3,000 people in just a few months. BWAHAHAHA! http://www.madmonks.org/~fez/ROFL.jpg