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Conspiracy theory: Who knew about Sept. 11? (Wacko alert)
Daily Star (Lebanon) ^
| 12/28/2002
| Alexis Baghdadi
Posted on 12/29/2002 7:37:52 PM PST by Pokey78
Author of controversial book on Twin Towers attack claims the truth is out there
Few people still have not read The Big Lie, or at least heard of it. Equally well-known is the book’s author, French historian and journalist Thierry Meyssan.
In The Big Lie, Meyssan challenges the official version of the Sept. 11 attack. His book has become an international bestseller and along with its follow-up, The Pentagate the subject of international debate.
The Daily Star spoke to the controversial author during the recent “Lire en Français et en Musique” book exhibition, where he promoted his book. There is much more to the man than the controversy.
In The Big Lie, Meyssan states that advance knowledge of the attacks was made available to US authorities. He attributes the relatively small number of victims to this alleged foreknowledge.
“Haaretz newspaper had been warned of the date of the attacks, and, through it, many occupants of the northern tower had been warned not to show up for work that day,” says Meyssan. “Others had been conveniently invited to a charity lunch … in Nebraska!
“The average victims in the towers should have numbered at least 4,080. Yet, according to the official numbers ... the two attacks on New York resulted in only 2,843 deaths, including deaths from collateral damage.”
Meyssan is also suspicious of the plane purported to have crashed into the Pentagon.
“What became of American Airlines Flight 77?” he asks. “Are the passengers dead? If yes, who killed them and why? If no, where are they?”
And how, he wonders, did Flight 77 get past air-defense systems guarding Washington?
“US officials … have called my book an insult to the memory of the heroes of America, and have therefore deemed it unworthy to respond to it officially,” he says.
In France The Big Lie has been banned outright.
“I keep a press book of all the articles written against me,” he continues without a trace of regret. “The attacks from my colleagues in the French press are neither the least numerous, nor the least vehement.”
Meyssan is equally dispassionate when discussing positive responses to his book.
“Despite everything set up to prevent its propagation, and in spite of a punch-packing campaign launched against it, The Big Lie has already sold over 260,000 copies worldwide.
“Among others, the Arab world has been very receptive to the book. There exists one official Arabic version printed in Egypt and another private edition of 5,000 copies sponsored by (UAE President) Sheikh Zayed and distributed to Arab leaders and celebrities.
“There is a huge contrast between the negative publicity against the book and the public’s reception of it. The Big Lie is a massive success on the popular level. In nonpolitical milieus,” he insists, “there is not a single person who has read it and not found it interesting.”
The polemic raised by The Big Lie has induced governments come down on one side or the other. While the US, France, and the UK condemn it, he says other countries like Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Iran, and China endorse it.
Meyssan insists that his facts are referenced and verifiable. The speculative aspect of the book is an attempt to synthesize all the data into one meaningful narrative. He repeats the lines from the book’s introduction, saying: “I do not invite you to consider my work as the definitive truth. On the contrary, I invite you to skepticism. Trust only your own critical mind.
“Normally, people are too ill at ease with world events due to the lack of information available,” he says. “They do not have sufficient data to think, analyze, and form an opinion of their own, so they are all too eager to take official explanations for granted.”
Meyssan’s aim is to provide people with the information that has been kept from them, giving them the chance to think for themselves.
The problem, Meyssan believes, goes beyond Sept. 11.
“Today, a new ideology has replaced racism: ‘the clash of civilizations.’ Unless it is understood, (it) will turn out to be even deadlier than its predecessor.”
For Meyssan, the purpose of the “clash of civilizations” is to divide and conquer peoples in order to preserve the “American Empire.” The whole ideology rests exclusively on political and military interests rather than on criteria of civilization.
“It is ludicrous to try to talk about a Judeo-Christian civilization or an Arab-Islamic one since the terms themselves are over generalized and have no sound foundations,” he says. “Everyone is always a medley of different things and any segregation would be purely arbitrary. This ideology reminds us of the Nazis’ use of a long nose as a criterion to identify Jews.”
Since the publication of The Big Lie, Meyssan rarely travels, except when officially invited. His visit to Lebanon was more than a courtesy call, Lebanon being one of the places where his message really needs to be clearly delivered.
“In Lebanon,” he says, “the civil war has left people with a sharper sense of inter-communal differences. A theory like the clash of civilizations would find Lebanon to be a fertile soil in which to plant its seeds.”
Every country is prone to civil war, though.
“Two centuries have failed in segregating French citizens despite a wide demographic variation,” he says. “Today I ask myself: ‘Can we preserve our right to live together in peace? Can we stop Bush from starting a worldwide civil war when he auto-justifies himself through the media and the idea of the clash of civilizations?’”
He sees the purpose of journalism as being to instigate change and shed light on the behavior of the powerful.
“After all crimes happen only in the dark,” he says. “Once people are able to see clearly, they can repossess their liberty of thinking and so grow more critical and less receptive to propaganda of American imperialism.”
“I would not be writing if I didn’t care for my contemporaries and our way of living.”
TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antiamericanism; antibush; antisemitism; frenchauthor; thebiglie; tinfoilalert; uae; unitedarabemirates
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1
posted on
12/29/2002 7:37:52 PM PST
by
Pokey78
To: Pokey78
The average victims in the towers should have numbered at least 4,080.He blinded me with science!
I guess he based that number on the historical average of people killed in 110 story buildings knocked down by airliners.
Boy muslims are as dumb as the French.
2
posted on
12/29/2002 7:45:40 PM PST
by
dead
To: Pokey78
This kook believes that a cruise missle painted to resemble a plane is what flew into the Pentagon.
That the president of the United Arab Emirates would be circulating copies of this junk to leaders reveals their hopes and fears. They know a hard rain is gonna fall but they wish it weren't so and they will grasp at straws; anything that holds out a chance that they are not to blame. If it can be pinned on Jewish agents to boot, then they can continue to pull the wool blankets over their eyes.
3
posted on
12/29/2002 7:53:59 PM PST
by
weegee
To: weegee
I used to "auto-justify" myself...till mom told me I'd go blind!
4
posted on
12/29/2002 7:58:11 PM PST
by
larry h
To: Pokey78
“Haaretz newspaper had been warned of the date of the attacks, and, through it, many occupants of the northern tower had been warned not to show up for work that day,” says Meyssan. Typical French, still rehashing the whole "Jews didn't show up for work on 9/11" arguement.
5
posted on
12/29/2002 8:37:53 PM PST
by
chudogg
To: Pokey78
“Haaretz newspaper had been warned of the date of the attacks, and, through it, many occupants of the northern tower had been warned not to show up for work that day,” says Meyssan. Typical French, still rehashing the whole "Jews didn't show up for work on 9/11" arguement.
6
posted on
12/29/2002 8:37:54 PM PST
by
chudogg
To: Pokey78
"While the US, France, and the UK condemn it, he says other countries like Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Iran, and China endorse it."
Gee, I wonder why? The Arabs prefer fantasy, fairy tales, and myth over hard facts, so none of this should be surprising.
To: Pokey78
This presents a new twist on something already severely twisted. The original Arab rumor was that Mossad supposedly told thousands of Israelis not to come to work that day; now the story is that the Israeli newspaper Haaretz knew of the attacks and did the warning. Apart from suggesting a loathsome breach of journalists integrity, on a number of levels, how did the newspaper find out and how did it warn thousands of people in New York?
If thousands of people were warned, you'd think at least one of them would have shared the secret with a coworker. Or, considering the very sharp political divisions in Israel, one of those people would be willing to embarrass the party in power by coming forward with this story either before or after the attack.
Although the story, in all its variations, involves at least two thousand Israelis not coming to work in the WTC that day, nobody has identified even a dozen Israelis who should have been at the WTC but somehow survived! (I doubt there are two thousand Israeli citizens in all five boroughs of New York). The simple fact is that at the time there was no Israeli-owned or Israeli-connected business that was a tenant in the WTC.
On the day of the attack there were, very roughly, forty thousand people employed in all the towers of the WTC (down, because of the recession, from a peak of fifty thousand). But the first crash took place about a quarter of nine, before most offices opened for customers. Additionally, Sept. 11, 2001, was primary election day in NY, so those who were both NY residents and US citizens might have been delayed (after the first crash) because they stopped at a polling place to vote.
Since the first WTC bombing, in February 1993, several tenant offices - especially the ones with fairly good memories of the 1993 bombing - had devised plans for immediate evacuation in case of a recurrence, and it appears that such a plan saved nearly all the employees of Morgan Stanley Investments, one of the largest tenants.
Certainly a great many people in the second tower either stayed out or left before the second plane crash, which definitely reduces the proportion of the fatalities. Someone figured out that the chances of someone surviving the WTC grew considerably the closer their post was to the ground floor, but the fatalities above the floors where the planes struck was about 100%.
I might add that the final tally issued by the Israeli govt is that five Israelis were killed in the attack - three inside the WTC and two on the hijacked planes. On the other hand, Saudi Arabian fatalities were Zero .... unless you count the hijackers themselves.
8
posted on
12/29/2002 8:57:10 PM PST
by
DonQ
To: Pokey78
If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with b*lls*it.
To: Pokey78
10
posted on
12/29/2002 10:09:27 PM PST
by
Cindy
Comment #11 Removed by Moderator
To: dead; weegee; DonQ; Cindy
CAN YOU GIVE ME AN ESTIMATE IN $BILLION$ what the combined budgets are for all of these agencies? If we spend XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX $BILLION$ each year for intelligence and they didn't have any idea what was going on, perhaps we need to go back to wizards and forecasters for our national security.One more question: Do you feel secure with all of these agencies protecting you? I'm sure the people who died on 9/11 did.
US Intelligence and Security Agencies
This resource is a guide to United States intelligence and security agencies. In addition to the thirteen agencies which provide positive strategic foreign intelligence under the National Foreign Intelligence Program, it also includes tactical military intelligence and security organizations, as well as those responsible for security responses to transnational threats, to include terrorism, cyber warfare and computer security, covert employment of weapons of mass destruction, narcotics trafficking, and international organized crime.
Sources and Methods
http://www.fas.org/irp/official.html
Created by John Pike
Maintained by Steven Aftergood
12
posted on
12/30/2002 9:22:16 AM PST
by
B4Ranch
Comment #13 Removed by Moderator
Comment #14 Removed by Moderator
To: Visualize Whirled Peas; dighton; general_re; aculeus; Orual; Pokey78
Visualize Whirled Peas:VARMINT CONG ALERT!!!!
To: Pokey78
Meyssan Didn't he write, How the French Army Defeated the Nazis and Then Humiliated Ho Chi Minh?
To: Visualize Whirled Peas
The families of the 9/11 victims keep screaming for an investigation; the administration drags its heels and then enlists the very dubious Henry Kissinger to kill it... But instead of getting a vigorous investigation, we get Henry Kissinger. Someone has something to hide.
While I agree that Henry Kissinger was possibly the stupidest choice imaginable, you do realize he’s not involved anymore, don't you?
17
posted on
12/30/2002 10:23:03 AM PST
by
dead
To: Visualize Whirled Peas
Why isn't the Bush administration screaming for an investigation? The WTC attack triggered the war on terrorism, the promise to catch bin Laden, and has been used to support the war on Iraq. But instead of getting a vigorous investigation, we get Henry Kissinger. Someone has something to hide. I find it's best not to criticize the Bush administration on this forum, especially on this issue, even though there is plenty of documented evidence showing some involvement and foreknowledge.
Comment #19 Removed by Moderator
Comment #20 Removed by Moderator
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