9-11/anomalies

Overview

A number of irregularities have been pointed out regarding the events of the 9/11 attacks, mainly along the lines of objections to the official story as given by the 9/11 Commission. Unfortunately, although many of these are reasonable, a number of very unlikely scenarios have also been suggested and widely circulated, causing many people to overlook the more reasonable objections to the official story.

At this point, the basic facts are not yet clear enough to begin trying to piece together any kind of coherent picture of what, if any, common cause (e.g. conspiracies) might be behind the various irregularities; once each item has been more thoroughly investigated and can reasonably be judged as either "reasonable" or "dismissable", we can start trying to piece together a larger picture.

The List

Reasonable Objections

• The demolition-like collapse of WTC1, WTC2, and especially WTC7 (which was not hit by any aircraft or significant debris)
• Why did the man in the video of Osama bin Laden taking credit for the attacks look utterly unlike him (except superficially)?

Dismissable Theories

• The Pentagon was hit by a missile, not an airplane
• There is evidence that the Pennsylvania plane was in fact shot down, rather than the passengers having seized control (note that this would indicate an arguably proper response to the situation, i.e. something along the lines of the military scrambling jets to intercept, the aircraft not responding to hails, and the military deciding – given circumstances in DC and NYC – to shoot down a hijacked civilian airliner over sparsely inhabited territory rather than risk its use as yet a third missile... but if so, why hide the true story?) 2006-08-03 addendum: the Vanity Fair article sheds considerable light on what probably happened, without directly addressing the issue of why the physical evidence suggests a shoot-down. (Possibly that resemblance is because of the difference between this crash and all prior crashes: whoever was in charge was trying to crash, and hence may have aimed the plane more or less straight down.)

Borderline Objections

• The alleged pilots of the aircraft in each case were abysmal at flying, based on the testimony of their flying instructors (rebuttal: the twin towers made an easy target; no significant skill required. I've seen rebuttals of this rebuttal elsewhere; must find sources.)

Circumstantial Evidence

There is already an alarming amount of circumstantial evidence seemingly connecting the leaders of the United States with the events of 9/11, but this may yet turn out to be a coincidence; people who operate in powerful circles often turn out to have unusual connections with each other.

Nonetheless, in case it turns out to be significant later on, the following circumstantial evidence has been brought up:

• George W. Bush's brother Marvin sat on the board of the Kuwaiti-owned company which provided electronic security to the World Trade Center, Dulles Airport and United Airlines [1]
• George W. Bush found success as a businessman only after the investment of Osama bin Laden's brother Salem and reputed al Qaeda financier Khalid bin Mahfouz (link found here is now 404)
• George W. Bush's uncle (George H.W. Bush's brother Jonathan Bush is CEO of Riggs Bank N.A. which was found guilty of laundering terrorist funds and fined a US-record $25 million [2] [W]
• US intelligence used Al Qaeda as an asset ([3] is somewhat murky) U.S. supported al-Qaeda cells during Balkan Wars Macedonian dailies see links between Albanian Rebels and bin Ladin
• more stuff here to list but I don't have time

Links

Reference

• 9/11 Research
  • How They Get Away With It by Michael Green: some analysis of contradictions between evidence and official story leads to a discussion of other national traumatic events (Kennedy & MLK assassinations, Oklahoma City bombing, WTC 1993)
• 9/11 Truth Movement
• Journal of 9/11 Studies: "a peer-reviewed, open-access, electronic-only journal covering the whole of research related to 9/11/2001. All content is freely available online."
• Scholars for 9/11 Truth
  • Respected Leaders and Families Launch 9/11 Truth Statement Demanding Deeper Investigation into the Events of 9/11

Opinion

• 2006-10-24 THE LOW POST: Murrah Redux by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone: "9/11 Truth is a bald regurgitation of a silly tale we heard ten years ago"
• 2006-09-14 The Path From 9/11 by Rory O'Connor, AlterNet
• 2006-09-12 THE LOW POST: Why Ask Why?: "Five years after 9/11, the question remains unanswered" by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
• 2004-08-15 The Coincidence Theorist's Guide to 9/11 by Jeff Wells

Loose Change

Although the Loose Change documentary film raises some valid points, it also has its screws loose in many other ways and should not be taken as representing a summary of reasonable objections to the official story of 9/11.

• Wikipedia: includes some debunking
• Debunking the "Loose Change" Documentary at daylightatheism
• 9-11 Loose Change Second Edition Viewer Guide at ccdominoes
• 2006-09-26 THE LOW POST: I, Left Gatekeeper: "Why the "9/11 Truth" movement makes the "Left Behind" sci-fi series read like Shakespeare"