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 or even to believe that those unlikely scenarios are the only objections to the official story.

At this point, the basic facts are not yet clear or complete 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 Latest

• 9/11 anomalies/2007-04-04 new articles has links to some articles with possibly-new information.

The List

Note: One good litmus test for classifying an anomaly as an objection, as opposed to circumstantial evidence, is the presence of a clear contradiction between what someone (including official reports) says or does versus what they should have said or done given the information available. The objection does not have to explain the discrepancy (in order to be valid); it merely seeks an explanation.

Reasonable Objections

• collapse-related anomalies (see also: wikipedia:Collapse of the World Trade Center):
  • The free-fall, controlled-demolition nature of the collapses of WTC1, WTC2, and WTC7
    • David Brin has suggested (albeit not as a refutation of the idea that controlled-demolition was used, as that idea was probably not yet extant at the time of writing) that the "clean" nature of the collapses was simply due to good engineering design intended specifically to minimize danger to those outside the buildings and prevent the feared "domino effect"
  • The "squibs" observed in videos of those collapses
  • The fact that WTC7 collapsed at all despite the lack of any significant impacts from aircraft or falling debris, as well as the fact that it too collapsed abruptly and in a way very reminiscent of controlled demolition; compare with WTC5 and WTC6, both of which were hugely damaged by falling debris and fires but remained standing
  • Multiple eyewitness descriptions of explosions, both heard and seen, which do not fit the official "progressive collapse" model [1]
• Pentagon-related anomalies (see [2])
  • Intense suppression of evidence (especially 3rd-party videos) which might have resolved many questions and allowed inquiry to focus on real issues
  • Odd patterns of activity afterwards (men in office suits moving around debris)
  • Inconsistency between the known piloting skills of the alleged pilot and the apparently difficult maneuver required to turn around and hit the far side of the building from the direction the plane was traveling
  • Why didn't the plane just hit the nearer side of the building? Perhaps this is easily explained, but haven't seen any explanations yet.
• Discrepancies regarding the identification of the hijackers [3]
  • The amazing coincidence that the passports of two hijackers somehow escaped the fireball when AA11 crashed into WTC1, and the lack of any specific information about how they were found [4] (How many other passengers' passports were found? Where may images of the passports be viewed online, so as to answer a number of questions about how they were used?)
• The fact that George W. Bush remained in a widely-known vulnerable location for the better part of an hour after being told that "America's under attack".
• The substantial number of people who have come forward with evidence that there was foreknowledge of the attacks, and the apparent lack of investigation into these leads [5]
• More questions here need follow-up work; perhaps a page listing all the questions and everything known in relation to the answers? A rather massive project...

Dismissable Theories

• The Pentagon was not hit by AA77: theories include a truck bomb, a cruise missile, a smaller aircraft, and similar variations
• UA93 was shot down, rather than the passengers seizing control and deliberately crashing it

Further Investigation Needed

• "Third NYC Jet" theories [6]: if true, is probably "circumstantial" at best, but still a loose end worth tying down
• 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.)
• Why did the man in the video of Osama bin Laden taking credit for the attacks look utterly unlike him (except superficially)? (Or was the video on Loose Change misdirection? Need to find actual videos. See wikipedia:Videos of Osama bin Laden.)
• There has been repeated mention of an unusually large number of "put" orders placed on American Airlines and United Airlines for the 3 weeks prior to 9/11, and no apparent official investigation. [7]

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, here is a collection of all the known circumstantial evidence:

• George W. Bush ignored a number of warnings about the imminent likelihood of terrorist attacks on US soil
• The administration has displayed a complete lack of interest in (indeed, antipathy toward [8]) resolving any of the noted irregularities
• Evidence from Ground Zero was rapidly hauled off and disposed of; comparatively little of it was retained for forensic examination (some obvious reasons for this suggest themselves, but we are not currently aware of any official explanation), leaving crucial questions unanswered which might otherwise have laid to rest (One official comment is here)
• The impacted section of the Pentagon had just undergone an extensive refit to harden it against impact damage, and was not fully occupied
• 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 [9]
• 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 [10] [W]
• US intelligence used Al Qaeda as an asset ([11] 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
• Although $100 million was allocated to investigate Bill Clinton (in which zero deaths were involved), only $14 million was allocated to investigate 9/11 (involving the deaths of over 2000 people and a monetary loss of far more than $14 million) – up from an initial budget of $3 million.

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 Review
• 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
• Emperor's Clothes Articles on 9-11
• Cooperative Research apparently began as a timeline of 9/11-related events, but seems to have grown into a more general resource.

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

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"

Criticism

• 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"
• 2006-09-26 THE LOW POST: I, Left Gatekeeper: "Why the "9/11 Truth" movement makes the "Left Behind" sci-fi series read like Shakespeare"
• 2004-08-15 The Coincidence Theorist's Guide to 9/11 by Jeff Wells

Video

• 9/11: Press for Truth (official web site)
• Penn & Teller on 9/11 conspiracies (this should be moved to 9/11 anomaly denial, and probably the criticism links above belong there as well)
• Italian documentary about the collapse of WTC7. Reiterates some of the old arguments, but includes some new details.