What Happened on 9/11: Conspiracies and Realities
Adam Wade
Two planes smashing into some of the biggest skyscrapers, that eventually bring
them down from intense heat. Was this a controlled demolition, could it be an inside job?
All these will be answered throughout this paper with facts and common sense used the
paper.
9/11/01
On September 11th 2001 an American Airlines a Boeing 767 flight 11 was
hijacked along with other another 767 and two Boeing 757s. Flight 11 and flight 175
struck the north and south towers of the World Trade centers, flight 11 was the first one
to hit the towers, and at first was looked at as an accident to the American public. Once
flight 175 had struck the other tower, this is the time everyone had understood that
America has become under attack. This was a shock to the American people, we are not
used to being under attack. A lot of people had thought that we are safe that nothing
could happen where we were. This was all lost from these flights, yet they were not the
last flights that had been hijacked.
Flight 77 a Boeing 757 was also hijacked and diverted from its path. The
hijackers had turned off the transponders of the plans which made it difficult to locate the
planes. Flight 77,after the other two flights had struck the two towers, at 9:37 it had
struck the Pentagon. Unfortunately, this was not the last flight that had been hijacked and
eventually doomed to kill all of its passengers. The last flight that was hijacked was flight
93, these people on the flight will forever be known as sacrificing themselves to save
others.
After flight 93 was hijacked the people of the flight went and battled for the
cockpit and eventually had crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. These four planes were
horrifically hijacked with the intent of killing hundreds of thousands of people. Many
people to this day wonder how this all could have happened to us, to the US, which might
be the fuel for all of the upcoming conspiracy theories .
Conspiracy Theories
The US government let the attacks happen on that day and also knocked the
towers down by controlled demolition. This is just one of the theories that will be covered
with evidences throughout this section of the paper.
There are two types of conspiracy theories that have turned out after 9/11. That is
the Let it happen on purpose, and the Made it happen on purpose. The let it happen on
purpose theories are really stating that the US had prior knowledge of the attacks (which
are known to be true) but let it happen on purpose knowing that they (the Bush
Administration) could gain from it. The other theories, the made it happen, believe that
the US did this to gain from it politically and framed Al Qaeda so the American people
would back Bush. They all really center around with the same major theories with a few
differences in how they would be played out.
Underside Of 175
Flight 175 was the Boeing plane that crashed into the south tower, this was the
flight that most Americans had watched crash on live television. This has led into one of
the conspiracy theories, that it had a pod on the underside of the plane. Many pictures
have been taken of this flight right before impact which has spurred much of this debate.
Because according to letsroll911.org this is not standard on a Boeing 767, so it could
have been a Missile, or a piece of air-refueling tanker which would prove that the
American government had involvement in the attacks. So what could have possibly have
been on the underside of that flight if it was not stock?
Yes, what they claim is true you can see something in the picture that could
possibly look like a missile. I have seen this picture and it is true, something is elongated
underneath the flight of 175, but all it takes is a little common sense and digging for
evidence. A photo from a camera can be effected, just like our eyes, when the sun hits it.
This from Popular mechanics, which I will be using a lot for my debunking of the myths,
states that an email from Ronald Greeley an expert at examining light fragments and
shadows in a picture to determine what it is states“Such a glint causes a blossoming
(enlargement) on film, he writes in an e-mail to PM, which tends to be amplified in
digital versions of images — the pixels are saturated and tend to 'spill over' to adjacent
pixels." This crucial information can debunk what the “pod” or “unusual” object on the
bottom of flight 175.
This is not the only conspiracy theory that Flight 175 will be in. It will
also show up in the next and a couple more conspiracies, so Flight 175 will be a crucial
step in debunking of the conspiracy theories.
No Windows
Unfortunately for Flight 175 the underside was not the only controversy. The next
one was really from a reporter who saw the second flight slam into the south tower. Marc
Birnbach is in the center of the conspiracy, while on the phone interview with Fox.
Marc Birnbach states that he saw the plane, and “it defiantly did not look like a
commercial plane. I didn’t see any of the windows on the sides”. This sparked major
controversies from his statements, that this could have been a military plane and that
obviously the government was behind the attacks.
While this is once true again that Marc Birnbach did state this, there is some
crucial information that is not state in the theory. It’s that Birnbach was at least 2 miles
away from the twin towers and did not actually see the plane strike the tower. Another
piece of evidence that disproves this theory is that there was actually fuselage found from
the aircraft by tracing its path. With this fuselage they found passenger windows, which
proves that the aircraft that was a passenger plane.
Intercepts
The theory behind this stems from planes that are off course, they state that it has
been procedure to intercept them. They also state that when the jets are scrambled that
they are to the plane within minutes.
There is almost no truth to these statements whatsoever, it is not standard
procedure to intercept a plane, especially within the US. There has only been one plane
that was ever intercepted according to Popular Mechanics and that was the Learjet of
Payne Stewart. The NORAD System, the system which is the system used to intercept
and locate planes that they have lost contact with, was primarily used for planes outside
of the US. NORAD like I said it has only intercepted one plane in the decade before 9/11
so it was not standard procedure.
The planes hit to high
This theory is one that states that the planes hit to high to cause so much damage
to the rest of the WTC. So in their minds this illustrates how the use of concussion bombs
were used as well to cause so much damage.
There is only part of this theory right, the part of there was a lot of damage to the
WTC. The fact is that, according to NIST (National Institute of Standards and
Technology) that the plane debris sliced through the utility shafts at the north towers
core, creating a conduit for burning jet fuel. This information can be accounted by the
numbers of people who had seen fire pouring out of the elevator shafts. Which would
show that the planes had, even thought they hit so far up, created a lot of damage by the
burning jet fuel and actually where they had penetrated.
Steel
This theory is stating that the WTC should not have collapsed under the heat that
the jet fuel gave off because steel does not melt until 2750◦F. So the towers could not
have collapsed because of the jet fuel burning.
Once again, they are actually right about some parts of this theory. Jet fuel does
not give off enough heat to melt steel, but why would it have to melt the steel to make it
collapse. All the fire has to do is structurally weaken the metal. Which is what happened
to the WTC, the fires had weakened them structurally by burning at 800-1500◦F. The jet
fuel was not the only thing that weakened the structurally integrity of the WTC it was
also the other fires that had ensued from the jet fuel. It had started pockets of fire, that
had according to NIST they burned at 1832◦F.
Puffs of Dusts
This next theory is one that state that the puffs of dust that you see coming out of
the WTC as they collapse could not possibly have happened without the use of
explosives. Van Romero really sparked this debate because on 9/11 he was quoted as
saying that “The collapse of the structures resembled those of controlled implosions used
to demolish old structures.”. Romero is the Vice President of the New Mexico Institute of
Mining and Technology, so he is also an explosives expert as well or would know about
explosions.
Once again there is obviously some truth to this theory, that there was puffs of
dust coming out of the WTC as they collapsed, but yet again there is another reason that
they seem to overlook. It might look as if the Towers were brought down by explosives
because of these puffs of dust shooting out the side, but the truth is that the floors
pancaking which was the culprit. When the towers began to fall, according to the NIST
report, the weight of the other floors were coming down on the next floor which put a lot
of weight that the floor could not handle and then it would also begin to collapse. The big
question was why were there puffs of dust coming out of the side, first I must ask you
what is in between the floors? If you said air your correct, you see air was between the
floors and must go somewhere when the floors collapse on each other. Since there were
windows all around the Towers the air naturally shot out with a lot of force, and debris of
cement dust, out the windows. This created the so called explosions that everyone had
seen throughout the collapse of both the towers.
WTC 7
The theory around the World Trade center 7, is that it too was also a control
demolition. 911review.org states that it clearly was a controlled demolition and when
people see this video everyone agrees.
There is no truth to this theory other than that the WTC 7 had fallen down. The
reason most of these theories about building 7 came around was because FEMA which
first state that the building did not take on to much damage because of the collapse of the
Twin towers. When the NIST had taken another look at the situation and from the same
video had noticed that you can really see the damage that had actually occurred from the
falling Twin towers.
Another reason that building 7 had collapsed from the falling debris was the weird
structure of the design. The NIST had noted that if you take out just one of the columns
then there would be a great deal of force that would also hinder the stability of the
building. They are also looking into some other theories of what could have also
contributed to the building 7 falling. Popular Mechanics states this to be that the trusses
on the 5th and 7th floors were designed to shift weight from one column but since the
south face was damaged then the weight shifted to the other side which would have
exceeded the weight limit.
The other working hypothesis was that the fire on the 5th floor was burning for 7
hours because of a diesel tank used for emergency back up generators. This would also
weaken the stability of the structure. They also went on to talk about that they are also
investigating or thinking that the structure might have withstood any one of these
conditions if they were on their own, but they were not which could have eventually led
to its demise.
Pentagon
According to reopen911.org the wholes punched into the pentagon 75ft and 16ft
were way to small for a Boeing 757 which is 125 ft wide and 155 ft long. Another
problem conspiracy theorists have with the pentagon was that there was a 16 foot hole in
the C ring of the pentagon. Some other conspiracies are that a missile guided by the US
was used in the attack on the pentagon. One of the reasons that these conspiracy is that
the US government has not released videos of the plane crashing into the pentagon.
Another reason is the report of some people spotting an unidentifiable aircraft all white in
the sky as the impact of the pentagon had happened.
ASCE the group that inspected the pentagon and gave its performance evaluation
had stated that the first hole was 75 ft before the outer ring had collapsed, this making the
hole not to small for a plane. They also went on to state that a plane does not produce a
cartoon cutout of it’s self when it hits a reinforced concrete building. Which would
explain first of all why you actually see a smaller whole then what you should see,
because the outer ring had collapsed only 20 minutes after the plane hit the pentagon.
Also because it does not have to resemble a plane whatsoever, it will actually only cause
a whole and not an exact replica of the wings and the body of the airplane. The other
explanation of the 12ft hole in the inner ring of the pentagon was that the landing gear
had actually blown through the reinforced cement and created a 12 ft whole from that.
They state that it was not a 16ft whole as the theorists have projected but actually only
twelve and not caused by the fuselage.
The pentagon attacks can be explained with logic and reasoning, in my opinion,
but you can decide for yourself. Unfortunately, there is another conspiracy revolving
around the Pentagon and involves the windows.
Windows
The problem with the windows that the conspiracy theorists have is that some of
the windows right above the crash site were still intact. This would mean that something
like a missile or a smaller aircraft hit the Pentagon, not a Boeing jet.
Yes, once again they had gotten information right about some things, some
windows right above the crash site were still intact right after the impact. Why would
there be windows after an impact like that is a very logical question and you might also
think that a normal window could not have possibly withstood the plane hitting the
building right under them. I agree completely that a normal window could not have taken
that impact of jet fuel exploding right under it, but like every other conspiracy there is a
logical explanation. The windows were not normal windows, they were blast resistant
which meant they could withstand the explosion. The only reason why some of the
windows were knocked out was because the plane itself had hit them.
Take a look at this conspiracy and I hope you see the logical explanation from the
windows not being normal. This explains why the windows were still intact, because they
were made that way. We will kind of get away from the Pentagon building itself, and get
to the airplane that smashed into it.
Flight 77
This conspiracy theories asks where is the debris from the plane that hit the
pentagon. Because they say that there was no debris found at or around the Pentagon, so
they ask the question as to what really hit the pentagon.
I will very easily answer this question as to where the debris was with some
simple explanations. You can, as long as you actually look, see debris on the lawn of the
Pentagon actual parts of the fuselage. So where they get this question as to they did not
see any debris is beyond me. You might not have seen it the day of because you were not
busy looking for it while sitting in horror watching TV. But it was there, well at least
some of it. The other part was actually melted down from impact of hitting a reinforced
concrete structure and the tons of jet fuel pouring out in a ball of fire.
As you can see I really do not find any evidence to suggest that there were no
remains of Flight 77. There was you just have to look at the photographs and see that
there was some there, yet not a lot because of the huge explosion and the fact that it had
slammed into a reinforced concrete structure. Now we move on to the conspiracy
theories that I myself do not enjoy the most, Flight 93, because the theories really take
away the last few minutes of some American hero’s lives.
Flight 93
The theory that stems around Flight 93 is that it was not actually attacked by its
passengers on board, but shot down by a missile from a US air force jet. This conspiracy
comes from the white jet that they had seen flying low after the crash had happened.
Truth again there was a white jet flying over the crash site, but bad news for
conspiracy theorists it was not owned by the Air Force, but a company that markets
wrangler jeans. They happened to be in their decent when the FAA contacted them to
circle around the last suspected area of Flight 93 and investigate to see if the plane had
crashed, and if they did where they had crashed. When they did this they had
unfortunately seen Flight 93 which had crashed in Shanksville PA. They then radioed
back the coordinates of the crash site so they could go investigate it, and then they were
on the way back to where they were heading.
Another way we really know what had happened to Flight 93 was the cockpit
recordings. If you read the 9/11 Commission Report, you will actually get excerpts from
the recordings and you can read into them how you would like. What I got from them is
that what they had told us what happened on the plane did. The passengers of Flight 93
had tried to storm the cockpit of the plane, and the terrorists flying it had realized that
they had to take them down early. The passengers on that plane had saved American lives
that day and, in my opinion should not be subjected to conspiracy theories that take away
from their last heroic attempts to save others.
I would say that this as well is very easy to explain via logic and reasoning. I
think that it is horrible that the conspiracy theorists would even bring this up even if they
believe it, they should keep it to themselves as respect to the people who gave their life to
save others.
Phone Calls
The Phone call conspiracy is that of one which really should not be a theory based
on the effects it could have on the family members, the theory is that the calls made were
not in fact the people in question but a stand in. They were made by different people,
because it is not possible to call from a cell phone while in an airplane.
There is little truth to this, that it can at certain heights in the air that you will get
a lot of dropped calls, one because your moving so fast, and two because you could be
out of range. But these planes were not flying at the height of where the calls would be
dropped more often, also most of the people in the planes were not even using cell
phones to call loved ones and emergency personal. In fact they were using plane phones
to make this call, which would allow the people to make these calls. According to the
9/11 Commission Report there was a total of a little over 30 phone calls made from flight
93, 22 of them air phone calls, 2 of which were actual cell phones, and 8 not specified.
This information would tell us that logically they could have placed these phone
calls not only because they mostly did not use cell phones to make these calls, but also
because they were not at the right height in the sky to make it more difficult for them to
have a dropped call. These phone calls were some of the last memories the family and
friends will have of these heroes, and conspiracy theorists are taking that away from
them.
Flight 93’s Engine
Flight 93’s engine was found a ways away from the impact site according to this
conspiracy theory, also that some debris was founds of upwards of 6 miles away from the
crash site in Indian lake. According to this theory this information would have to prove
that Flight 93 was shot down, and the mainstream account that the people aboard Flight
93 had taken them down was incorrect.
They have truth the engine was not right were the impact spot was, and also
debris was found in or around Indian lake, but once again there is logical reason for these
to happen. One is the high velocity of the plane crashing into the ground will obviously
throw parts up in the air or outwards, which explains why the engine of Flight 93 was not
located right on the crash site. It was flung outwards even downhill about 300 yards
away. Which if your thinking logically a plane that hits at almost full speed is not going
to keep its parts all in one area and it would be very likely that an engine could be flung
over 300 yards.
The Indian lake claim also has some truth to it, that there were scraps of light
metal and paper found in the lake. This can also be explained by almost the same logic,
that a plane that crashes almost straight in the ground going full speed will create an
impact that throws debris in the air. Which can create a spread out area of debris, also the
wind was blowing the direction of Indian lake from where the crash site was, which
would also create some logic as to why some debris was found there. The only problem is
the distance, 6 miles is a very long way and pretty impossible to have debris flung there
by a simple plane crash, so this fuels the debate of Flight 93 being shot down. There is
one problem with the theory and it can be very confusing. Yes, it is 6 miles away from
the crash site, if you were to take all the roads to get there but logic would say that the
debris will not follow the roads. So therefore is only a mile and a half way from the
impact zone states Popular Mechanics.
This Crucial information would show that it is possible and that it all can be
understood with logical thinking. If you want to believe there is a conspiracy because of
the 6 miles then you will look at the information and scoff at it. But the truth is that the
engine and debris can be explained by the high impact of the crash and how debris is not
going to be concentrated around the impact site.
Black Boxes
This theory really starts because of Michael Bellone, he was a person who helped
clear some of the debris from ground zero and look for the black boxes. The 9/11
Commission Report states that it had not found any of the black boxes from the crash site
at the WTC Towers. Michael Bellone wrote a book about in which he claimed that they
had actually found 3 out of 4 black boxes actually. This had seemed to be a cover up by
the US government if they had actually found 3 of the 4 boxes at the crash site.
This is just all untrue and it can be proven because of Michael Bellone being in
financial trouble at the time of his book. He wrote the book to get out of the financial
struggles that he was in, this can also be proven because of how he stole some things
from ground zero to sell. This information really discredits all of the information he was
giving and selling people to get his book to sell. This tells the us that he was willing to
say or do anything to get the money he needed to get out of the financial hardships that
were facing him at that time.
This is just unreal to believe that some one would lie to get money and stir up
some controversy for it. This man is someone I will not trust to hear his side of the story,
I think that he hurt a lot of families of victims because of his actions and the truth needs
to be discovered.
President Bush
Yes, Bush is also suspect to the conspiracy theories in this theory you can
obviously tell that Bush had known about the attacks before because of how he reacted.
He did not run out of the room and no one tried to protect him as if they knew he was not
the target. This would mean that he knew about it and the government was behind the
attacks.
This is something that I find very interesting to have as a conspiracy theory
because of the way that it is present. President Bush himself has stated that if he would
have reacted differently as if running out of the room not keeping his emotions under
control he would have been criticized. This I believe to be true, that no matter what he
would have done he is going to be criticized. If he would have left quickly it would have
shown weakness, confusion, and to be not reliable when the going gets tough. I believe
the look on his face as he was told show signs of stress, dismay, and even sadness. I do
not believe it was a face of a man who knew what was happening or even what to really
do at a time like that.
I believe that out of all of the conspiracy theories that the theorists are really
reaching on this one. That they are trying to pull whatever they can to get something to
stick. This is a tactic can really bring the thoughts and opinions of people really down and
bring distrust about what the theorists are saying.
Jewish Involvement
This conspiracy does not widely accepted by the conspiracy theorists in the US,
but the theorists in the middle east believe it. This theory holds that 4,000 Jewish people
had skipped work and that it was really an elaborate scheme to frame the Islamic terrorist
group Al-Qaeda.
The US government actually looked into this conspiracy theory to try and see if
what they were saying were true. It turned out that the numbers were completely off
everyone that was Jewish did not miss work that day. There were Jewish people killed
that day in the trade center collapse.
Another group took the conspiracy theory as a big offense to them. The Al- Qaeda
leader attacked the Shias for claiming these because they are taking away from the
Sunnies of the elaborate attacks against the US.
This In my opinion is an outrages claim against the Jewish communities and
people that really can hurt the people. There have been claims against the Jewish
communities throughout history that have plagued these people and it should not continue
to today.
New World Order
In this conspiracy theory it is all about the “shadow government” really
controlling the white house. This conspiracy can be contributed from George Bush Sr.
because of what he said about a “New World Order”.
This conspiracy is stating that the shadow government is controlling the
government, is conspiring to take of the world and run the world. They wanted to take
Iraq to get the oil fields and control some of the money made by oil. That way people
would need the “new world order”.
From what I have seen this has not been debunked, by any credible professionals.
My opinion as to why they have not even tried to debunk it is because one they cannot
find any evidence for, or against a New World Order. Also that it is absurd to think that
this is really going on. Yes, George Sr. did talk about this New World order but he wasn’t
talking about some power governing us all.
In all reality its about the U.N (United Nations) being able to really do its job, to
actually keep peace. What he is stating in his speech is that there will be a day when your
not going to be afraid of what other countries are doing. You will feel safe knowing that
not only your country will protect you, but that world as a whole will protect you.
If you ask me as to why, or how this came to play and the conspiracy came up. I
believe it’s the theorists grabbing at anything they can to try and scare people. Its like
they watched Prison Break and starting thinking there actually is a “company” or new
world order.
In short the New World Order is not something to be afraid of, but something to
hope that it actually comes around. Its something that this world needs, the U.N. as strong
as it is supposed to be. That is the real New World Order, not some group of people
controlling certain events to come to power.
Conclusion
9/11/01 was a horrific day where Americans will remember what they were
doing, and where they were on that day. This paper gives you the “mainstream” account
of that day and then gives conspiracy theories with their evidence.
The conspiracy theories that were used in this paper range from somewhat truths
to complete lies, it goes to show that you can have some truth to conspiracy theories or
just make it up. It also shows that if you put some logic and do not always believe what
you hear, then you can get the facts straight. This paper shows how conspiracy theories
come about, also that some people are willing to lie completely to get people to believe
them. Some of the theories are so off the wall, that I hope no one but the person who
came up with the theory believes it.
Some of the theories like the phone calls to their family members, and the Jewish
involvement makes me sick to hear about this. They show tons of disrespect for the
people who got the phone calls and once again the Jewish community that had no
involvement in the terrorist attacks. To question the government is one thing but to
question a community and family members who heard their members before they died is
not a topic that should be questioned.
This paper should help you make your opinion up about what you believe about
what actually happened on that horrific day. If you want more information about these
topics I suggest you look at a few things, read the 9/11 Commission Report, read the
Popular Mechanics debunking article, and watch loose change. After this you should get
a good feel for what the conspiracy theories are, and what had actually happened that
day.
Scenario
This paper would be for the people who are wondering what had actually
happened on that day, it would also be for the conspiracy theorists . This could be given
in several different ways, it could be read in essay form or even given as a speech. This is
very important information to get out and should be read by more people.
It would also be something that teachers should give in a classroom setting, this
could give a way to big discussion. Something that would be a great tool, you could set it
up as a debate some people arguing the conspiracy theories and the people debunking
them. There is so many ways that can be used by this information that it is almost
unbelievable.
If the teacher uses it correctly they could get out information about how to dig for
the truth and how to actually make their own opinion on things. In the class room to teach
the students how to make their own decisions you could have them research them, and
then have a discussion section after it. This would also spark the debate, because you will
get multiple groups coming up with their own opinions and evidence.
The next scenario I believe that it could be used in like I said before is in a
speech, or an open forum. Where people could come together and express their opinions
and views about the certain topics, this would help people see different views and also
help get more answers. It would help in many ways because you might get someone who
had a family member die in the attacks, or you might get experts at the certain events and
you can see how they feel or what they think about certain events.
There are just so many settings that you can use for this certain topics that its
almost a little unbelievable. You can use it as a speech, but in different ways, in the way
before you were trying to show that there were no conspiracy theories. This speech could
show that Americans can be under attack, and we need to take these terrorists are real
threats.
References
"9/11 Conspiracy theories". Wikipeida.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_conspiracy_theories>.
"Conspiracy theories Debunked". Popular Mechanics.
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html?page=9>.
"Commission Report". 9/11 Commission . <http://www.911commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf>.