Debunking 9-11 Conspiracy Theories

By Irfan Husain

 05 Sept. 2011

AS the tenth anniversary approaches, the media is gearing up for blanket coverage of the event. In the US, it will be hard to escape the massive blitz. Even here in the UK, the build-up has begun.

One TV programme I watched with great interest was the first segment of a two-part BBC series on the West`s intelligence war against Al Qaeda. This dealt with the secret interrogation of suspects in covert sites around the world as part of the CIA`s extraordinary rendition policy.

Peter Tailor visits some of these black sites and talks to those for and against the policy. Basically, the question he raises is whether torture works: do the ends justify the means? An American general insists that by subjecting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the senior Al Qaeda operative captured in Pakistan, to over a hundred bouts of water-boarding, the Americans were able to obtain critical information that prevented further attacks.

Musharraf appears in an interview with Taylor, virtually admitting that Pakistan tortured suspects at the behest of the British government. He then went on to justify these means against terrorist suspects. For a head of state to make such an admission is unprecedented. Even if his government was complicit, surely he could have avoided a public statement confirming the odious practice.

The other programme about 9/11 was a lengthy 90-minute account of events on that fateful day ten years ago. Aired by ITV, the film was a faithful, minute-by-minute reconstruction that should be required viewing for the thousands of conspiracy theorists who have been in denial about the official version of events for a decade now.

As I watched the planes slam into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and the death and destruction that followed, I could understand the reactions of those on the spot, from President Bush downwards. It is easy to pick errors with the benefit of hindsight, but when faced with a catastrophe of unimaginable magnitude, people make instant decisions under huge pressure. Understandably, they occasionally get them wrong. But to use errors of judgment as the basis of faulty theories is to misunderstand the nature of crises and our response to them.

Ever since 9/11, I must have received hundreds of emails accusing me of being naïve for not questioning the how and why of the terror attacks. Many highly educated friends have attacked me for not seeing that the real planners behind the atrocities were the CIA or Mossad, or the two acting together. All kinds of theories have been advanced to justify these suspicions.

In my defence, I have pointed out that an attack of this magnitude would require scores of people, and for them all to keep this crime secret for a decade is extremely improbable. Next is the question of motive: why would the Israelis risk their extremely close relationship with the USA to carry out such an attack? Many have surmised that the Americans launched the attacks themselves in order to justify their subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

This, again, makes no sense. Afghanistan, with its forbidding terrain and lack of quickly exploitable resources, must be the last place on earth the Americans would want to occupy. And manufacturing an excuse to invade Iraq did not require 9/11: as we saw, the entire fabricated WMD hysteria provided sufficient justification for America and Britain to go to war.

One fact to emerge from the ITV programme that I was unaware of was that after the collapse of the USSR and the consequent end of the danger of an air attack on the USA, the number of fighter aircraft specifically dedicated for the defence of the eastern seaboard had been reduced to exactly two. While the US obviously maintained a large air force, most of its assets were earmarked for other duties.

And even when these two F-15s were scrambled, they did not know where their targets were. Images of the radar screen tracking commercial aircraft along the east coast showed literally hundreds of green dots, each representing a separate airliner. To pick out the hijacked aircraft from this jumble was literally looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack. To end this confusion, the air traffic controller finally ordered all commercial planes to land. But by then, it was much too late.

Much has been made of the fact that George Bush spent most of that day flying from one air base to another on Air Force One after taking off from Florida. Many accuse him of panicking, and wanting to stay away from Washington in case there was another attack on the capital. But as Dick Cheney explained in an interview, it was at his urgent recommendation that Bush stayed away. The vice president feared that if there was another attack, the government might be decapitated by the elimination of its top leadership.

Another figure to come out well from this documentary is Rudi Giuliani, the mayor of New York City at the time. Despite the danger, he goes around, rallying firemen and police into responding effectively to a terrifying and unprecedented disaster. In the archived footage, he shows no panic as he tries to make sense of the attack on his city.

Perhaps the most heart-breaking feature of the long documentary are the images of the hundreds trapped on the upper floors of the Twin Towers who jump out of windows to escape the furnace the building had become. Maddened by the heat, they tumbled out of the sky to their death.

Some conspiracy theorists have pointed at the rapid collapse of the towers. They insist that somehow, the buildings had been wired with explosives that triggered the implosion. In fact, when the aircraft fuel burned on the upper floors, it melted the metal structure that held the building up, causing it to fall on the floors below. This sudden weight caused them to cave in, thus precipitating the quick collapse of both buildings. It should be obvious that to wire up such huge structures would take scores of workers several weeks.

More often than not, the most obvious explanation is also the correct one. But in looking for the most obscure reasons, 9/11 conspiracy theorists tie themselves into knots.

Source: The Dawn, Lahore

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/war-on-terror/debunking-9-11-conspiracy-theories/d/5416