An Inconvenient Truth About 9-11

I was having a small talk with a friend of mine at a new lounge (called Touché on College West, check it out!!) and we were talking about conspiracy theories. Maybe I have watched too many X-files in my life, but although they are incredibly entertaining I rarely (i.e. never) believe them. One of the most entertaining theories is how 9-11 is an inside job by the US government. REALLY???

I saw that online documentary called "loose change", I have read several essays, and I have seen the whole "type Q33NY in MS Word and change the font to Wingdings 1". The documentary was well executed and raised some interesting points. I think it had me believing the whole conspiracy on the spot but a few hours later I was back to my good ol' skeptical self! The Q33NY Wingdings e-mail is a perfect example of how conspiracy theories are usually weak. The e-mail claimed that Q33NY was the tail number of one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center (WTC). There is no proof of this...

My main problem with this whole US government "inside job" theory is all of the resources needed for setting up such an operation. This includes remote controlled airplanes flown into the WTC, a rocket fired into the pentagon, explosives secretly set up and detonated at the base of the towers and passengers of flight 93 secretly transferred onto another aircraft. If my memory is correct all of the aforementioned elements are described in the "loose change" documentary.

If the US government organized the whole thing how many people were involved? At least a few hundred (if not thousands) to plant the explosives, fly the remote controlled airplanes, fire the rockets, transfer the Flight 93 passengers, etc. Also, who would execute these orders? Patriotic soldiers who signed up to defend their country? Please don’t say "brainwash" because a patriot killing 3000 of his country's own people seems a little far fetched. Even by assuming a hundred brainwashed US soldiers executed their orders, it seems unlikely that not a single conspirator has cracked under the guilt of treason and revealed the awful truth.

Now my question to all those conspiracy theorists: "Who is responsible?". Let me guess: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, the CIA and Elvis in a secret coalition with the Saudis and the Israelis bent on making money from the "tragic events of 9-11".Does anyone honestly believe that a secret meeting took place where a PowerPoint presentation was given outlining the destruction of the WTC, the framing of Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden leading to an eventual invasion of Iraq for their precious oil! COME ON!!!

I think the biggest problem with this theory is that it supposes that the US government is a powerful all-seeing entity. If this is the case how can a conspiracy theorist explain the lack of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in Iraq? We all know that "faulty intelligence reports" prompted the Bush government to invade Iraq. So here’s the problem: how is it that the same government capable of killing thousands of its own citizens using secret military technology and the same government capable of finding Saddam hiding in a hole cannot plant some WMDs in Iraq. This would have been an obvious move on the part of the US either in 2002 for the UN inspectors to discover or in 2003 after the invasion. They could have easily built a nuclear silo or planted some uranium enriching equipment. To date nothing has been found. How hard is it to plant some evidence so that Bush can say “You see… we told you so!!!”.

My theory? South Park said it best: "it was just a bunch of pissed off Arabs"! I think 9-11 was a terrorist act and the US got caught with its pants down. These events were used to justify the occupation of Iraq but even without 9-11 I think the Bush administration would still be in Iraq today. The reason: the energy crisis. It’s been known for a few years now that Cheney had some “super secret meetings” with oil company execs to discuss the future of the US’s energy policy. Apparently Iraq’s oil was discussed with interest in the aforementioned meeting. Here’s the kicker, this meeting took place in the spring of 2001, several months before 9-11. Some will say this is proof of a conspiracy, I think its proof of America’s opportunistic response to 9-11, using it to accomplish their to-do list.

Any questions?

Google hits: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10715149
Loose change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E3oIbO0AWE
Cheney’s secret meetings: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501842.html
More on Cheney: http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2003/0718taskforce.htm