9/11 domestic conspiracy theory

The 9/11 domestic conspiracy theory is a conspiracy theory which asserts that either George W. Bush, or members of George W. Bush's cabinet, or United States intelligence agencies had detailed advance knowledge about the September 11, 2001 attacks, and allowed it to happen or even caused it, providing an excuse to launch their War on Terrorism (''see Project for the New American Century). This theory is not to be confused with beliefs that parts of the U.S. government may have had some prior warning of the attacks but did not act due to error, incompetence or incomplete information.

Theories and claims

Some advocates of this theory claim that, on the day of the terrorist attacks, Israeli workers were warned not to go to work at the World Trade Center (see Zionist conspiracy theories regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks), that key government officials were warned not to fly on aircraft heading through New York and Washington airspace, and that some important government officials were warned not to go on any planes about a day or two before the attack began. No evidence has ever been offered in support of these theories, although Attorney General John Ashcroft was earlier in 2001 warned off commercial flight "for the rest of his term" by the FBI http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml; Willie Brown, then mayor of San Francisco, was warned the day before against flying http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/12/MN229389.DTL; and several "top Pentagon officials" canceled 9/11 travel plans the day before. Some critics say that the Bush administration did not follow its own protocols for dealing with hijacked planes (see links below). North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) were the ones responsible for America's air defense on 9/11. NORAD has also been the target of many conspiracy theories involving 9/11. Many of them say that NORAD was issued a stand-down order to send fighter planes to intercept the hijacked airliners from Vice President Dick Cheney himself. This has never been substantiated. An interesting twist is that from two years to two months before 9/11 NORAD was doing exercises to prevent the exact type of attacks that happened on September 11. One of the NORAD exercises involved a mock situation where hijackers took control of a passenger commercial airliner and used it as a missile to crash into the World Trade Center. George W. Bush was asked at a press conference if he knew terrorists like Al Qaeda would be thinking of using planes; his response was "We knew they hated us, but there was uh [pause] nobody in our government at least, and I don't think the prior government that could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale." Some people, including Richard Clarke, former counter terrorism chief for the White House during the 9/11 attacks, believe that immediately after the September 11 attacks, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was already seeking evidence to put the blame on Saddam Hussein. Retired General Wesley Clark has alleged pressure on himself to participate in this effort, but his failure to provide evidence has drawn criticism. Richard Clarke also claims that Donald Rumsfeld, immediately following 9/11, said "There aren't any good targets in Afghanistan, but there are a lot of good targets in Iraq". Critics of Clarke say he had a personal vendetta against the White House and was only looking to garner fame for his upcoming book, which happened to be an expose' of the Bush administration's plan to shift blame away from Osama bin Laden and onto Saddam Hussein. Critics also claim that Bush has not allowed a proper investigation of the attacks (as of October 2003, the bipartisan commission continues to be barred from certain "key intelligence" documents by Bush, and is considering subpoena power http://reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3690122 http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/editorials/opin-top1028-3880.html.) In addition, Bob Woodward writes in his book Plan of Attack of Rumsfeld on Sept. 11: "The notes show that Rumsfeld had mused about whether to hit S.H. @ same time -- not only UBL..." (page 25). Also, a January, 2003 Washington Post article stated the following: :"On Sept. 17, 2001 ... President Bush signed a 2½-page document marked "TOP SECRET" that outlined the plan for going to war in Afghanistan as part of a global campaign against terrorism. :Almost as a footnote, the document also directed the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq, senior administration officials said." [[Delmart Vreeland claims he wrote this note which lists a number of targets such as the Sears Tower, World Trade Center the White House and The Pentagon. This note was already in an evidence locker on the morning of September 11, 2001.]] The theory is also supported by the story of Delmart Vreeland, a career criminal on the run from fraud charges in Michigan, who claims to have been a spy for the Office of Naval Intelligence. While in Canadian custody on August 11-12 of 2001, Vreeland claims he wrote a note which listed a number of targets such as the Sears Tower, World Trade Center the White House and The Pentagon. The note also said: "Let one happen. Stop the rest!!!" The notes were in an evidence locker on the morning of September 11, 2001. Some theories even claim that the Bush administration knew where the eventual 19 hijackers were the whole nine months before 9/11. Prior to 9/11, the administration had a huge plan on taking out Islamic terrorist network al-Qaida, but like all operations before then, it would have to have an enormous just cause to justify their plan. The theories then argue that an attack on America would provide such a justification. The administration would therefore probably not only allow such an attack to occur on U.S. soil, but would actually help it along, giving the hijackers plenty of support in their training in flight simulators across the country. Then, when the attack on 9/11 had finally occurred, the excuse would be there for the administration to toy with at will and therefore could play out their operations in Afghanistan in order to oust Osama bin Laden. With the "success" of 9/11, the administration could therefore fake the WMDs excuse in order to go to war with Iraq, in order to oust Saddam Hussein, who Bush would want dead for his almost successful assassination attempt on his father (a former president) in 1991. However, theorists claim that this time the administration was caught when Bush claimed that Iraq was supposedly getting uranium isotopes from countries in Africa. George Tenet of the CIA claimed the comment was incorrect which opened up the credibility gap on Bush that eventually opened up the debate on WMDs in Iraq when they weren't found. The most diabolical variation of the domestic conspiracy theory is that members of George W. Bush's cabinet had detailed knowledge of a plan to kill Dick Cheney by crashing an aircraft into the White House, while simultaneously having someone fly a crop duster into the elementary school where Bush was reading to the second graders, killing President Bush. It is known that Susan Lindauer, who is a second cousin to Andrew Card, said to her brother a few weeks before the attack that "in a few weeks lower Manhattan would be destroyed". It is also known that she claims that "all of the information that she claims to have had", she claimed to have been passing on to her relative on Bush's staff. The question must be asked, of course, whether or not Bush was ever provided any of this information. During Condoleezza Rices testimony before the 911 Commission, she stated that the August 5, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing was prepared because of George W. Bushs specific request for information about possible terrorist activity inside the United States. Of course, if a suicide pilot intended to crash a smaller aircraft into either the school building, or to attack Air Force One, one would have to suppose that such a pilot would have needed to obtain George Bush's schedule in advance, or better yet, know someone on the inside who might be able to arrange Mr. Bush's schedule for him to be "in the wrong place at the right time." In effect, if Susan Lindauer's and Delmart Vreeland's statements are accepted at face value, it is highly likely that high ranking government officials, possibly some of Bush's own cabinet, intentionally withheld information vital to national security from their Commander in Chief. Such failure to pass on critical facts is, of course, suggestive of not merely of simple negligence or incompentence, but might more chillingly represent a consequence of a direct attempt to overthrow the government of the United States by use of force.

Counter-claims

Although there certainly exist many disconcerting facts, many people dismiss them as mere coincidences. For example, it is true that Pentagon officials canceled trips on September 10th, but this is in fact not unusual: Pentagon officials travel a lot and are very likely to have unexpected emergencies. If one looks at all possible events that would have happened if there were a conspiracy, statistically some of them are bound to actually happen. Similarly, if one looks up all public notes from the White House and only keeps those that might indicate knowledge of terrorist activities, a pattern is likely to appear. Some also point to arguments that are directly contrary to the various theories. In particular, some people point to the facts that Osama bin Laden was in fact never captured, and that no WMDs were found in Iraq. If we think that the government was responsible for 9/11, or at least that it knew about it in great details, then it is hard to imagine why they would not have gone all the way and actually capture bin Laden, or at least fake his capture, and plant weapons in Iraq. Both these actions would have given it a lot of political capital and would have been technically much simpler to achieve.

Historical precedent

Proponents of the theory often point to historical precedents, in which governments have allegedly planned to use tragedy in order to gain support for unpopular policies. Jones and others draw parallels between these precedents and the use of 9/11 to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Reichstag fire of 1933 is widely believed to have been started by the Nazis in order to garner popular support. (In fact, though certainly possible, there has never been any proof that the Nazis were directly responsible for the fire.)

Pearl Harbor, which is referred to by the Project for the New American Century as a prototypical http://www.americanfreepress.net/12_24_02/America_Pearl_Harbored/america_pearl_harbored.html "Catalyzing Event" seen as necessary to the "process of transformation" of the US into a stronger worldwide power. Robert Stinnet, in his popular book Day of Deceit, presents evidence that the US government had advance knowledge of that attack, which propelled the nation into World War II.

The Operation Northwoods documents, drafted by members of the US government in the 1960's (and shortly after rejected), include recommendations to destroy an unmanned drone and claim that it was a commercial plane "full of college students off on a holiday," in order to align public opinion against Cuba.

Allegedly "unprovoked" attacks on U.S. naval vessels in 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin were used by the Lyndon Baines Johnson administration to convince the U.S. Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which led to the escalation of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.

Conspiracy theories in the news

On December 16, 2004, financier James W. Walter offered a reward of $100,000 to anyone who can prove that the WTC towers collapsed in the manner described in the government's investigative report.

External links

http://www.911truth.org
http://www.911review.com
http://www.deceptiondollar.com
http://www.guerrillanews.com/wildcard/vreeland_one
http://www.fromthewilderness.com
http://www.oilempire.us
http://www.ratical.org
Letsroll911.org, a site based on blurry photos that are probably hoaxes
Articles on 9-11 from emperors-clothes.com
WTC7.net the hidden story of Building 7
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062103A.shtml
Bush administration tries to claw back public domain data
Did Bush Know? Warning Signs of 9-11 and Intelligence Failure long article with references
Instructions issued from the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the 1st of June 2001, describing in minute detail the protocols and procedures to be undertaken if a plane is hijacked. Not one of these protocols, issued four months and eleven days before the attacks, were followed on September 11th
"I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with aeroplanes" The Independent, 2. April 2004
2 workers of instant messaging service received warnings two hours before the Twin Towers attack Haaretz, 5.April 2004
"Rumour" that FEMA arrived in NYC the day before given plausibility by Giuliani testimony
http://www.911research.com

Category:9/11 rumors, misinformation and conspiracy theories Category:Conspiracy theories

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