Picture boarding on the United Airlines Flight 175 at 8:14am with 55 other people just to get to your next job in Los Angeles; already terrified because you hate flying and heights. Never would think that out of all the flights going out of the multitude of terminals flight 175 would be the one to be hijacked around 8:42 and 8:46. Think about how it would feel to listen to all strangers around you either crying, throwing up, or panicking and think any of these moments could be your last. Hearts breaking left and right wondering what they did to deserve this, knowing they will never be able to tell their loved ones how much they mean to them or even just goodbye.
At 9:03am the second plane, Flight 175, hit the South Tower. That was the point when our country thought this was no accident; we were under attack by terrorists. People running, screaming, and jumping from the building filled the streets of New York. It was chaos. Imagine working in the Towers, oversleeping that morning and being late enough that you weren’t inside when the attack occurred. Reflect on how it would feel to watch your friends scream and beg for help, knowing they were futile. What if your significant other or family member worked in the towers and you never heard anything from them again or had any closure? The questions of why and how this could happen formulated in everyone’s mind.
Everyone has heard of this tragic story of September 11, 2011, also referred to as 9/11. This catastrophic event affected not only the people primary related to the event, but their loved ones, their acquaintances, New York, the rest of the United States and the world. What happened that day could’ve been prevented by our government, but they chose to ignore all the signs and cover their tracks behind them according to the 9/11 Truth Movement that was published about a decade after the tragedy.
My research is broken down into categories of what the 9/11 Truth Movement is, what it entails and why it exists, the different conspiracy theories that are involved with this event, and how the media is involved. It then goes into the political and racial topics that have been hit upon and how it affects different kinds of people. Followed by why this attack happened in the first place. And finally, the reactions and aftermath effects of the tragedy as a whole.
The 9/11 Truth Movement consists of various different conspiracy theories regarding the event of the hijacking of four planes, two of which crashed into New York’s Twin Towers, one supposedly crashed into the Pentagon, and one crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, that dispute the mainstream account of the the attack on September 11, 2001. Conspiracy theories are defined in the article, ‘What about Building 7?’ A Social Psychological Study of Online Discussion of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories, as “allegations that powerful people or organizations are plotting together in secret to achieve sinister ends through deception of the public,” (Wood and Douglas, 2013).
It is said to not be considered a “fringe phenomenon”, but a “mainstream political reality”. This movement got its name because of the adherents, who call themselves "9/11 skeptics", "truth activists", or "9/11 Truthers", and come from diverse social groups. It does not matter if you are a liberal or conservative.
These people that are known as adherents could be classified into three groups concerning why they joined. Although the commonality of them is that they are united by their mistrust in experts and the government and clandestine stance, they find their own utility and contribute to the claims of acceptance of the movement. This movement is active not only in the United States, but in other countries.
Some popular organizations involved with this movement include Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth and Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice. Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth was founded by Richard Gage, who is a San Francisco Bay-area-based architect and founded this organization in 2006. Most of the world thinks the buildings collapsed in New York City because the planes hit the buildings. But this organization believes that through independent researchers around the world that all three skyscrapers were destroyed because of a process known as “controlled demolition” which means explosives and devices were used to bring down the buildings.
“Bartlett and Miller (2011) observed that the movement's ‘mass membership backbone’ (p. 45) devotes a substantial amount of time to producing large numbers of online comments, and Clarke (2007) saw the Truth Movement as a paradigmatic example of Internet conspiracy culture. The timing was fortuitous, with the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, sure to herald a number of stories on the subject and therefore many relevant comments, having occurred shortly before data collection commenced. The recency of the materials lowered the probability of comments having been expunged from archives or lost as an unintended consequence of comment software upgrades. Just as the Truth Movement has a substantial online presence, so too do its conventionalist opponents in the skeptic movement. We therefore expected that there would be a good deal of debate between the two sides, providing further raw materials for analysis. Finally, the Truth Movement is a well-established community with a substantial intellectual output, including popular books (e.g., Griffin, 2004), conference circuits, several sub-organizations such as Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, and at least one peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of 9/11 Studies,” (What About Building 7?).
Many people started to question what really happened on 9/11 after it surfaced so much on the media. According to Elizabeth Woodworth’s research, “major media outlets have begun to present the claims of the truth movement first, followed by counter-arguments from defenders of the official story,” (Woodworth 2010). The media dramatizes the imagery of the Twin Towers stating that they were “iconic emblems of the New York City skyline. In the aftermath, their monolithic image has taken on much more substantial weight,” (The impact of 9/11 on popular media).
It brought out more patriotism and allowed songs such as “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Over There” to be sung loud and proudly for all to hear. It united majority of Americans, while it tore Muslims in the opposite direction, which will be discussed about later. It gave people a reason to be proud to part of a country that cared so much for their people. The media also gave the image of the firemen a more heroism feel. They were viewed as a positive figure that was there to rescue whoever needed. They were also viewed as brave figures.
There is so much coming from alternative media about this aggressive topic, that people really needed to focus hard on the “mainstream” sources. Also, news reports and television programs examining the controversies about this topic have grown to become longer and more balanced and media has started to include extensive evidence to endorse the claim of the 9/11 truth community.
The “official story” was put up in the commission report signed by ten commission members. A second and third theory was put together known as the “incompetence story”, “which states that the attacks occurred because the American government and intelligence were too incompetent and failed to prevent them,” (Uzma and Rousseau, 2011). Adherents believe this theory and suspect that United States government insiders either played a part in the attacks, or might have known the attacks were going to happen, and did nothing to warn others or stop the terrorists. A fourth “is the ‘making it happen on purpose’ theory, which, as its name indicates, suggests that elements within the American government purposefully engineered and carried them out, as part of an inside job,” (Uzma and Rousseau, 2011). After hearing all these different conspiracies the question got brought about, can people identify a conspiracy theory only when it has been labeled as one, or can they figure it out on their own?
In addition to the incompetence story, contradictions of the official story include multiple different claims. The most popular and often cited claim was ‘free fall’ of the towers, reports of thermite and molten steel, and WTC 7’s curious collapse,” (Thomas). A second claim was that in the dust there was tons of melted steel and nano-thermite and military-grade explosives found in the debris from the towers. Thirdly, Tower 7, didn’t collapse because it was hit by a plane, it collapsed due to either diesel fires fueled by office furnishings or from explosives, which was looked at as key evidence that the government aided the attacks.
Concerns and arguments being made by the Truth Movement have reached a large audience and more people are joining every year. First off, there were wargames where several government agencies ran exercises and games which anticipated 9/11 type attacks. In the a.m., of the day of the attacks, there was a wargame exercise that that took place and it simulated the same events that took place later that day. This should have triggered a military response.
Secondly, the surveillance of the attackers by the U.S. is considered sketchy. Why was security so lenient and why were precautionary measures not taken more seriously leading up to the attacks. Another concern is the connection of Bin Laden and the attacks. There was a most wanted page for Osama Bin Laden and when the FBI was asked about why 9/11 was not mentioned on the most wanted page, they explained that there was no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.
Through fake videos and at times, ridiculous propaganda, it is believed that the cover ups were structured to put Bin Laden at the forefront of the attacks. Lastly, as mentioned before, explosives are concern when thinking about the towers collapsing. The WTC 7 (World Trade Center) fell even though supposedly no plane had touched it. There are even videos of firefighters right near the scene when the building when they heard the explosion. They even believe there was an explosive device causing the collapse of the untouched tower.
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 hit a nerve about old political topics and tensions: socio-economic, political, racial, and ethnocentric. The Islamic terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and various other Arab nations. They were ostensibly relating to America’s involvement in the Persian Gulf War, its support of Israel, and its military attendance in the Middle East. Other accounts direct a lot of the causes to be related to Bin Laden.
On February 26, 1993 there was an attempt to blow up the World Trade Center. The attempt was organized by someone who had close ties to Bin Laden, Ramzi Yousef. “The New York Times later reports on Emad Salem, an undercover agent who ends up being the key government witness in the trial against the bomber. Salem testifies that the FBI knew about the attack beforehand and told him they would thwart it by substituting a harmless powder for the explosives. However, this plan was called off by an FBI supervisor, and the bombing was not stopped, [New York Times, 10/28/93]” (9/11 Research).
Given the sensitivity of this topic, it is not surprising that some people veer away from discussing about it. The people involved are experiencing extensive stereotyping and racial scrutiny for being Arab, Muslim or both. Muslim-Americans have been and still are definitely perceived in this country different since the 9/11 attack. Some Muslim groups were really seen as a liability and many Americans either question Muslims’ commitment or loyalty to this country. There is going to come a day where a Muslim stands up for themselves like Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco’s 49ers quarterback, did when he refused to stand during the national anthem.
Colin Kaepernick’s argument was that he would not “show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” (Gajanan 2016). He, along with several other athletes, used their fame to speak out about the topic and became a symbolic image for people’s view on the certain race problem. This is another precarious topic because everyone has different stances on racism. In the world today equality is something our country is striving to get to. Some people think that Black people have been and are the minority, but in our world today them, along with other races, have turned the Whites into the minority. We don’t get as many special privileges. It is okay for blacks to belong to organizations that are specific to their race, but if there was a club or organization for only Whites, it would be considered racist or discrimination.
Less attention has been given, to the connotation of this event though. The terrorists targeted symbolic places because they couldn’t destroy the United States militarily. “The Twin Towers, as the centerpieces of the World Trade Center, symbolized globalization and America’s economic power and prosperity. The Pentagon, as the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense, serves as a symbol of American military power.” (FAQ about 9/11).
The World Trade Center was also a target regarding their symbolism of America’s economics since 1993 when the first attempt to bomb this building occurred. Because Al Qaeda believes that American influence is one of the biggest obstructions to the establishment of non-Islamic governments they want to remove the U.S. from Muslim lands, which could be another credible explanation for the cause of 9/11. Producing mass casualties with their attacks was also always an interest for Al Qaeda, so a location with a high civilian population was an easy target.
The most likely type of attack to occur which is launched by a lone assailant, “lone wolf” or a small group of people working under the leaderless resistance operation model. The most dangerous types of jihadist, a person who has a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline, are professional terrorists and ones that have advanced terrorist tradecraft. Two examples of these are al Qaeda franchises and Islamic State.
“The United States has basically not suffered the same level of war or terrorism as most countries in the world, and American citizens have come to believe that this peace is the rule rather than the exception. is leads many Americans to the unreasonable expectation that the government must prevent all terrorist attacks. is expectation is really quite interesting given the fact that the United States has long su ered from high levels of criminal violence and that non-political mass shooting incidents are fairly common,” (Stewart 2016).
Grassroots movements are powerful because they reflect the will of people, which many people think be observed regarding the terrorists. Grassroots organizations have over time become the 9/11 Truth Movement. After the 9/11 Truth Movement was founded outpourings of either support or criticism surfaced, depending on the theory chosen to view. Reactions to 9/11 helped shape national security policy and support.
“Support for a strong national security policy was most pronounced among Americans who perceived the nation as at threat from terrorism and felt angry at terrorists. In contrast, Americans who were personally affected by the attacks were more likely to feel anxious about terrorism, and this anxiety translated into less support for overseas military action,” (Americans Respond). The US became engaged in very expensive foreign wars connected to combating terrorism after September 11th. Public opinions started forming and supported some of these policies.
Back to the point of how the government was either behind the attacks or just knew about them and chose not to stop it. According to the Union News, “Representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and half a dozen other government bureaus revealed at a morning press conference that they were responsible for the development, funding, and execution of a plan to take down 1 World Trade Center in New York’s Financial District,” (Onion 2015).
This could potentially be known as something called a “false flag”. A false flag is defined as act of politics or military orchestrated in a way that appears to have been carried out by someone or people who are not actually responsible. Government officials tried to describe their process of guiding a commercial airliner into the building via remote control, while they tried to assure citizens that they deployed a black-ops team the night before the event to plant the RC transponder. “The aircraft that crashed into 2 World Trade Center the next morning was flown solely by jihadists about whom they had no prior knowledge,” (Onion 2015).
The government might’ve only admitted to the first crash, but they said they didn’t have anything to do with it from the beginning, so how do we know they aren’t still telling us just half of the truth? In our country the government is very powerful, and they can cover up situations like these in many different ways with the help of diverse kinds of people and companies. The government’s grassroots have a natural, independent effort that forces change. Even if the power is fabricated, politicians and businessmen have tried to contain it in a sense that people are afraid to mess with people in the higher levels of power.
The government has the power to print money, regulate interstate and international trade, make treaties and conduct foreign policies, declare war, provide an army or navy, and make laws necessary. Power isn’t always the best thing to have because it requires having all the responsibility. Everyone looks to you when times get tough to make a decision. It can sometimes make you overconfident and not care about people’s emotions or how it may affect people.
Astroturfing is known to be “when companies or even individuals mask their motives by putting it under the guise of a grassroots movement,” (Goldschein 2011). This is shown on December 13, 2001 relating to a tape which features Osama Bin Laden taking responsibility for the attacks is put forth to the public by the US government. Thinking about how the government either got him to say the things in these tapes or put together a false tape to make the world think he was responsive is crazy.
An example of a 9/11 Truther that is also a politician is former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura. “Ventura has long been a vocal proponent of the theory that 9/11 was an inside job and that the U.S. government, specifically Vice President Dick Cheney, knew the attacks would happen in advance. Ventura also believes that 7 World Trade Center was destroyed in a controlled demolition (rather than from fires caused by the debris of the plane crash),” (Jacobs 2014). Rand Paul, though not a 9/11 truther, embraced the argument containing Vice President Dick Cheney using the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to push for the Iraq War in order to benefit Haliburton.
Something both of these people had in common was that they were both “insiders”. They figured out the loopholes of Vice President Dick Cheney. Strategic communication is a popular theme that moves through multiple different types of conversations such as propaganda studies, political communication, rhetoric, interpersonal and communication ethics. “The political norm has shifted as the material ground underneath citizens has moved, and the triumph of a narrative mythology of corporate welfare under the guise of middle-class virtue is visible to more than just hard-core progressives,” (Arthos 583). “There are a range of ethical problems that surround the tactics and strategies of organized political campaigning relating to the use of psychology and social psychology, behavioral effects, and all the calculative tools that come into play once we move beyond the effective range of dialogic communication,” (Arthos 588).
So drawing all this research together, the conclusion has been reached that this devastating event could have been avoided, but the government was partially a part of it and allowed it to happen. How could you murder that many people? Unfortunately in New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania a total of 2,977 people were killed in this horrific incident. Many will never see their husband or wife again and other will never even get married. Some parents will never hear their child’s voice again or have them to take care of them when they grow old.
The 9/11 Truth Movement is put together of conspiracy theories that adherents believe and support. As you can see, this movement has many different important aspects to it, in order to prove the existence of conspiracy theories on the day of September 11th, 2001. These theories are not limited to just the day of the attack but also leading up to it. Through the influential people involved in exposing the cover ups, shedding light on different arguments, and explaining several different tactics and strategies for getting the word out there, the people involved in this movement are able to make heads turn.
The media drastically affects people’s views and opinions regarding every situation. It can exaggerate details or keywords to affect one’s emotional appeal of a topic. This experience shows how just because a few people of a certain race performed a reckless and messed up thing, the whole race is shamed and basically ostracized. This affects their daily life and how they interact with others. We now know the historical points of why this attack happened in the first place. And finally, we see the aftermath repercussions of the cataclysm as a whole.
We now have found out that the government lied to us for years about how they had nothing to do with any part of the attack, when they were behind the first crash from the beginning. The decision is ours if we trust what our government is now telling us happened, or reject their statement and believe something entirely different. Which decision will you make?