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Debunking 9/11 Myths: Introduction with Forward by John McCain
Published on: August 4, 2006
Forward by John McCain
The first conspiracy theories about 9/11 began to emerge while the wreckage was still smoldering. As evidence accumulated that conclusively linked the hijackings to Al Qaeda, some self-proclaimed skeptics searched for alternative explanations. Many seemed driven to find a way to blame the United States for somehow abetting, or even orchestrating, the tragedy.
In the years since the attacks, these assertions have grown progressively more lurid and pervasive. If you search the phrase “9/11 conspiracy” on the Internet, you will discover more than 800,000 Web pages. A few skeptics make a responsible effort to sift through the mountain of available information, but a vast majority ignore all but a few stray details they think support their theories. In fact, many conspiracy advocates demonstrate a double standard. They distrust the mainstream media coverage and government sponsored investigations of 9/11, yet they cherry-pick from those same sources to promote their extreme notions: that the hijacked planes weren’t commercial jets, but military aircraft, cruise missiles, or remote-control drones; that the World Trade Center buildings were professionally demolished; that American air defenses were deliberately shut down; and more.
Increasingly, such beliefs are migrating from the fringes and into the mainstream. French author Thierry Meyssan’s The Big Lie, which argues that the U.S. military used one of its own guided missiles to attack the Pentagon, was a bestseller in France, and his claims have been widely repeated in European and Middle Eastern media. When Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to President George W. Bush in May 2006, his rambling missive included broad hints that the American government was involved in organizing the attacks. Allegations of American complicity in 9/11 have become standard fare on talk radio, and among both radical left- and radical right-wing groups. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat from Georgia, has held a Capitol Hill hearing on the topic. Celebrities have gotten into the act as well. “Why did Bush knock down the towers?” rapper Jadakiss asked in his 2004 hit “Why?” And, in an interview with conspiracy-oriented talk-show host Alex Jones, actor Charlie Sheen embraced a variety of popular conspiracy theories.
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion,” Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York was fond of saying. “He is not entitled to his own facts.” Sooner or later, even the wildest 9/11 theories rely on factual claims. And facts can be checked.
Popular Mechanics became involved in investigating 9/11 conspiracy theories in the fall of 2004, after an advertisement ran in the New York Times for the book Painful Questions by Eric Hufschmid, demanding that the 9/11 investigation be reopened. Hufschmid’s book includes a number of tangible claims regarding 9/11. It states, for example, that because jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel, the fires in the World Trade Center towers could not have caused their collapse. And it claims ample evidence exists to show that demolition-style explosives were prepositioned in the buildings.
As editors of a magazine devoted to science and technology, we saw these claims as significant. Was there hard evidence to support them? And, if so, what would be the implications for our understanding of 9/11? At the very least, we thought, someone should look into these allegations. If there were even a hint of truth to these or similar claims, then the conspiracy theorists had a point: There should be a deeper investigation.
The magazine assembled a team of reporters and researchers and methodically began to analyze the most common factual claims made by conspiracy theorists--assertions that are at the root of the majority of 9/11 alternative scenarios. We interviewed scores of engineers, aviation experts, military officials, eyewitnesses, and members of the investigative teams--more than 300 sources in all. We pored over photography, maps, blueprints, aviation logs, and transcripts. The results of our research appeared in the March 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics. That cover story, “9/11: Debunking the Myths,” provoked a strong reaction on the internet and in the mainstream media. The online version of the article remains the most frequently read story on www.popularmechanics.com and has been printed out more than 850,000 times.
In the months after we published the investigation, many readers--both critics and supporters--wrote to suggest other evidence they thought we had overlooked or to raise new claims they believed worthy of investigation. At the same time, many of the inaccurate claims the magazine investigated continued to appear uncorrected in popular settings, such as Wikipedia, the open-source online encyclopedia, and Loose Change, the 9/11 conspiracy documentary that has become a sensation on college campuses. With the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaching, we decided to extend our original investigation and publish a book-length version of our findings. We expanded our team of reporters, reinterviewed experts and sources from our first investigation, and, as much as possible, addressed the additional questions raised by both critics and supporters.
The goal of this book is not to tell the complete story of what happened on September 11, 2001. There are numerous excellent sources, including the 9/11 Commission’s report and the New York Times and other newspapers, that chronicle the attacks in painful detail. Instead, this book aims only to answer the questions raised by conspiracy theorists themselves. Strip away the political theorizing and logical leaps, and every conspiracy theory ultimately comes down to a small set of claims based on evidence that can be examined. These claims are the only points where the theorists’ elaborate conjectures make contact with the real world. Without these foundations, the theories crumble. In every case we examined, the key claims made by conspiracy theorists turned out to be mistaken, misinterpreted, or deliberately falsified.
We understand that not all conspiracy theorists agree with all conspiracy theories. Some prominent theorists even claim that certain theories they deem less plausible have been “planted” in order to make the entire movement look ridiculous. We don’t take sides in these debates. We simply checked the facts.
The work of comprehending the events of 9/11 is not finished. It is vital to understand exactly what went wrong that day and to make sure it does not happen again. There were lapses and shortcomings on the part of government agencies in the months and years leading up to 9/11. Every American wishes our government had been more alert and better prepared. And every American is entitled to ask hard questions. But there is a world of difference between believing that our government should have known what was coming and claiming that someone did know and deliberately did nothing--or, even worse, actively perpetrated attacks on its own citizens. By deliberately blurring that line, conspiracy theorists exploit and misdirect the public’s legitimate anger over the events of that day.
Some argue that alternative 9/11 scenarios are valuable in that they promote skepticism of a government that has not always been as open as many would like. But a climate of poisonous suspicion will not help America adjust to the post-9/11 world. And the search for truth is not aided by the dissemination of falsehoods. --David Dunbar and Brad Reagan
No American living today will forget what happened on September 11, 2001. Each of us will remember how the serenity of that bright morning was destroyed by a savage atrocity, an act so hostile we could scarcely imagine any human being capable of it. The realization sank into the hearts of every one of us: America was vulnerable and under attack. On September 11, evil literally took flight.
But as 19 men showed the world their worst, we Americans displayed what makes our country great: courage and heroism, compassion and generosity, unity and resolve. We were united, first in sorrow and anger, then in recognition that we were attacked not for a wrong we had done, but for who we are--a people united in a kinship of ideals, committed to the notion that the people are sovereign, and that people everywhere, no matter what their race or country or religion, possess certain universal and inalienable rights. In that moment, we were not different races. We were not poor or rich. We were not Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. We were not two countries.
We were Americans.
As Americans, we acted swiftly. We liberated Afghanistan from the murderous rule of the Taliban, our attackers' proud hosts. We chased Al Qaeda around the globe. We revamped our homeland security, reorganized our intelligence community, and advocated reform in calcified societies.
We did these things because it was clear a new page had turned in history's book. The terrorists who attacked America were clear about their intentions. Bin Laden and his ilk have perverted a peaceful religion, devoting it not to the salvation of souls but to the destruction of bodies. They wish to destroy us, to bring the world under totalitarian rule according to some misguided religious fantasy. Our cherished ideals of freedom, equality, and religious tolerance stand in their way.
And so they fight us. Their fight is no secret; September 11 was the most horrific of a long string of attacks, from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 to the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa to the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole. Al Qaeda does not hide its hand in these crimes; rather, it boasts of its destruction and calls for more.
But though the evidence for Al Qaeda's central role in the 9/11 attacks is overwhelming, many have found the facts unsatisfying. Perhaps this is understandable. We want to believe that 19 men could not murder our citizens, destroy our grandest buildings, and terrorize our country. Surely, something more was at work.
Such sentiments are not new. Many Americans have resisted the notion that an island nation far from our shores could launch a surprise attack against our Navy; that Communism could remain viable in the world without assistance within the U.S. government itself; that one man in a book depository could end the life of a beloved president.
We would like to think there was something more at work on September 11--something hidden, more sophisticated, something as grand as the lives so easily destroyed. Those unsatisfied with the ordinary truth of the attacks have concocted stories more fanciful, more conspiratorial than the events as we know them. Others have done the same for more nefarious reasons. Some, accustomed to viewing U.S. actions as the wellspring of global problems, cannot accept that others wrought evil here. Political extremists peddle explanations that support their ideologies. And still others deliberately fabricate damaging tales.
This conspiracy-mongering is no small phenomenon. Any Internet search will turn up thousands of explanations for the events of September 11.These theories come in nearly infinite variety, but all reach essentially the same conclusion: that the U.S. government, or some shadowy group that controls it, organized the attacks as part of a master plan for global domination. But the truth is more mundane. The philosopher Hannah Arendt described the banality of Nazi evil; the 9/11 hijackers were also ordinary, uninteresting men with twisted beliefs.
In the immediate aftermath of their attacks, all of us had questions. Why didn't we have better intelligence? How could our airport security be so poor? Why weren't we better prepared? Who carried out these attacks, and why? All good questions, and thousands of dedicated Americans, both in and out of government, have worked hard to answer them. Journalists, the 9/11 Commission, Congressional investigators, academic researchers, and others have reconstructed these terrible events in extraordinary detail. Much of what we have learned has been frustrating, even infuriating. Anger can be healthy when it spurs a commitment to change. But it is corrosive and dangerous when it curdles into paranoia and suspicion.
Blaming some conspiracy within our government for the horrific attacks of September 11 mars the memories of all those lost on that day. There were errors and missteps in our government's response, to be sure, but the performance of our public servants was on the whole heroic, not destructive. For their service--for their lives--we are indebted, and we are obliged to pay our debts to those who sacrificed. To blame not a gang of terrorists but some conspiracy for September 11 insults the police officers and firefighters who raced into the burning towers; the men and women who left for dangerous, distant lands to fight our enemies; and those who have fought in all the wars of our history.
Any explanation for the tragedy of September 11 must start and end with the facts. The evidence, the data, the facts must be gathered, compiled, analyzed, and then--only then--can conclusions be drawn as to what happened. That is precisely what the various investigators have done, and in so doing they have performed a great service to our nation. And yet still the conspiracy theorists peddle their wares.
They ignore the methods of science, the protocols of investigation, and the dictates of logic. The conspiracy theorists chase any bit of information, no matter how flimsy, and use it to fit their preordained conclusions. They ascribe to the government, or to some secretive group, powers wholly out of proportion to what the evidence suggests. And they ignore the facts that are present in plain sight.
We cannot let these tales go unanswered. The 9/11 conspiracy movement exploits the public's anger and sadness. It shakes Americans' faith in their government at a time when that faith is already near an all-time low. It traffics in ugly, unfounded accusations of extraordinary evil against fellow Americans. And, as we have seen recently in the Iranian president's bizarre letter to President Bush, it has even entered the currency of international affairs.
The conspiracy theories are a distraction from the proper lessons of 9/11, from what is truly important to this country. And so it is imperative to confront them with the facts. The authors of this book, through their extensive reporting, disprove these tales of conspiracy. They show that, without exception, the stories are based on misconceptions, distortions, and outright lies. The CIA was not involved in 9/11. Our military did not bring about the destruction of the World Trade Center. Bombs or missiles did not fell the towers. A white jet aircraft did not shoot down Flight 93.
Popular Mechanics stands for an old-fashioned approach to facts. It relies on reporting, evidence, and eyewitnesses, and rejects speculation, falsehoods, and conspiracy. In confronting the various theories head-on, Popular Mechanics shows that evidence and logic matter, and they matter critically. We have much to learn about September 11, 2001, about what happened and about the many lessons it holds for our country. That is the debate we need to have in America. By refuting destructive beliefs in fanciful tales of mayhem, Popular Mechanics has produced a valuable work that will be an important resource for years to come. It represents the innocent thousands who perished on that terrible day--those innocent thousands who deserve to be remembered with honor and truth.
John McCain
Washington D.C.
May 2006
Popular Mechanics (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/3491861.html)
Debunking 9/11 Myths: Introduction with Forward by John McCain
Published on: August 4, 2006
Forward by John McCain
The first conspiracy theories about 9/11 began to emerge while the wreckage was still smoldering. As evidence accumulated that conclusively linked the hijackings to Al Qaeda, some self-proclaimed skeptics searched for alternative explanations. Many seemed driven to find a way to blame the United States for somehow abetting, or even orchestrating, the tragedy.
In the years since the attacks, these assertions have grown progressively more lurid and pervasive. If you search the phrase “9/11 conspiracy” on the Internet, you will discover more than 800,000 Web pages. A few skeptics make a responsible effort to sift through the mountain of available information, but a vast majority ignore all but a few stray details they think support their theories. In fact, many conspiracy advocates demonstrate a double standard. They distrust the mainstream media coverage and government sponsored investigations of 9/11, yet they cherry-pick from those same sources to promote their extreme notions: that the hijacked planes weren’t commercial jets, but military aircraft, cruise missiles, or remote-control drones; that the World Trade Center buildings were professionally demolished; that American air defenses were deliberately shut down; and more.
Increasingly, such beliefs are migrating from the fringes and into the mainstream. French author Thierry Meyssan’s The Big Lie, which argues that the U.S. military used one of its own guided missiles to attack the Pentagon, was a bestseller in France, and his claims have been widely repeated in European and Middle Eastern media. When Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to President George W. Bush in May 2006, his rambling missive included broad hints that the American government was involved in organizing the attacks. Allegations of American complicity in 9/11 have become standard fare on talk radio, and among both radical left- and radical right-wing groups. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat from Georgia, has held a Capitol Hill hearing on the topic. Celebrities have gotten into the act as well. “Why did Bush knock down the towers?” rapper Jadakiss asked in his 2004 hit “Why?” And, in an interview with conspiracy-oriented talk-show host Alex Jones, actor Charlie Sheen embraced a variety of popular conspiracy theories.
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion,” Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York was fond of saying. “He is not entitled to his own facts.” Sooner or later, even the wildest 9/11 theories rely on factual claims. And facts can be checked.
Popular Mechanics became involved in investigating 9/11 conspiracy theories in the fall of 2004, after an advertisement ran in the New York Times for the book Painful Questions by Eric Hufschmid, demanding that the 9/11 investigation be reopened. Hufschmid’s book includes a number of tangible claims regarding 9/11. It states, for example, that because jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel, the fires in the World Trade Center towers could not have caused their collapse. And it claims ample evidence exists to show that demolition-style explosives were prepositioned in the buildings.
As editors of a magazine devoted to science and technology, we saw these claims as significant. Was there hard evidence to support them? And, if so, what would be the implications for our understanding of 9/11? At the very least, we thought, someone should look into these allegations. If there were even a hint of truth to these or similar claims, then the conspiracy theorists had a point: There should be a deeper investigation.
The magazine assembled a team of reporters and researchers and methodically began to analyze the most common factual claims made by conspiracy theorists--assertions that are at the root of the majority of 9/11 alternative scenarios. We interviewed scores of engineers, aviation experts, military officials, eyewitnesses, and members of the investigative teams--more than 300 sources in all. We pored over photography, maps, blueprints, aviation logs, and transcripts. The results of our research appeared in the March 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics. That cover story, “9/11: Debunking the Myths,” provoked a strong reaction on the internet and in the mainstream media. The online version of the article remains the most frequently read story on www.popularmechanics.com and has been printed out more than 850,000 times.
In the months after we published the investigation, many readers--both critics and supporters--wrote to suggest other evidence they thought we had overlooked or to raise new claims they believed worthy of investigation. At the same time, many of the inaccurate claims the magazine investigated continued to appear uncorrected in popular settings, such as Wikipedia, the open-source online encyclopedia, and Loose Change, the 9/11 conspiracy documentary that has become a sensation on college campuses. With the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approaching, we decided to extend our original investigation and publish a book-length version of our findings. We expanded our team of reporters, reinterviewed experts and sources from our first investigation, and, as much as possible, addressed the additional questions raised by both critics and supporters.
The goal of this book is not to tell the complete story of what happened on September 11, 2001. There are numerous excellent sources, including the 9/11 Commission’s report and the New York Times and other newspapers, that chronicle the attacks in painful detail. Instead, this book aims only to answer the questions raised by conspiracy theorists themselves. Strip away the political theorizing and logical leaps, and every conspiracy theory ultimately comes down to a small set of claims based on evidence that can be examined. These claims are the only points where the theorists’ elaborate conjectures make contact with the real world. Without these foundations, the theories crumble. In every case we examined, the key claims made by conspiracy theorists turned out to be mistaken, misinterpreted, or deliberately falsified.
We understand that not all conspiracy theorists agree with all conspiracy theories. Some prominent theorists even claim that certain theories they deem less plausible have been “planted” in order to make the entire movement look ridiculous. We don’t take sides in these debates. We simply checked the facts.
The work of comprehending the events of 9/11 is not finished. It is vital to understand exactly what went wrong that day and to make sure it does not happen again. There were lapses and shortcomings on the part of government agencies in the months and years leading up to 9/11. Every American wishes our government had been more alert and better prepared. And every American is entitled to ask hard questions. But there is a world of difference between believing that our government should have known what was coming and claiming that someone did know and deliberately did nothing--or, even worse, actively perpetrated attacks on its own citizens. By deliberately blurring that line, conspiracy theorists exploit and misdirect the public’s legitimate anger over the events of that day.
Some argue that alternative 9/11 scenarios are valuable in that they promote skepticism of a government that has not always been as open as many would like. But a climate of poisonous suspicion will not help America adjust to the post-9/11 world. And the search for truth is not aided by the dissemination of falsehoods. --David Dunbar and Brad Reagan
No American living today will forget what happened on September 11, 2001. Each of us will remember how the serenity of that bright morning was destroyed by a savage atrocity, an act so hostile we could scarcely imagine any human being capable of it. The realization sank into the hearts of every one of us: America was vulnerable and under attack. On September 11, evil literally took flight.
But as 19 men showed the world their worst, we Americans displayed what makes our country great: courage and heroism, compassion and generosity, unity and resolve. We were united, first in sorrow and anger, then in recognition that we were attacked not for a wrong we had done, but for who we are--a people united in a kinship of ideals, committed to the notion that the people are sovereign, and that people everywhere, no matter what their race or country or religion, possess certain universal and inalienable rights. In that moment, we were not different races. We were not poor or rich. We were not Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. We were not two countries.
We were Americans.
As Americans, we acted swiftly. We liberated Afghanistan from the murderous rule of the Taliban, our attackers' proud hosts. We chased Al Qaeda around the globe. We revamped our homeland security, reorganized our intelligence community, and advocated reform in calcified societies.
We did these things because it was clear a new page had turned in history's book. The terrorists who attacked America were clear about their intentions. Bin Laden and his ilk have perverted a peaceful religion, devoting it not to the salvation of souls but to the destruction of bodies. They wish to destroy us, to bring the world under totalitarian rule according to some misguided religious fantasy. Our cherished ideals of freedom, equality, and religious tolerance stand in their way.
And so they fight us. Their fight is no secret; September 11 was the most horrific of a long string of attacks, from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 to the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa to the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole. Al Qaeda does not hide its hand in these crimes; rather, it boasts of its destruction and calls for more.
But though the evidence for Al Qaeda's central role in the 9/11 attacks is overwhelming, many have found the facts unsatisfying. Perhaps this is understandable. We want to believe that 19 men could not murder our citizens, destroy our grandest buildings, and terrorize our country. Surely, something more was at work.
Such sentiments are not new. Many Americans have resisted the notion that an island nation far from our shores could launch a surprise attack against our Navy; that Communism could remain viable in the world without assistance within the U.S. government itself; that one man in a book depository could end the life of a beloved president.
We would like to think there was something more at work on September 11--something hidden, more sophisticated, something as grand as the lives so easily destroyed. Those unsatisfied with the ordinary truth of the attacks have concocted stories more fanciful, more conspiratorial than the events as we know them. Others have done the same for more nefarious reasons. Some, accustomed to viewing U.S. actions as the wellspring of global problems, cannot accept that others wrought evil here. Political extremists peddle explanations that support their ideologies. And still others deliberately fabricate damaging tales.
This conspiracy-mongering is no small phenomenon. Any Internet search will turn up thousands of explanations for the events of September 11.These theories come in nearly infinite variety, but all reach essentially the same conclusion: that the U.S. government, or some shadowy group that controls it, organized the attacks as part of a master plan for global domination. But the truth is more mundane. The philosopher Hannah Arendt described the banality of Nazi evil; the 9/11 hijackers were also ordinary, uninteresting men with twisted beliefs.
In the immediate aftermath of their attacks, all of us had questions. Why didn't we have better intelligence? How could our airport security be so poor? Why weren't we better prepared? Who carried out these attacks, and why? All good questions, and thousands of dedicated Americans, both in and out of government, have worked hard to answer them. Journalists, the 9/11 Commission, Congressional investigators, academic researchers, and others have reconstructed these terrible events in extraordinary detail. Much of what we have learned has been frustrating, even infuriating. Anger can be healthy when it spurs a commitment to change. But it is corrosive and dangerous when it curdles into paranoia and suspicion.
Blaming some conspiracy within our government for the horrific attacks of September 11 mars the memories of all those lost on that day. There were errors and missteps in our government's response, to be sure, but the performance of our public servants was on the whole heroic, not destructive. For their service--for their lives--we are indebted, and we are obliged to pay our debts to those who sacrificed. To blame not a gang of terrorists but some conspiracy for September 11 insults the police officers and firefighters who raced into the burning towers; the men and women who left for dangerous, distant lands to fight our enemies; and those who have fought in all the wars of our history.
Any explanation for the tragedy of September 11 must start and end with the facts. The evidence, the data, the facts must be gathered, compiled, analyzed, and then--only then--can conclusions be drawn as to what happened. That is precisely what the various investigators have done, and in so doing they have performed a great service to our nation. And yet still the conspiracy theorists peddle their wares.
They ignore the methods of science, the protocols of investigation, and the dictates of logic. The conspiracy theorists chase any bit of information, no matter how flimsy, and use it to fit their preordained conclusions. They ascribe to the government, or to some secretive group, powers wholly out of proportion to what the evidence suggests. And they ignore the facts that are present in plain sight.
We cannot let these tales go unanswered. The 9/11 conspiracy movement exploits the public's anger and sadness. It shakes Americans' faith in their government at a time when that faith is already near an all-time low. It traffics in ugly, unfounded accusations of extraordinary evil against fellow Americans. And, as we have seen recently in the Iranian president's bizarre letter to President Bush, it has even entered the currency of international affairs.
The conspiracy theories are a distraction from the proper lessons of 9/11, from what is truly important to this country. And so it is imperative to confront them with the facts. The authors of this book, through their extensive reporting, disprove these tales of conspiracy. They show that, without exception, the stories are based on misconceptions, distortions, and outright lies. The CIA was not involved in 9/11. Our military did not bring about the destruction of the World Trade Center. Bombs or missiles did not fell the towers. A white jet aircraft did not shoot down Flight 93.
Popular Mechanics stands for an old-fashioned approach to facts. It relies on reporting, evidence, and eyewitnesses, and rejects speculation, falsehoods, and conspiracy. In confronting the various theories head-on, Popular Mechanics shows that evidence and logic matter, and they matter critically. We have much to learn about September 11, 2001, about what happened and about the many lessons it holds for our country. That is the debate we need to have in America. By refuting destructive beliefs in fanciful tales of mayhem, Popular Mechanics has produced a valuable work that will be an important resource for years to come. It represents the innocent thousands who perished on that terrible day--those innocent thousands who deserve to be remembered with honor and truth.
John McCain
Washington D.C.
May 2006
Popular Mechanics (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/3491861.html)