Since the September 11 attacks,a number of websites,books,and films,largely promoted on and distributed through the Internet,have challenged the mainstream account of the attacks.Although mainstream media has stated that al-Qaeda "conspired" to execute the attacks on the World Trade Center in the legal sense,a 9/11 conspiracy theory generally refers to a belief in a broad conspiracy,in which the attacks were executed by powerful groups often including government agencies or an alleged secret global network.Many groups and individuals challenging the official account identify as part of the 9/11 Truth Movement.
Initially,9/11 conspiracy theories received little attention in the media.In an address to the United Nations on November 10,2001,United States President George W.Bush denounced the emergence of "outrageous conspiracy theories ...that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists,themselves,away from the guilty.Later,as media exposure of conspiracy theories of the events of 9/11 increased,US government agencies and the Bush Administration issued refutations to the theories,including a formal response by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to questions about the destruction of the World Trade Center,a revised 2006 State Department webpage to debunk the theories,and a strategy paper referred to by President Bush in an August 2006 speech,which declares that terrorism springs from "subcultures of conspiracy and misinformation," and that "terrorists recruit more effectively from populations whose information about the world is contaminated by falsehoods and corrupted by conspiracy theories.The distortions keep alive grievances and filter out facts that would challenge popular prejudices and self-serving propaganda.
In August 2004,a Zogby International poll indicated that 49.3% New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens "overall" say US Leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11,2001,and that they consciously failed to act.In July 2006,a Scripps Howard and Ohio University poll concluded that "Thirty-six percent of respondents overall said it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them","sixteen percent said it's "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that the collapse of the twin towers in New York was aided by explosives secretly planted in the two buildings" and "twelve percent suspect the Pentagon was struck by a military cruise missile in 2001 rather than by an airliner captured by terrorists.A May 2006 Zogby International poll indicated that 42% of Americans more likely agree with people who believe that "the US government and its 9/11 Commission concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks,saying there has been a cover-up.A September 2006 Ipsos-Reid poll found that 22 percent of Canadians believe "the attacks on the United States on September 11,2001,had nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden and were actually a plot by influential Americans.An October 2006 New York Times and CBS news poll showed that 28 percent believe members of the Bush Administration are mostly lying about "what they knew prior to September 11th,2001,about possible terrorist attacks against the United States.
Just prior to the fifth anniversary of the attacks,a flurry of mainstream news articles on 9/11 conspiracy theories were released.In its coverage Time Magazine stated,"This is not a fringe phenomenon.It is a mainstream political reality.Mainstream coverage has generally presented these theories as a cultural phenomenon and is often very critical of their content.
Immediately following the September 11,2001 attacks,the U.S.government said the attacks were carried out by members of the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda,headed by Osama Bin Laden.On the morning of September 11,the government said,nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes by using knives,box cutters,pepper spray and fake explosives.They piloted the planes themselves and crashed these into the World Trade Center and The Pentagon.According to mainstream scientific account,the World Trade Center towers later collapsed due to the impact damage,removal of the fire protection and the intense fires.Due to the collapse of World Trade Center One and Two,surrounding World Trade Center buildings were heavily damaged as well,leading in turn to their complete or partial collapse.United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania later that day after passengers heard of the previous attacks in air phone and cell phone conversations and brought the plane down.
Soon after the 9/11 attacks,the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and FEMA conducted building performance studies at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.The Intelligence Committees of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate conducted a Joint Inquiry in 2002.U.S.government officials,such as Condoleeza Rice,said they had no advance knowledge of the attacks and no idea that such a thing might happen.Organizations representing the victims' families such as the Jersey Girls demanded further investigation and,after initial reluctance,the administration acceded to their request.The bipartisan 9/11 Commission was formed tasked with 鈥渘ot placing individual blame鈥 but providing an explanation as to what happened and making recommendations to prevent a recurrence.In 2004 the commission released its report.It disclosed that there were prior warnings of varying detail that the United States would be attacked by al-Qaeda.These were ignored,the report said,due to a lack of communication between various law enforcement and intelligence personnel.For the lack of interagency communication,the report cited bureaucratic inertia and laws passed in the 1970s to prevent abuses that resulted in major scandals during that era.The report also faulted both the Clinton and the Bush administration with 鈥渇ailure of imagination鈥?The explanation laid out in the report has been endorsed by most members of both major political parties,and is what conspiracy theorists refer to as "the official account" of the September,2001 attacks,which only focuses on government sources.
In addition to government investigations and sources that comprise the "official account" that conspiracy theorists look to,the September 11,2001 attacks have been documented and analyzed by numerous non-government sources.These include eyewitnesses,investigations by the National Fire Protection Association and other organizations,experts at Purdue University and Northwestern University,and news media throughout the world,including Al Jazeera,The Times of India,the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC),the BBC,Le Monde,Deutsche Welle,the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC),and The Chosun Ilbo of South Korea.