9/11 Did They Know?

As tragic as the 9/11 attacks are, it is no surprise that in the mist of the chaos the world wanted answers, conspiracy theories offer answers amongst the chaos. Did Government leaders know the attacks were coming and helped media script what was to be said? Did a missile, not a plane, hit the Pentagon? Or did the United States Government orchestrate the attacks? The evidence may shock you.

The first conspiracy is that the Government and media knew the attacks were coming and were scripted (RKOwens4, “9/11 Debunked: BBC Early Report on WTC 7 Collapse Explained.”). The evening of 9/11, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that building seven collapsed when, in in fact, it had not collapsed yet, but did so just twenty minutes later (1). This false reporting opened a hole in their reporting that showed theorist that BBC had prior knowledge. At 3 p.m., official Chief Daniel Nigro had determined building seven was at risk of collapse and measures were already in place to clear the area (1). Richard Porter, a reporter for BBC, speaks about this in his 2007 article, “The Twin Towers had collapsed. Other buildings were known to be damaged. Building seven was on fire. But this was also a very confusing picture - remember we had started the day with reports that a light aircraft had struck the first tower, and at one stage there was talk of ten hijacked jets in the air. It's in rolling news that events unfold in front of you and confusion turns to clarity” (Porter). This confirms BBC jumped the gun and made a mistake changing the statement from officials from, Building seven will collapse to building seven collapsed (Porter). In the middle of chaos where information is changing minute to minute, it is easy to make a mistake, but conspiracy theorists ran with it. There is no evidence that BBC knew that the attacks were coming or scripted.

Another theory exploded saying that the Pentagon was hit by a missile, not a plane (RKOwens4, “9/11 Debunked: World Trade Center's Collapse Explained.”). Why would they say this when the Pentagon was hit shortly after the Twin Towers? There was a lot of media coverage right away showing video clips of witnesses and of the wreckage, trying to determine what happened. After news outlets published these clips or quotes of interviews, theories emerged claiming the hole was too small to be a Boeing 757 and it was a missile not a plane (1). Quotes like, “it was like a cruise missile” from Mike Walters (1). At face value, this snippet is just a small portion of the entire interview that paints a better view. Mike Walters said, “I saw this plane, a jet, American Airlines jet, and I thought this doesn’t add up… it was like a cruise missile with wings, then slammed into the Pentagon” (1). Leaving out part of the quote makes room for people to make up the rest and develop their own belief of what happened. That day, 136 people witnessed a plane approaching the Pentagon, 103 say they saw it hit the Pentagon, 26 say it was an American Airlines plane, and zero, saw a missile hit the Pentagon (1). The 9/11 Commission Report also confirms an American Airlines 747 struck the Pentagon based on physical evidence, videos and eyewitnesses (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks 314). All evidence proves a plane hit the Pentagon not a missile.

Since these conspiracies cannot be validated, proving that the United States Government could not have orchestrated the attacks. Bin Laden took full responsibility of the attacks in several public statements (Jeffery). On December 13, 2001, the Pentagon released a video showing bin Laden talking with guests at a dinner. Reflecting upon the attacks on September 11, he states, “we calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy based on the position of the tower, … I was thinking that the fire from the fuel in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and the floors above it only. That is all we had hoped for" (1). This proves how he expected the building to collapse from the crash site up but was pleased the budlings entirely collapsed. Many times, through the years, Bin Laden would make videos praising the attacks, but on October 29, 2004, bin Laden released a video of him taking responsibility for the first time and not just praising the attacks (1). All videos are proof that Al Qaeda’s leader Bin Laden was the mastermind behind the attacks on 9/11 not the United States of America.