September 11th Conspiracy Theories By Ann Garcia

September 11, 2001, a date which will forever be embedded into our hearts and minds. This date brings so much remembrance of horror and demise into our lives. September 11^th was the day Islamic terrorist attacked the United States taking a total of 2,996 lives.  But, was it all a tragic event planned by Islamic extremists to further express their hatred towards Americans or was it all organized by United States own government to make it easier for Americans to go to war with Afghanistan? Many unanswered questions have arisen about the horrendous incident and have brought about conspiracies dealing with the attack on 9/11. Let’s look and examine each of the possible conspiracy theories surrounding the attack on September 11^th.

George Walker Bush was elected into office as the 43^rd president of the United States and served two terms between the years 2001 and 2009 (Minutaglio). George W. Bush is a slim, six foot man with blonde gone grey hair and blue eyes. He is well-mannered with a good-natured heart and deeply inquisitive mind, which allowed him to remain calm and positive throughout all the unfortunate events which occurred during his two terms as president. George W. Bush “stay[ed] upbeat even though his country [was] not” says an associated Press writer from NBC News (Feller). Showing how under pressure as president, he made the best out of the worst situations and stayed as positive as he could be under dire circumstances. Proving to Americans and people all over the world, how a horrible event, such as the attacks on September 11^th, do not shape a person or a country’s personality, nor does it overthrow morals of a human society.

George W. Bush had a privileged life growing up, he spent most of his childhood in Midland, Texas where he moved in 1948 (Greg II).  His early life consisted primarily of politics, as his family was “involved in business and politics since the 1950s” and he was born in 1946 (Minutaglio). His grandfather, Prescott Bush was a Wall Street Banker and a progressive Republican senator. George Herbert Walker Bush, his father is an American politician who served as vice president in 1981 and was also the 41^st president of the United States, serving four years beginning in 1989 (Minutaglio). George W. Bush was the eldest of five siblings and is “part of a large family” states a professor at the University of Louisville (Gregg II). His brother, Jeb Bush was the governor of Florida and even ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Along with his brother, George W. Bush became the governor of Texas in 1998, which allowed the two siblings to be the first brothers to serve as governors at the same time since the 1960’s (Minutaglio).

 Before much of this electing and campaigning started for George W. Bush himself, Bush was an average kid and an “all-around athlete, playing baseball, basketball, and football” (Minutaglio). Identifying himself as a socially advanced, extroverted young adult, George Bush was the popular kid who played rugby and never really cared about his grades. He is comfortable with multiple crowds of people and is extremely outgoing, resulting in Bush having large groups of friends. He attended Yale University due to family connections in 1964 and became president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, he was also a part of an invitation-only club named Yale’s secretive Skull and Bones society, where only Americans most powerful family members take part in (Greg II) . Proving at an early age how he was a natural all around guy who favored the positive over the negatives in every aspect of life.

Being raised through many political ideals it was no shock when George W. Bush began running for political candidates. This “fast-moving, phrase mangling Texan” decided to run for governor of Texas as a Republican once his father lost the 1992 reelection to Bill Clinton (Feller). Bush’s campaign widely focused on improvement in education and welfare reform, as well as social justice. George W. Bush came out on top compared to his competitor, Ann Richards because in his campaigning, he would not only weakly discuss the changes he wanted to make, but he would develop passionate speeches given to the public, making issues more perceptibly clear through a moral lens, “that’s how [George W. Bush] sees the world” (Feller). He was the first Texas governor to be elected for a consecutive four-year term. As governor, he “focused on “compassionate conservatism,” which embraced excellence in education, tax relief and volunteerism among faith-based and community organizations” (Freidel and Sidey). His combination of limited government with concerns for the underprivileged set his success for campaigning in the next presidential election. George W. Bush wanted to take after his very political family and run for president as his father did years prior. As the 2000 election day came closer, Bush’s “style and temperament [were] as much his legacy as his decisions” as he was running for the 43^rd president of the United States (Feller). Presenting himself  as the lighthearted animated person he is, gave him a boost in the presidential election and allowed him to come out victorious as the newest president of the United States of America.

            George W. Bush’s true character of protecting his country at all costs was shown on  September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and the White House were airborne attacked during his first term as president (Choi). A total of 2,996 American lives were lost in this attack and Bush’s father, George H. W. Bush, declared his son to have “faced the greatest challenge of any president since Abraham Lincoln” (George H.W. Bush). While Bush was participating in a reading demonstration at Emme E. Booker Elementary School, this inhumane disaster struck, transforming George Bush into a “wartime president” (Freidel and Sidey). In response to the attacks, the United States invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban government, because everything Bush sets out to do is “approached with sheer purpose” and determination (Feller). The aftermath of the attacks and the war left Bush to sign many treaties and Acts to further protect the United States.

Once his first term was over, he ran for a second term and won but was faced with yet another devastation due to Hurricane Katrina resulting in 1,800 deaths and billions of dollars in damages. During this time George W. Bush faced many complications and backlashes from the American people, however he still overcame it all with his optimistic mindset and his “orderliness in the process” which gave him confidence throughout his presidency (Feller). George W. Bush left a legacy, becoming a wartime president and facing such harsh circumstances during his presidency, showing his true potential while being in charge of the country. Bush created a lasting remark on the world through his determined mindset as one of the most influential wartime presidents of the United States. 

The horrific attacks on the World Trade Center paired with immense controversy over the incident has brought about some compelling theories concerning the tragedy, including insiders knowing about the attack beforehand, aluminum planes not being able to penetrate the steel on the World Trade Center, and the staging of Flight 93 as a complete hoax.

The first theory involves business within the stock market and insurance firms. Conspiracy theorists believe many insiders knew about and were given secret information regarding the attacks beforehand, then proceeding to profit from the tragedy. Right before the September 11^th outbreak, an “extraordinary amount of money” was placed into United Airlines and American Airline stocks, which were the same airlines that were hijacked during the attacks says a Newsone article (NewsOne). Never before on the Chicago Exchange were there such large amounts of United and American Airlines options traded (Kleinberg). In an article published by the University of Chicago Press there is statistical evidence of the highly unusual amounts of the agreements to sell assets in market activities just days before 9/11 occurred. Mindy Kleinberg, a member of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee confirmed “these investors netted a profit of at least $5 million after the attacks” however, the names of the investors who gained money remained undisclosed (Kleinberg). The Securities and Exchange Commission began an insider trading investigation to try and narrow down on who exactly had knowledge of the attacks beforehand, unfortunately the investigations done by the Commission and the FBI led to no leads towards finding those who profited through the securities transactions. Although there was no uncovered evidence, the theory is highly plausible considering the record breaking trading of stocks towards the airlines that happened to be hijacked by terrorists. Yet, in a survey done by 55 people, only 16% of them believed in this theory.

The next theory points out how it is impossible for an aluminum plane to penetrate through the steel holding up the World Trade Center. The Daily Express shows how some people believe the towers couldn’t have collapsed “if they were hit by aircraft” (Harper). The two main towers are seen collapsing in on themselves floor by floor in a downward direction, which can only be plausible through a controlled manner using explosives.  Many scientists and architects say a planes fuel cannot produce enough heat to melt the steel frames of the two buildings and John Skilling, the chief structural engineer of the World Trade Center said in 1993, “[the towers] were made to specifically withstand the force of a jet hitting them,” this quote coming eight years prior to the disaster (Harper). The building was designed specifically to withstand fire and an impact of a Boeing 747, as all skyscrapers are. The biggest concern was all the fuel from the airplane would dump into the building causing a “horrendous fire.” Many would die, but the structure of the building would still be there because the fire should do nothing to the integrity of the building (Seattle Times). The overall theory is extremely plausible because according to news outlets and the media, one of the aircrafts completely went through the first World Trade Tower. It is not physically possibly, however, for a plane to fly through any one of the Twin Towers given how girders ran along the perimeter of the building. Therefore the body of a plane going through the building would have struck the girders and completely self-destructed. This is why conspiracy theorists speculate the towers were blown down with explosives placed in selective locations inside the towers. Witnesses heard explosions inside the building as they tried to escape the collapsing building, and even a firefighter on scene heard bombs while trying to help people evacuate. A firefighter was seen on a news report saying “evacuate the premises, bombs in the area” right in front of the World Trade Center (Youtube). Many other witnesses say they heard bombs on the bottom floor as well. The fact that the towers fell in an orderly fashion further provides support for alternative explosions being used as they allow for a controlled collapse. Such a collapse would create an ideal cleanup situation for the government, adding to the conspiracy of the attack being premeditated. With the government being in on the attack they would need damage control so as not to cause excess damage, hence the planted bombs. Nonetheless, 69% of 55 people who were surveyed did not believe this theory was plausible.

The third and final conspiracy theory is how Flight 93, the fourth plane to be hijacked was completely staged and an utter hoax to all of America. The story most Americans hear is this: all of the passengers aboard Flight 93 were alerted on their cellphones about the news of the other three hijacked planes attacking the World Trade Center and decided since they weren’t able to save themselves, they would attempt to save the lives of the intended terrorists targets. So they stormed the cockpit and in an “ensuing struggle” forced the plane down (Independent). Vanity fair magazine published a detailed story over Flight 93 and said it “may be remembered as one of the greatest tales of heroism ever told” however, they also recognized many of the suggestions as to what actually happened to force Flight 93 down were “pure conjecture” (Bronner). Bringing about all the theories as to what really happened on Flight 93. Skeptics believe Flight 93 landed safely , while a substituted plane was shot out of the sky by a government provided jet, others believe the passengers were murdered or relocated and never found. When Flight 93 crashed, there was a wide displacement of the planes debris which allows people to believe the plane was shot down by a jet because a sector of one engine was found eight miles away from the scene of the crash and a sector weighing one ton was found 2,000 yards away from the rest of the demolished plane (Independent). This was the single heaviest and biggest piece recovered from the crash and was found yards away from where Flight 93 actually made impact. This lead people to believe that the story published by the government was suspicious. After the crash, there was a small white jet seen flying over the crash area which could have possibly fired a missile to shoot down Flight 93, a theory disproven by government officials and agencies who said the small plane was asked to survey the impact of the crash. Wally Miller, was the man in charge by law to collect the human remains from the crash and establish the causes of death. Miller worked closely with the FBI when they investigated the crash and admits he cannot prove what happened; he can only infer it. He nor anybody else knew exactly what caused Flight 93 to go down and stated the flight “[brought] the worlds troubles crashing down on our doorstep” leaving us to believe what we will for the mysterious incident(Miller). Most of these theories have been denied by the United States military and the FBI, however both of these committees work within the government, seen by conspiracy theorists as dishonest and brimming with corruption and deceit, so who’s to say they’re giving the whole truth. Only 27% of the people surveyed believed in this theory because it was the most speculated, yet it is still plausible. 

It has been seventeen years since the terrible incident and to this day conspiracies surface about what truly happened on September 11^th. Most of these theories are highly plausible, yet there are too many speculations over the whole event to be sure that any of them are correct. We may never know what happened on that fateful day but one thing is for sure, we will always remember the lives of those lost.

The horror and demise brought to Americans on September 11, 2001 will last forever in our minds. There have been many unanswered questions involving the occurrence of this terrible invasion. To this day we ask ourselves: did insiders have knowledge of the attacks beforehand? Or how did the aluminum plane penetrate the steel of the towers? And even was Flight 93 an elaborate hoax? These questions are all conspiracies and can’t prove without a shadow of a doubt government involvement in the 9/11 attacks so America would have a reason to go to war with Afghanistan. However, based on the evidence provided, it is hard to confirm the attacks of September 11^th were solely terroristic threats on our nation. There is reason to believe the government had a huge involvement in September 11^th, a day of remembrance, one we will never forget.

Citations

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