I'm 6 years too young to remember where I was when JFK was shot, but I know where I was when I heard Elvis had died and again when Princess Diana's accident was announced on the TV. Similarly, I clearly remember 9/11, my dad ringing me to tell me about the first plane only to watch the second plane hit live on worldwide television. I had a meeting that same afternoon with about 8 or 9 of my American colleagues which also involved a conference call to the US. To say that the meeting was quiet is a bit of an understatement.
The US reacted as though attacked and lashed out at their self-accused axis of evil. The whole world is still involved in this retaliation.
But like JFK, who was shot by at least 30 different people; Elvis, who's not only still alive but has also invented human cloning and Princess Diana, murdered by her own family, conspiracy theories surround 9/11 like a cloud of, well, evil.
The BBC2 program '9/11: The Conspiracy Files' last night set out to disprove the main source of these conspiracies, unverified stories spreading virally across the internet. The Twin Towers, along with a local command building, were demolished not by the planes, but by controlled explosions. The Pentagon wasn't hit by a hijacked plane at all, but instead by a pilot-less drone, the passengers being abducted by the government, location unknown. US93 wasn't brought down by the passengers, but instead by the US Air Force.
All of these theories were systematically debunked by interviews with the people involved, innocent Americans caught up in fantasy stories fed by disaffected teenagers, talk-show hosts & academics up & down the country.
It's a lot easier to accept that a clever government was to blame for attacking their own country in order to create a war for national interest, rather than accept that a plan drawn up by a lunatic in a cave in Afghanistan could kill so many people in one of the strongest countries in the world.
What's harder for the American people to accept is that the US Intelligence organisations knew known terrorists had entered the country, had started flying lessons and knew an attack was imminent, and did nothing about it, an explanation so obvious that any further investigation is unnecessary.
With all the different theories knocking about, any lies told by the Intelligence community to cover their own backs will be lost.
If George Bush were to be taken ill today, had a last rites religious conversion and decided to confess all on his death-bed, the chances are that most of the conspiracy theorists still wouldn't believe his story.
But, the one thing that campaigners, internet geeks & radio DJ's have shown, is that it IS ok to stand up to the government and ask difficult questions, without having to have an accusatory anti-patriotic finger pointed in your direction.
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