June 28, 2006 6:15 AM

Legitimate questions? Or too many overamped, overcooked, hyperactive imaginations?

9/11 conspiracy theorists gather at LA conference

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - They wore T-shirts asking “What Really Happened?,” snapped up DVDs titled “9/11; The Great Illusion,” and cheered as physicists, philosophers and terrorism experts decried the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks that shook America to its core. Some 1,200 people gathered at a Los Angeles hotel on the weekend for what organizers billed as the largest conference on the plethora of conspiracy theories that see the 2001 attacks on Washington and New York as, at best, official negligence, and at worst an orchestrated U.S. attempt to incite world war.

I’ve been made aware of late of just how prevalent and numerous 9.11 conspiracy theories are these days. Of course, by calling them “conspiracy theories”, I in no way mean to imply that I dismiss these theories out of hand. I’m just not altogether certain what to make of them.

As I understand…and someone, ANYONE, please correct me if I’m wrong here…the basic premise behind the “conspiracy theories” is that there is no way that two airliners could have brought down New York’s Twin Towers by themselves. Surely, there must have been some sort of coordinated effort to assist the terrorists in bringing down the towers…and the only organization with the wherewithal and the capability to mount such a huge and secret operation is our own federal government.

I would certainly agree that there are a lot more questions than answers, but considering the scope of the attacks and the end result, that’s understandable. With the collapse of both towers, most anything that could have served as evidence was likely vaporized under thousands of tons of concrete and steel- not to mention the burning jet fuel.

Nonetheless, does the lack of answers to the myriad questions being asked represent an insidious government conspiracy…or merely an event whose scope and magnitude exceed our flawed human ability to comprehend and understand it?

Don’t get me wrong; I detest Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader and his evil band of minions and thugs as much as anyone on the Left is capable of. Nonetheless, I find it impossible to wrap my head around even the possibility that our government might have participated to even the smallest degree in the 9.11 attacks. To think that the American government could be implicated, whether via omission or commission, is simply more than I can process. The fact that there is a lack of solid evidence indicating even the minimal possibility that this sort of thing might have taken place isn’t helping to convince me.

“There are so many prominent people who are incredibly well-respected who have stated that the evidence is overwhelming that 9/11 was an inside job,” syndicated radio talk show host Alex Jones told a news conference.

“There are hundreds of smoking guns that people need to be made aware of,” said Jones, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and charging that mainstream media had been slow to cover the growing movement of 9/11 skeptics.

The “9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda” conference comprised two days of seminars, video presentations and talks by groups including “Scholars for 9/11 Truth,” www.infowars.com and an appearance by actor Charlie Sheen.

Most are convinced the U.S. military command “stood down” on the day of the attack, that the hijackers were trained at American military bases, and that the World Trade Center towers collapsed because of a series of controlled explosions set before they were hit by two hijacked planes.

There are so many holes in these arguments that I don’t even know where to begin…and yet I can understand where the speculation comes from. 9.11 represented an attack so vicious, so difficult to comprehend, that it seems to defy rational, reasonable explanation. And what rushes in to fill a vaccuum?? Rumor, inuendo, and the random, stray fact or two.

Suggested motives range from expected benefits for U.S. arms and oil conglomerates to revolutionary plans for a new world order headed by the United States.

The theories, derided by critics as wild and far-fetched, have mostly been confined to the Internet, talk radio and the alternative press.

Yes, it’s true that an 2004 Zogby poll revealed that 49% of New York residents feel that the American government had prior knowledge of the 9.11 attacks and failed to act. What that poll seems not to address, though, is whether that prior knowledge and the accompanying inaction is the result of a vile conspiracy or simple and unfathomable ignorance and incompetence. Criminal or Stupid? I suppose it depends on what one is disposed to believe.

In the absence of hard evidence, I’m going to have to come down on the side of “Stupid”. Call me naive, but I just cannot wrap my pointy li’l haid around the idea that Americans would willingly participate in the murder of 3,000 innocent American civilians in order to provoke a world war. Perhaps it’s just that I’m still furiously clinging to what little faith in humanity I still have left, but until I see some hard, convincing evidence to the contrary, “Stupid” prevails.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on June 28, 2006 6:15 AM.

Taking care of the truly important things was the previous entry in this blog.

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