Random 9/11 Conspiracy Theories (19 items)

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  (#13) 'There's No Video Evidence Of A Plane Hitting The Pentagon'

  Believers in the previous theory point to there being no clear video evidence of a plane hitting the Pentagon - only a small object that looks like a rocket. The FBI confiscated 85 different video tapes of CCTV footage related to the crash. Only a small number of these showed anything like an object hitting a building.

  It's a Pentagon security camera that, for a single frame, shows a small white blur that's too small to be an oncoming plane. But this camera was using a wide angle lens to show as much of the security area as possible. Anything shown through this is, by the design of the lens, going to appear much smaller than it actually is, and also curved.

  Several other camera angles were eventually released. One shows nothing, as it wasn't pointed directly at the Pentagon, and another shows the aftermath of the impact, which looks consistent with a jetliner strike.
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  (#2) 'The Government Allowed It To Happen'

  An alternative version of the strikes being an inside job held by some conspiracy theorists is that the government didn't actively plan them, but knew they were going to happen and allowed them to. This theory has little to corroborate it other than certain coincidences and failures of intelligence.

  The most damning piece of evidence is that the Bush administration was given a memo several weeks before the incident claiming that Osama Bin Laden was planning a strike in the United States, but even that document (which was declassified in 2004) had no concrete information on where or when it would take place - only that it might.
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  (#6) 'There Was Actually a Mini-Nuke In The Basement'

  A small but vocal contingent of internet conspiracy theorists claims that the Twin Towers were actually destroyed not by planes, but by a small nuclear bomb in the basements or center columns of the buildings. They claim this because apparently water collected from the basement of WTC 6 contained a larger than normal amount of tritium, a byproduct of nuclear fusion.

  This would appear to be the only evidence of a nuclear eruption, as none of the other hallmarks of such an event were present in any form. No flash, no heat pulse, no EMP, no seismic readings, and no radioactive fallout. As it stands, the small spike in tritium is something not easily explained, but not evidence on its own of a nuclear blast.
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  (#14) 'A Plane Was Shot Out Of The Sky By The US Air Force'

  Possibly the most plausible September 11th conspiracy theory is that Flight 93, the plane that was hijacked before being crashed into a Pennsylvania field by the passengers, was actually taken down by the US Air Force. This would either have been because the Air Force knew it was headed toward a civilian target, or, if you're even more conspiratorial, because the passengers knew about the government plot to destroy the Twin Towers and they had to be eliminated. The farther down the rabbit hole you go, the weirder it gets - some theories have the passengers drugged or the hijackers not existing at all.

  One theory focuses on a particular National Guard pilot, Rick Gibney, and claims he fired two projectiles that brought the plane down. But Gibney, who is a real person, has sharply denied any involvement in a plot, and records show that while he was in the air that day, he was flying over Montana, then flew to Albany to ferry an emergency manager.

  No forensic evidence has ever been found suggesting a projectile was fired. The pattern of wreckage on the ground supports a plane crash, not an eruption, and no missile has ever been shown as missing or fired that day.
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  (#3) 'Jet Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams'

  A conspiracy claim that's turned into an internet meme, this holds that burning jet fuel doesn't get hot enough to melt steel - meaning the towers had to be brought down by an eruption. While it's true that jet fuel burns at between 800° and 1500°F, and steel melts at 2500°F, this meme doesn't take into account that the beams didn't have to melt - they just had to soften and lose enough of their strength to be unable to hold up the floors above them.

  Based on the way the WTC fell down in a sort of straight pancake, it's reasonable to conclude that this is what happened.
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  (#18) 'Conspiracy Theories About September 11th Are Themselves Government Disinformation'

  Conspiracy theories almost always beget other conspiracy theories. So it's not surprising that many September 11th truthers believe that much of what the movement holds as factual is actually disinformation pumped out by the perpetrators of the strikes.

  They believe that by filling the movement with outlandish nonsense, the plotters obscure the real research going on into what "really" happened that day. Furthermore, they posit that many truthers are actually paid shills working for the government to spread lies and discredit actual truth-seekers. Essentially, this is an argument between truthers over who is actually right. "Anyone who disagrees with me is a paid shill" is a common sentiment among conspiracy theorists, and applies to everyone - even their fellow theorists.

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