21 years later, the 9/11 conspiracy theory is still alluring

Freepik/@ TravelScape

Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 22/08/2022

Claims that the reason for the “staged war in Russia” is the creation of global hunger directed by the “global powers” are justified by the conspiracy theory that the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001 were staged.

On August 11, the web portal Epoha published an article about the terrorist attack on the towers of the World Trade Center in 2001 in New York, under the title:

11.9. the day when they convinced the whole world that two planes brought down three buildings made of concrete

The article claims that the “global powers” convinced the whole world that two planes (during the September 11, 2001 attacks) destroyed three buildings. It is insinuated that the events that took place during the attack were impossible but that the “global powers” convinced humanity that they happened:

The date of September 11, 2001, will forever be remembered as the day when the global powers managed to convince the whole world that two planes had destroyed three buildings.

That day they convinced us all that an aluminum plane could pass through steel beams and appear with its nose intact at the other end of the building.

They then literally made the world believe that jet fuel can melt steel, but not a terrorist’s passport found in ruins.

However, the article also links the claims of a 2001 terrorist attack conspiracy to the war in Ukraine. The attack on September 11 is seen in the article as an example and “proof” of a kind of historical trend of manipulation of the masses directed by the “global powers”. Thus, according to Epoha, a world crisis and famine are currently being created, and only the Ukrainian side of the story is allowed to be seen since Russian channels and devices are stopped all over Europe.

Although it is not directly claimed who is behind the whole alleged conspiracy, from the analogy of September 11 and the mention of Europe and Hollywood, it can be concluded that the “global powers” that Epoha is referring to are the USA, European and other Western countries.

Do we still want to believe these liars and manipulators, or is it time to realize that all this around us is just Hollywood and finally say ENOUGH.

Finally, it is claimed that the “twins” did not collapse due to airplanes, but that they were mined, and this can be seen in the video found in the article. According to this web portal, the reason for the “staged war in Russia” is the creation of a global hunger crisis.

Because the twins did not collapse due to airplanes, but they were mined, which can be clearly seen in the video below. Nor is the reason for the staged war in Russia the oppression of the local Russian population, but rather the creation of a global hunger crisis in which the world’s two largest granaries clash artificially.

The spread of these claims in August did not start with an article on the web portal Epoha but was first shared on social networks. Currently, we found the earliest post on this Facebook profile from July 19, but the posts experienced a much stronger momentum on August 11 and 12 (1, 2). These claims have been spreading in other languages since at least May 2022.

What are the facts?

The recent emergence and sudden popularity of the conspiracy theory about the events in New York on September 11, 2001, was dealt with by the fact-checking web portal Istinomer from Serbia.

On September 11, 2001, suicide bombers linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist group hijacked a total of four commercial passenger planes, two of which (both wide-body Boeing 767s) crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

One plane hit the Pentagon building in Virginia, and one plane did not hit any target but crashed in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, and the event itself triggered the United States to launch a “war on terrorism” under the leadership of President George Bush.

Conspiracy theories about the attacks appeared almost immediately after the event and were refuted by reports from official boards who investigated the circumstances of the attacks, scientists, experts and fact-checkers.

“The towers were brought down by explosives, not planes”

One of the theories also mentioned on the web portal Epoha is that the buildings were not brought down because of the plane’s impact but because of the planted explosives. The fact-checking web portal Verify wrote about this.

The web portal states that researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a research agency operating under the US Department of Commerce, have found no evidence that explosives brought down the skyscrapers.

A summary of their research stated that the force of the impact and jet fuel fires weakened the skyscrapers, leading to their eventual collapse.

Approximately 200 technical experts reviewed tens of thousands of documents, interviewed more than 1,000 people, reviewed 7,000 segments of video footage and 7,000 photographs, analyzed 236 pieces of steel from the wreckage, performed laboratory tests and created sophisticated computer simulations of the sequence of events that occurred from the moment the aircraft hit the towers until they collapsed”, the NIST report stated.

Based on the collected data, investigators did not find traces of explosives at the location of the World Trade Center.

“The nose of the plane passed through the steel beams of the tower intact”

The publication does not state which of the two planes that hit the twins is in question, but even if such a thing was possible with strikes like those that took place on September 11, it remains unclear what it is trying to “prove”.

Be that as it may, according to the report of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency – FEMA, only a few large parts of both planes were found, and not directly at the place where the twins were standing. Parts of the landing gear of both planes, the engine and part of the fuselage of the second plane were found. Photos of the debris (some of which are disturbing) can be viewed on this link.

Image: Screenshot from the report “World Trade Center Building Performance Study”, p. 6. Source: FEMA

The claim about the “intact nose” is part of a broader conspiracy theory that planes never existed (no-plane theory), which was popularized through the “documentary” film “9/11 – The Great American Psy-Opera“. The author of this film, Ace Baker, claimed that the television broadcasts of the attack were nothing more than CGI (computer-generated imagery), i.e., manipulation directed by the US government and that this is supported by “proof” that the nose of the plane that hit the south tower passed intact.

This was refuted in a detailed explanation and comparison of various footage of the impact of another plane on the World Trade Center on the blog “Debunking no planes” from May 29, 2014. After comparing the video evidence, the author of the blog concludes that the footage does not show an “intact nose” but a cloud of debris exploding from the northeast corner of the tower (including the engine and landing gear).

The NIST video available on this link shows a simulation of the plane’s disintegration during the passage through the south tower after the impact.

“Jet fuel can melt steel but not a passport”

In addition to the thesis that the planes were not responsible for the twins’ collapse, it is ironically stated that unnamed actors managed to convince the world that it is possible for the burning of jet fuel to collapse buildings but not to burn the passport of one of the hijackers.

Burning jet fuel cannot melt steel, but it can damage it, Verify stated. On 9/11, the fuel was hot enough to bend steel and contribute to the towers’ collapse.

Istinomer reports that the NIST explained that the fires were ignited by jet fuel and that they affected several floors and had a temperature of 1,800 Fahrenheit (about 982°C), so they significantly weakened the structures of the towers.

Brian Kross, the chief engineer at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), explained to Verify that while steel melts at around 1,370°C, it begins to lose its strength at much lower temperatures.

“The steel structure of the World Trade Center would not have to melt for the buildings to lose their structural integrity. Steel can be soft at 538°C (1,000°F), well below the combustion temperature of jet fuel”, Kross noted.

In addition, NIST, in its final report published in 2015, after analysis, stated the following conclusion:

After the plane hit, fires ignited by jet fuel created persistent and elevated temperatures that heated the remaining building structure to the point of collapse.

On the other hand, the passport of Satam al Suqamis, one of the hijackers of the first plane that crashed into the North Tower, was found moments before the second plane hit and was handed over to an NYPD inspector, according to 911 Facts.

However, the case of the kidnapper’s passport, which remained intact, is not the only one, according to this web portal. Many personal and other items from all four hijacked planes were recovered, such as wallets, rings, IDs, credit cards, photographs and driver’s licenses.

As stated in the FEMA report, debris from the first plane “passed” through the tower. Life jackets and parts of the plane’s passenger seats were found on the roof of the nearby Bankers Trust building (page 16 of the report).

A “United Airlines Mileage Plus” loyalty card that belonged to a passenger on the plane that crashed into the south tower, Lisa Anna Frost, was found in February 2003, according to 911 Facts.

An analogy with the war in Ukraine

Claims about the “manipulation” of humanity directed by the powerful, and the parallel of the terrorist attack on September 11 with the war in Ukraine (the publications claim “war in Russia”), imply that the war is equally staged. In one part of the article, it is explicitly claimed that it is an artificial conflict to cause global hunger.

As for the allegations about the manipulation of the population, that is, the claims that only the Ukrainian side of the story is presented and that the Russian media are banned, they are primarily manipulative.

Broadcasting of Sputnik and Russia Today/RT, as media connected to the Russian government, was banned by the decision of the Council of the European Union “until the aggression against Ukraine is stopped and until the Russian Federation and its media stop conducting actions of disinformation and manipulation of information against the EU and its member states”.

Istinomer states that broadcasting of RT also stopped in other countries after the signal of that television was canceled from the Eutelsat satellite, but as stated by Politico, RT managed to circumvent the sanctions by creating websites in German, Spanish, French and English, which are available throughout the EU.

In the end, the war happening in Ukraine (not in Russia) is not a staged “conflict of the world’s two largest granaries” due to the creation of global hunger but an invasion by the armies of one sovereign state against the other – lasting almost six months. Calling it a “special military operation”, Vladimir Putin launched a real military offensive on February 24, thus violating the United Nations Charter.

The food shortage is a consequence of the war but not one of the many goals of Putin’s launch of the invasion, which have changed over time, according to the BBC. “Denazification” and demilitarization of Ukraine, ensuring the country’s neutral status, liberating Donbas and other goals alternated on the list, but causing “world hunger” was not among them.

The earliest publication from this analysis with claims that the towers of the World Trade Center were mined and that, after the impact, the plane appeared at the other end of the building with its nose intact, we assess as fake news.

Later publications of these claims are rated as the distribution of fake news.
Due to the claims that the terrorist attack in 2001 and the current war in Ukraine were staged, we assess all posts as a conspiracy theory.