9/11 truth movement
The primary focus is on missed information that adherents allege is not adequately explained in the official National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reports, such as the collapse of 7 World Trade Center.
Motives suggested by the movement include the use of the attacks as a pretext to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to create opportunities to curtail American civil liberties.
[22][23] According to these allegations, this would have given the Bush administration the justification for more widespread abuses of civil liberties and to invade Afghanistan and Iraq to ensure future supplies of oil.
[24] In some cases, even in the mainstream media, "hawks" in the White House, especially then vice-president Dick Cheney and members of the Project for the New American Century, the neoconservative think-tank, have been accused of either being aware of, or involved in, the alleged plot.
Among others, Michael Ruppert[45] and Canadian journalist Barrie Zwicker,[46] published criticisms or pointed out purported anomalies of the accepted account of the attacks.
[55] Skepticism arose as to the scientific claims made by Jones and the efficacy of the peer-review process involved in the publication of his hypotheses, and conspiracy theorists responded to criticism by positing still more elaborate ostensible cover-ups.
[60] In 2009, a group of people, including 9/11 truth activist Lorie Van Auken and others who have lost friends or relatives in the attack, appealed to the City of New York to investigate the disaster.
[69] On May 26, 2008, adjunct religious studies professor Blair Gadsby began a protest and a hunger strike outside the offices of Senator and Republican Party nominee for President John McCain's office requesting McCain meet with the principal scientists and leaders of the 9/11 truth movement, specifically Richard Gage, Steven E. Jones, and David Ray Griffin.
McCain had written the foreword to the book Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts, published by the magazine Popular Mechanics.
On June 10, Johnson with Gadsby as her guest and other 9/11 truth movement members in the audience, spoke before the Arizona State Senate espousing the controlled demolition theory and supporting a reopening of the 9/11 investigation.
[14][70] Following the initial government investigation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued FEMA 403 in May 2002, titled World Trade Center Building Performance Study: Data Collection, Preliminary Observations, and Recommendations.
[77] In late 2005, Steven E. Jones, then a professor at Brigham Young University, announced a paper criticizing the NIST Report and describing his hypothesis that the WTC towers had been intentionally demolished by explosives.
[10][84] The group is collecting signatures for a petition to the United States Congress that demands "a truly independent investigation with subpoena power" of the September 11 attacks, which, according to the organization, should include an inquiry into the possible use of explosives in the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings.
"[91] To support its position, the group Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth points to the "free fall" pace of the collapse of the buildings, the "lateral ejection of steel", and to the "mid-air pulverization of concrete", the "molten metal", among other things.
It is run by Janice Matthews (executive director),[93][94] David Kubiak (International Campaign Advisor)[95] and Mike Berger (Media Coordinator),[96] among others, and its advisory board includes Steven E. Jones and Barrie Zwicker.
However, leading members soon came to feel that the inclusion of some theories advocated by Fetzer—such as the use of directed energy weapons or miniature nuclear bombs to destroy the Twin Towers—were insufficiently supported by evidence and were exposing the group to ridicule.
[101] The group is composed of more than 900 members,[102] including Richard Gage, Steven E. Jones, Jim Hoffman, David Ray Griffin, and former Congressman Daniel Hamburg.
[104] In October 2008, a comment by STJ member James R. Gourley describing what he considers fundamental errors in a Bažant and Verdure paper was included in an issue of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics.
The paper, which caused the editor and only peer-reviewer, Professor Pileni, to resign, claiming it was published without her knowledge,[106] concludes that chips consisting of unreacted and partially reacted nano-thermite ("super-thermite") appear to be present in samples of the dust.
[109] These commissions are envisioned as citizen-driven, independent organizations that would form a semi-unified grassroots national presence by exercising joint powers authority.
[112] Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone assessed that the movement "gives supporters of Bush an excuse to dismiss critics of this administration", and expressed concerns about the number of people who believe in 9/11 conspiracy theories.
[113] Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineering professor Thomas W. Eagar was at first unwilling to acknowledge the concerns of the movement, saying that "if (the argument) gets too mainstream, I'll engage in the debate".
[115] Al-Qaeda has sharply criticized Iran's ex-president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over his suggestions that the U.S. government was behind the September 11 attacks, dismissing his comments as "ridiculous".
