As you might imagine, I consider myself at least familiar if not well-versed with many conspiracy theories. One area I am not all that knowledgeable in is that of September 11th conspiracies. Out of morose curiosity, I've decided to expand my mental bandwidth and do a little research.
Turns out that 9/11 conspiracy proponents generally fall into two main camps in terms the motivation behind what happened that day. They are colloquially known as LIHOP (Let It Happen On Purpose) and MIHOP (Made It Happen On Purpose). Strangely enough, neither school of thought has anything to do with pancakes.
LIHOPpers subscribe to something along the lines of what has been suspected with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor. There are those that allege that all the signs were there for FDR to see that an attack by the Japanese was imminent, yet he stood down and allowed it to happen. World War II was a conflict that America definitely needed to be involved in. Hitler had to be stopped, but the public sentiment at the time was none too gung-ho on the prospect of going to war (imagine that!) Roosevelt knew that only a catastrophic attack would get America behind going all-in on the conflict.
The historical evidence for this is not exactly ironclad, but the principle is the same as that of LIHOP. Cheney, Rumsfield, Wolfowitz, et. al. had a conservative, imperialistic agenda that they wished to embark upon that would cement the U.S. as the one and only superpower in the world for good. They knew that the only way to get the American people behind the military actions necessary for this plot was a Pearl Harbor-level event. Therefore, they ignored any warning signs of an impending terrorist attack.
MIHOPpers take this one step further. They claim that the 9/11 events were entirely orchestrated by the Federal government, a kind of "false flag" operation that would instigate the same agenda outlined above. In effect, the "shadow government" framed al-Qaeda for the attacks. Supporters of this line of reasoning claim all forms of occurrences as "evidence." Why were members of FEMA having a meeting in NYC the night before? Why were there anti-aircraft missiles placed atop President Bush's hotel in Florida the night before? Both of those don't seem that much of a stretch from ordinary common sense to me, but then what do I know? Because MIHOPpers get even more sophisticated, claiming that video of the World Trade Center collapse is far more indicative of demolition charges than an airplane crash. There are even those that claim particle beam weapons were at play that day.
On the Pentagon side of things, MIHOP enthusiasts are not satisfied by a number of things. The side of the building that was hit was the only part of the Pentagon to have been renovated in recent years. Had the plane crashed into any other part of the old office building, the whole thing probably would have gone up in flames. Was this mere coincidence? They also claim no plane wreckage was ever visible in the Pentagon news footage. Therefore, it must have been hit by a missile.
Oh and it doesn't stop there. There are those that believe it was all a joint CIA-Mossad operation funded European governments to bring about the "final crusade" of Christians and Jews versus Muslims. Others claim that there were no planes involved at all and that news footage of such a thing is all computer generated. What was really seen in the skies were missiles cloaked in holograms to look like planes. Not so, says another camp. The attacks were propagated by the wealthy and the elite to bring about a population reduction, just like with swine flu. And of course we can't forget our dear old friend, David Icke. Like everything else, Icke thinks shape-shifting, reptilian aliens were behind it all.
So what are we to make of all this? Like most conspiracy theories, I believe there to be a nugget of truth to it all. Was there more than meets the eye to the events that unfolded on and since September 11th, 2001? Probably. But if I were a betting man (they do call me Mr. Vegas) and I had $100 to blow, I'd bet $25 on LIHOP, $5 on MIHOP, and keep the remaining $70 for myself.
If interested, here are a few sites that go into the various theories:
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From Facebook, Dr. Rich said:
ReplyDelete"Never attribute to malice and cunning what can be properly assigned to ignorance and apathy."