Alef List Posting Number 6 -9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Message to Alef list August 29, 2007

Tony Greenstein and 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Tony Greenstein thinks that it is perfectly reasonable that anyone might believe a conspiracy theory about 9/11. "Given that the Bush administration lies as a matter of course is it any wonder that people challenge the official version?" He also presents his own conspiracy theories in relation to 9/11: "We know for a fact that the CIA had warning of what was to happen." This is a brazen lie. The CIA did not know that aeroplanes were to be hijacked on September 11, 2001, nor did the CIA know that buildings such as the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon were to be targeted.
Greenstein went on to state that the CIA : "did nothing." Far from doing nothing, the CIA provided President George W. Bush more than 40 intelligence articles relating to Bin-Laden between January 20 and September 10, 2001. In late June 2001 as reports came through that planning for an attack "had reached a crescendo" "the CIA ordered all its station chiefs to share information on al Qaeda with their host governments and to push for immediate disruptions of cells." On July 5, 2001 the CIA had meetings with Richard Clarke and John Ashcroft about the warning that a terrorist attack by al-Queda was imminent. On August 6, 2001, the CIA Presidential briefing stated: "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." [1] For Greenstein to suggest to suggest they did nothing is simply ludicrous.
It is true that there were early reports that a car bomb had exploded outside the State Department. This changed as further reports came in.
• numerous eyewitness accounts of an American Airlines passenger plane crashing into the Pentagon
• phone calls from passengers on American Airlines flight 77 reporting that it had been hijacked
• eyewitness accounts of airplane parts and the bodies of airline passengers still strapped in their seats found at the Pentagon crash site, as well as photographs of airplane parts
• the remains of bodies recovered at the Pentagon crash site positively identified as matching those of the passengers and crew on American Airlines flight 77 [2]

Sources:
[1] The 9/11 Commission Report pp. 254-65 available at http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf
[2] US Department of State - http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jun/28-581634.html