New Tape Stirs Up 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

May 16, 2006 — — The minute the Pentagon released images of the Sept. 11 attack on its building, the message boards at ABCNEWS.com lit up with conspiracy theories.

Some blame it on an inside job by members of the Bush administration to benefit their business interests. Some say it was planned by neoconservatives to advance their worldview. Others don’t know what happened but doubt the official story put forward by the government.

The world of conspiracy theories surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks is vast, and more than four years after the worst terrorist incident on U.S. soil, countless scenarios are put forth on the Internet, in academic forums and on talk radio each day. Some are of the “MIHOP” variety, which claim people in power made it happen on purpose, while others are of the “LIHOP” kind — they let it happen on purpose.

With Tuesday’s release of video footage of American Airlines Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon building, an attack that killed 184 people on Sept. 11, questions rage again.

“It doesn’t clarify anything — I don’t see a plane in that image,” said Michael Berger, spokesman for 911Truth.org. “In fact, I thought that was underwhelming.”

Berger said 911Truth.org “would like to see various conspiracy theories laid to rest as well” and does not believe the government has addressed “inherent contradictions” in evidence and testimony surrounding the events of that day.

“We would like to know what happened,” he said. “Four-and-a-half years later, we still don’t have definitive proof that a plane hit that building.”

Berger said the group “has never said one way or another what happened at the Pentagon,” but it did support the Freedom of Information Act requests that led to the Pentagon releasing the footage.

But 911Truth.org does believe Sept. 11 has been used as the “justification for broader policies,” both foreign and domestic, he said.

Barrie Zwicker, a Canadian investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker and author of the upcoming book “Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-Up of 9/11,” said the video does not answer the question of how any aerial vehicle — “a 757 or a missile or a fighter equipped with a missile or a fighter alone or a blimp or a Cessna” — could make it to the “central headquarters of the greatest military power that ever existed.”

“Even if it was a model airplane, for God’s sake,” Zwicker said.

He also questioned the timing of the video’s release.

“For them to be releasing this video so late, why so late and why now?” he said.