9/11 Conspiracy Legends: Blow Up? Aliens? Secret services? | tagesschau.de

There is hardly any other event that has so many conspiracy legends entwined as the terrorist attacks of 9/11. From the rocket fire to the involvement of Israel, there are numerous allegations.

The dust of the ruins of the World Trade Center had not yet settled when the first doubters appeared. How did the most powerful nation in the world get so caught off guard by a handful of terrorists?

“There was a whole series of conspiracy theories. The main theory to this day is that 9/11 was in some form an ‘inside job’. That the US government knew about the attacks in advance and did not prevent them – or even actively participate The attacks were implicated, “says the historian and author Garrett Graff, who has published a book with eyewitness accounts on September 11, 2001.

During his reading trips to the USA, not an evening goes by without someone in the audience coming up with the legend of the “Inside Jobs”, he says: “Everything is included: Starting with the idea that no plane has crashed into the Pentagon – up to Theory that the World Trade Center was actually not attacked at all, but instead was blown up from within in a controlled manner. “

No evidence

Claims that scientists believe there is no evidence. And yet to this day, especially among the US population, the rumor persists that the government of the time was somehow involved in the attacks.

This has a lot to do with the mentality of his compatriots, says Graff: “The USA is traditionally prone to religious zealots like hardly any other country. These fanatical traits can be traced back to the founding fathers of the United States, which often led to conspiracy theories. That we can observe across generations in all areas of politics. “

Even when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in World War II, there were rumors that the US government had let the attack happen on purpose in order to secure the support of the population to enter the war.

Bush administration rumors

Even after 9/11, the Bush administration was quickly suspected of trying to justify the attack on Iraq, says Joseph Uscinski, who conducts research on conspiracy legends at the University of Miami: “It has long been the case that more Democrats were interested in these conspiracy theories Believed, because Bush was a Republican. But now it is the case that more of the Republican supporters cling to these legends. This is mainly due to the fact that some Republicans – above all Donald Trump – have made such crude theories acceptable again, also in his party. “

And so, even 20 years later, according to surveys, almost every third American believes that on September 11, 2001 something could not have happened right. The legends range from a rocket fire on the towers to lucrative speculation in the financial market to a conspiracy by the Israeli secret service Mossad.

“If someone is already suspicious of their government, then it is only a small step to believe that 9/11 was an ‘inside job’. It’s not that these people do a lot of research. They quickly form an opinion, which corresponds to their worldview. “

There are still open questions

The conspiracy legends say a lot not only on the topic of 9/11 – but more recently also on the Corona virus or QAnon – about the trust large parts of the population have in the rulers.

But even if the great conspiracy legends have no basis, 20 years after September 11, 2001, many questions remain unanswered, says author Graff: “There are indeed a lot of unexplained things. But they have nothing to do with conspiracy theories. It’s about questions like: Who knew what when? Why were certain things done after the attacks? What could perhaps have been done differently? There are still many questions unanswered. And maybe we will never find out the answers. “