Forum Post: Why the events of September 11, 2001 matter greatly, and why do many people not believe what we've been told about the events of that day?

http://www.consensus911.org/

The Importance of September 11, 2001

“September 11, 2001 seems destined to be the watershed event of our lives and the greatest test for our democracy in our lifetimes. The evidence of government complicity in the lead-up to the events, the failure to respond during the event, and the astounding lack of any meaningful investigation afterwards, as well as the ignoring of evidence turned up by others that renders the official explanation impossible, may signal the end of the American experiment. It has been used to justify all manner of measures to legalize repression at home and as a pretext for behaving as an aggressive empire abroad. Until we demand an independent, honest, and thorough investigation and accountability for those whose action and inaction led to those events and the cover-up, our republic and our Constitution remain in the gravest danger.”

Lt. Col. Shelton F. Lankford, US Marine Corps (ret.)

The Purpose of the 9/11 Consensus Panel

The purpose of the 9/11 Consensus Panel is to provide the world with a clear statement, based on expert independent opinion, of some of the best evidence opposing the official narrative about 9/11.

The Authority of the 9/11 Consensus Panel

The Consensus Points were derived from a Delphi survey of over 20 expert panelists, who, blind to each other’s identities and responses, ranked each proposed point on a scale of 1-6 through three rounds of review and feedback.

The Delphi Method is a standard consensus tool which uses an established methodology to advance scientific knowledge in fields such as medicine. The ranked Consensus Points have thus achieved at least 90% agreement by over 20 people. (This is considered a high percentage in scientific literature.)

Together with the professional video-clip accompanying each Point, this controlled survey of Panel Members should help to reduce the confusion and controversy concerning the events of 9/11, and to thereby embolden the media to deal with both sides of the issue.

The Consensus Points are also supported by a comprehensive list of documented references in the form of witness testimonies, oral histories of firefighters, early newspaper and television reports, and scholarly books and articles.

http://www.consensus911.org/references-evidence-based/

Evidence-Based Literature Sources Opposing The Official Story of September 11

The literature of 9/11 can be divided into US government documents, which support the official account of 9/11, and the body of literature that has emerged from the professional research community through dissatisfaction with the official account.

Government Documents Advocating the Official Story of September 11

A 9/11 investigation was resisted by the White House[1] and was only granted under pressure from the surviving families nearly two years after the event. The 9/11 Commission was a low-budget affair (costing a fraction of the Monica Lewinsky investigation) and tightly controlled by a White House insider, Philip Zelikow.[2]

Co-Chair Lee Hamilton said the 9/11 Commission was “set up to fail,” and Former commissioner Max Cleland resigned, calling it a “national scandal.”[3]

The 9/11 Commission Report ignored dozens of facts,[4] including the sudden, straight-down collapse at 5:21 PM of World Trade Center 7, a 47-story steel-framed building that was two blocks from the Twin Towers and was not hit by an airplane.

The Report, which is incomplete and lacks peer review, can hardly be viewed as an evidence-based study.

The other central documents in the official account were prepared over a seven-year period by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in an attempt to explain the strange vertical, nearly free-fall collapses of the Twin Towers and Building 7.[5] There was no consideration given to a controlled demolition hypothesis, although the attending firefighters and TV anchors (including CBS anchor Dan Rather and ABC anchor Peter Jennings[6] suggested the uncanny similarity at the time.

Like The 9/11 Commission Report, the NIST reports were not peer-reviewed. Sixty days were given for public comment on the first draft, but the comments, and many serious concerns that were raised, were almost entirely ignored in writing the final report.[7]

As the NIST reports were not peer-reviewed, they cannot be judged as evidence-based.

Independent Scientific Research Opposing the Official Story of September 11

Most of the best evidence challenging the official story has been reported in ten highly documented books by Dr. David Ray Griffin, who had taught philosophy of religion, with a heavy focus on the relation between religion and science, for 35 years. His books, videotaped lectures, and online essays are available on a website.[8]

Published articles in the scientific literature include:

a paper reporting the presence of nanothermite in the dust from the destruction of the World Trade Center;[9] six papers in the February 2010 American Behavioral Scientist, indexed by 67 databases, and published as a whole issue on State Crimes Against Democracy, with 9/11 used as a primary example;[10] an article in The Environmentalist, “Environmental Anomalies at the World Trade Center: Evidence for Energetic Materials;”[11] a paper, “Extremely High Temperatures during the World Trade Center Destruction;”[12] a science article countering popular myths about the WTC collapses;[13] 59 peer-reviewed papers on the physics of 9/11 events, published since 2006 in the Journal of 9/11 Studies, and 67 letters between members of the academic community;[14] 9 scholarly papers published as a compendium in 2006 by Elsevier Science Press, suggesting US complicity in a false flag operation.[15] The Hidden History of 9-11-2001 was never reviewed in the mainstream press. Other resources include Morgan and Henshall’s 9/11 Revealed [16] and Flight 93 Revealed;[17] two books by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism,[18] and War and Globalisation: The Truth Behind September 11;[19] and the Complete 9/11 Timeline investigative project.[20]

Although the foregoing evidence against the official story has not been distilled into the systematic reviews and practice guidelines that are the products of evidence-based medicine, each claim has been either multiply peer-reviewed or substantially documented. All claims are based on continually updated and ongoing research.

This qualifies the independent research cited above as the best available evidence concerning the events of September 11.

Note: This summary has been excerpted and slightly revised from a paper published in the journal, Information for Social Change, August, 2010.[21]

References

1 Pete Brush, “Bush Opposes 9/11 Query Panel,” CBS News, May 23, 2002.

2 Philip Shenon, The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation, Twelve, 2008.

3 George Washington’s Blog, “Whitewash,” January 17, 2008.

4 David Ray Griffin, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, Olive Branch Press, 2004.

5 These reports are available at http://wtc.nist.gov/.

6 Dan Rather, CBS News, “9/11: Dan Rather Says WTC Collapses Look Like Demolitions,” Peter Jennings, ABC News, “9/11: Controlled Demolition Comparison.”

7 NIST. WTC 7 Public Comments Received (2008).

8 See http://davidraygriffin.com.

9 Niels H. Harrit, et al., “Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe.” The Open Chemical Physics Journal, Vol. 2 (April 3, 2009), 7-31.

10 See February 2010 issue. The print issue is available for $24 from Sage Journals at journals@sagepub.com, telephone 1-800-818-7243.

11 Kevin R. Ryan, James R. Gourley, and Steven E. Jones, “Environmental Anomalies at the World Trade Center: Evidence for Energetic Materials,” The Environmentalist, 29 (2009): 56-63.

12 Steven E. Jones et al., “Extremely High Temperatures during the World Trade Center Destruction,” Journal of 9/11 Studies, January 2008.

13 Steven E. Jones, et al., “Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction,” The Open Civil Engineering Journal, Vol. 2, 2008, 35-40.

14 Journal of 9/11 Studies. The letters are published at http://www.journalof911studies.com/letters.html

15 Zarembka, Paul, ed., The Hidden History of 9-11-2001, Elsevier, 2006. A second edition (paperback) from Seven Stories Press appeared in 2008.

16 Rowland Morgan and Ian Henshall, 9/11 Revealed: The Unanswered Questions, Carrol & Graf, 2005.

17 Rowland Morgan and Ian Henshall, Flight 93 Revealed: What Really Happened on the 9/11 Let’s Roll Flight? Carroll & Graf, 2006.

18 Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism, Hushion House, 2005.

19 Michel Chossudovsky, War and Globalisation: The Truth Behind September 11, Global Outlook, 2002.

20 History Commons, Complete 9/11 Timeline.

21 Elizabeth Woodworth, “Ethical Reflections on the 9/11 Controversy: Do Information Science and Media Professionals Have a Duty to Provide Evidence-Based Information to a Questioning Public?” Information for Social Change, No. 30, Summer 2010.