9/11 and Internet credibility - By Mary Maxwell, Ph.D.

How long must we wait to judge the validity of the September 11th conspiracy theories that have floated around on the Internet for years? I believe there is a way to grant status and authority to the many excellent reports and analyses whose only sin is that they appear in electronic form instead of newsprint. Moreover, we should start this process right away. After all, if our government is behaving maliciously, we need to know it, communicate it to others, and act on it with urgency. This will require that we make judgments about September 11th now and not wait for 'perfect proof.'
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The inside-job theory concerning September 11th - which accuses the government of collusion with the 'hijackers' is already backed up by hundreds of trutho pages on the Internet. Almost any reasonable person would be persuaded by this denuded-of-junk material. Luckily, there is a good structure to the research that was contributed by many people over the four years since 2001. The main four parts of that structure are as follows:

• speculation as to motive. E.g., the government conjured up a fearsome enemy, Osama, because that would give the green light for military invasion of Afghanistan, and it would prepare Americans to surrender many of their political freedoms;
• evidence that suggests insider foreknowledge. E.g., the telltale fact that Larry Silverstein leased the World Trade Center's Twin Towers only six weeks before the event and set himself up for large reimbursement by insurance companies, and the fact that many FBI whistleblowers claim that the White House obstructed their pre-9/11 trailing of suspected terrorists;
• the flimsiness of the official story. E.g., the government's highly implausible claim that NORAD, with its superb surveillance system, lost track of four planes, and the allegation that someone found the passport of one of the hijackers on the ground in New York - a miraculous occurrence if it fell from a burning plane;
• lack of any proper investigation or prosecutions. E.g., the official 9/11 Commission did not require sworn testimony from Vice President Cheney, and the firefighters' request for a proper incident report has gone unheeded. Even public debate was suppressed by dubbing it 'unpatriotic' or 'paranoid.'

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I feel no embarrassment in saying that I accept the inside-job theory. To me it makes perfect sense. Once I have admitted this, however, I am forced to move to the next stage and face the truly frightening question, "What should we do now that our government seems to be our violent enemy?" For the moment, let us look at one more conspiracy theory that has been canvassed on the Internet.
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I said it last week and I will say it again. Now is the time for those in the academic world to harden their beliefs and come out with public statements. Thanks Mary.