http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2007936,00.html

Thumbs up for the Editor to post these LTTE's.

George Monbiot treats me as a "gibbering idiot" in his article on the so-called "9/11 conspiracy virus" (Comment, February 6). I confess to being one of those who has been "infected by a virus" - the virus of scepticism towards the official fairytale on 9/11. This virus, according to Mr Monbiot, has "sucked my brains through my eyes" and made my "lips foam" and my "eyes roll". But I think even presumed patients like me deserve a right to respond to Mr Monbiot's hallucinations.

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First of all, most veterans sceptics on 9/11, such as myself, have not been infected by the film Loose Change which the author considers as the origin of the "virus". We had studied the events of 9/11 long before the film was even conceived. Using our common sense and critical faculties, we have discovered numerous anomalies, contradictions and misrepresentations in the official account of the events of September 11 2001. So many, in fact, that they fill volumes. I refer readers to Paul Thompson's excellent timeline on 9/11, posted on www.cooperativeresearch.org and the books on 9/11 by Professor David Ray Griffin, whose academic credentials are beyond dispute, but is referred demeaningly by Mr Monbiot as a "high priest" of 9/11 conspiracists (sic).

As Mr Monbiot is so confident that the official tale on 9/11 is true and that he can safely dismiss sceptics as "gibbering idiots", I hereby offer to him a prize of £1,500 if he can send to me or have published within the next two weeks any verifiable evidence that proves beyond reasonable doubt that the 19 individuals named by the FBI as the hijackers of 9/11 actually boarded the aircraft which crashed on 9/11. Without such proof, it is simply indecent to accuse these individuals of mass murder, let alone commit the crime of aggression against Afghanistan, start an indefinite "war on terror" and lie to the world.
Elias Davidsson
Reykjavik
Iceland

George Monbiot is as sweeping in his dismissal of the 9/11 doubters as some of the claims of their conspiracy theories (February 7).

The engineer Professor Steven Jones at Brigham Young University has questioned the thermal powers of kerosene fuel from the planes to affect supporting steelwork sufficiently for it to buckle and become semi-molten. In a completely unrelated investigation, physicist Dr Judy Wood has shown that the official verdict of cascading masonry successively demolishing lower floors could not have been achieved within the time range of the seismic record.

In his haste to rubbish the neocon conspiracy advocates for distracting attention from the real abuses of power by Bush et al, Monbiot is in danger of glossing over equally valid, scientifically based concerns of disturbing inadequacies in the official explanation.
Bryn Jones
Bath

What if the "official" account of what happened on 9/11 is false? What if, in fact, it's a lie, and a big one at that, complete with corporate/media/propaganda cover-up? Without backing from the media the story wouldn't fly. What would that make this "war on terror"? A fraud? Since when do steel buildings freefall to the ground, like the World Trade Centre? Ever watched the video of it coming down? They didn't play it much on CNN or NBC. Ever wonder why? Because it's the smoking gun of the whole thing. It's proof because it's an obvious controlled demolition, which we all know takes weeks of planning, hence, foreknowledge of the attack, which means, an inside job.
Chris Noth
Davenport
Iowa

By using Loose Change as the basis for his argument, Monbiot does the 9/11 truth movement a disservice, implying that there is no thoughtful, rational and scientific research being undertaken. As a starting point, the two books on the subject by the "high priest" Professor David Ray Griffin are the complete antithesis of the intellectually sloppy approach that Monbiot decries.
Owen Bellamy
Royston
Hertfordshire