Check out the new book by Dr. David Ray Griffin “Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory”

http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-11-Mechanics-Defenders-Conspiracy/dp/156656686X/sr=1-4/qid=1168895874/ref=sr_1_4/102-3028549-2492937?ie=UTF8&s=books

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Also, check out the Senior Military, Intelligence, Law Enforcement, Government Officials, Professors, 9-11 Survivors and Family Members who have expressed significant criticism of the 9-11 Commission Report and/or allege government complicity in 9-11:

http://www.patriotsquestion911.com

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Conspiracy theories are what happens when tragedies are used for political ends and the real truth is mishandled. It may not be mishandled deliberately, in fact I'm willing to bet that incompetence by a number of people is responsible for much of it. But one thing is obvious, the events have been used to justify a wide range of responses that have severely limited general freedoms including the right to privacy and freedom of movement and invading and occupying another country that had nothing to do with the original event. If you combine these events with the shrillness of patriotism and the vindictive and aggressive rhetoric that was hurled at a number of people that disagreed with the establishment you cannot in all seriousness wonder why people are questioning everything and everyone. Especially when there are a lack of open and honest answers from the American administration and others, whether deliberate or not.

Steve, I'm still not sure whose side you are on, since you have provided so many fine links. Anyway, maybe it's un-academic to take sides at all - so this article is a good stimulus, no matter.

Maybe it's time to re-define this twee little label - Conspiracy Theory - maybe retire it altogether. It's no use to us, because our governments own the rights to it, lock, stock and barrel.

Example: Some famous conspiracy theories -

1. The Vietnam War was necessary to prevent the fall of a mythical row of geopolitical dominos. As a result, 3.5 million Vietnamese, 58,000 American and 520 Australian human beings were needlessly murdered. Yep, seems reasonable to me. Gulf of Tonkin anyone?

2. Refugees throw their kids into the sea, in order to curry sympathy. 'Nuff said about that one!

3. Blair's Dodgy Dossier, and Powell's lies before the UN are, and were, known to be LIES. Our government KNEW they were liars, but joined the fray anyway, saying it was the "right" thing to do. Our government did their best to propagate that conspiracy theory. Chalk up over 600,000 deaths, and give yourselves a pat on the back. What's a little AWB conspiracy theory, compared to that?

4. None - absolutely none of the happenings in East Timor have anything to do with the oil and gas deposits in the Timor Gap. Anyone who says otherwise is a conspiracy theorist - right?

5. Urged on by an obscure mastermind in a non-existent cave complex, a bunch of brown-skinned Bigglesworths armed with plastic Stanley knives, manage to pull off the most remarkable maiden aeroplane flights in history. Thanks to the legendary architectural abilities of said mastermind, the stupendously skilled kamikazies know EXACTLY where to surgically hit the towers, in order to defeat the inconvenient laws of physics and reduce 3 buildings to dust and scrap.

In order to believe this baloney, you have to be a slavish follower of Coincidence Theory.

- my advice: Go to the doctor and get your nose checked out - as a matter of urgency!

Dutch tv show Zembla did a show on the 9/11 conspiracies. They are far less contaminated by the American style of news so one would think more impartial. And while they side with the 9/11 commission report on many issues, concluding they are plausible, they find that they cannot refute the conspiracy theory of the collapse of Building 7 or all of the evidence of prior knowledge by elements within the American government. See here:

http://tinyurl.com/2anafm

http://tinyurl.com/ypfh2m

"Conspiracy theorists" shouldn't be expected to provide a complete history of what really happened. What we can do is look at all the evidence, and there's plenty that the official story is a lie. Consider:
- no plane found at Pentagon
- Pentagon employees smelled explosives
- towers exploded after fires were out
- explosions in towers basement, simultaneous with planes
- air defence routinely intercepts in 5-6 minutes
- controlled demolition of WTC 7
- Bush's brother in charge of WTC security
Also, who stood to gain? The military-industrial complex, the only folks with the capability to pull such a stunt. They needed a war, and the power and money that go with it.