Metro : Academics claim 9/11 cover-up

Academics claim 9/11 cover-up

September 6, 2006

As America prepares to mark the fifth anniversary of 9/11, a group of academics have published a paper which claims that the attack which left almost 3,000 people dead were an 'inside job'.

Around 75 professors and scientists claim that the attacks were controlled by neo-conservative conspiracy in order to justify the invasion of oil-rich countries in the Middle East.

Among their claims are arguments that the planes which struck the World Trade centre could not have caused its collapse, which instead was triggered by explosives which demolished the buildings. They also claim that the nearby World Trade Centre 7, which also collapsed after it caught fire, was only partially damaged but had to be destroyed because it housed a secretive CIA station.

The 9/11 Scholars for Truth group has existed for some time, while the conspiracy theories they promote have been circulating on numerous internet websites for several years.

Professor Steven Jones , a physics lecturer at Utah's Brigham Young University who isn't a structural engineer, said it was impossible for the twin towers to have collapsed in the way they did from the collision of two aeroplanes.

He added: 'We don't believe that 19 hijackers and a few others in a cave in Afghanistan pulled this off acting alone. We challenge this official conspiracy theory and, by God, we're going to get to the bottom of this.'

Professor James Fetzer, a 65-year-old retired philosopher of science from the University of Minnesota, who isn't a structural engineer either, commented: 'The evidence is so overwhelming, but most Americans don't have time to take a look at this.'

Other claims include the assertion that United Flight 93 actually landed safely, rather than crashing in Pennsylvania, and that the Pentagon was actually hit by a missile rather than a plane.

Their claims are dismissed, however, by the vast majority of experts, as well as by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission which studied the attacks.