9/11: The Big Lie

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9/11. The Big Lie (in French L'Effroyable imposture, ISBN 1-59209-026-5), a book by French author Thierry Meyssan, asserts that the September 11 Terrorist Attacks were hatched in the United States and announces the end of American democracy as well as the setting up of an hegemonic military regime. The book, which has become largely controversial, has been translated into 27 languages.

Contents

[edit] Thesis by the author

Thierry Meyssan questions the official US version on the events of September 11, 2001 and raises a large number of questions on the details of the events which, according to many observers, marked the beginning of the 21st Century and changed the geopolitical world order.

First part of the book: “A Bloody Stage is Set”

  • The actions that caused the collapse of the Twin Towers in the heart of New York and damaged part the Pentagon building were not the result of attacks by foreign terrorists, but was organized by a part of the U.S. administration intent on driving opinion and forcing the course of events.

Second Part: “The Death of Democracy in America”

  • The war on Afghanistan was not the response to the September 11 events, since it was prepared long before in coordination with the British. President Bush would find support in evangelical groups to launch a crusade against Islam, according to the strategy known as “Clash of Civilizations”. The “War on Terror” was a pretext to cut individual liberties in the United States, and later in allied countries, in order to impose a kind of military regime.

Third Part: “The Empire Attacks”

  • Osama Bin Laden is a CIA fabrication who never stopped working for the US secret service. The Bin Laden and the Bush families would jointly manage their wealth by means of the Carlyle Group. The U.S. administration is appropriated by industrial groups (weapons, oil, pharmaceuticals) whose interests are defended by the government in detriment to others. The CIA develops a program of intervention at all levels, which would include the use of torture and political assassination.

[edit] Controversy

[edit] General Critique

The theses and hypotheses presented in the book are the focal point for debate, while the content in general may be assessed, specially by those directly or indirectly affected, as very provocative and particularly tasteless. Other relatives of the victims, however, consider the book as a credible investigation, which has led them to file lawsuits against the Bush administration (suits filed by Philip Berg in New York) [1].

Most analysts criticise the claims made by Thierry Meyssan by questioning its credibility and pointing to the “conspiracy theory” implied by the book.

According to an editorial in the Le Monde daily newspaper, the success of Thierry Meyssan is due, above all, to his clever use of the Internet, which has allowed him to appear as a reputable journalist and reach a large audience, while ignoring the basic rules of the journalistic code (editorial published March 21, 2002).

Guillaume Dasquié and Jean Guisnel, upset over what they consider intellectual fraud, published the book titled L'Effroyable mensonge : thèses et foutaises sur le 11 septembre (The Big Lie: Theses and Nonsense about September 11) in which they pose a contradiction upon Thierry Meyssan by accusing him of being thoughtless, a liar and exhibiting a lack of professionalism. Essayist Fiammetta Venner wrote L'Effroyable imposteur, quelques vérités sur Thierry Meyssan (The Big Liar, Some Facts about Thierry Meyssan), a work very critical of Meyssan, but one which did not focus on the rebuttal of his theories. The French-German TV chain Arte dedicated a special feature to denouncing the anti-Americanism of Thierry Meyssan and his readers in both right and left wing extremist media. One of the documents presented during the TV show gave birth to Antonine Vitkine’s book Les nouveaux imposteurs (The New Liars).

As the United States has strong opponents around the world, making the September 11 events appear as the result of an internal conspiracy would be extremely harmful to the country's reputation. The FBI, the Defense Department, the State Department, one after the other, published official communiqués and a leaflet condemning the work of Thierry Meyssan.

Thierry Meyssan’s theory continues to gain supporters. In Spain, El Pais newspaper highlighted 9/11 The Big Lie, whose Spanish version was published by El Mundo newspaper. In Britain, former Ecology Minister Michael Meacher echoed the thesis. In Germany, former Investigation Minister Andreas von Bülow [2], also dedicated a book to the issue, among others.

However, it is in the Arab World where the theses of Thierry Meyssan have found favorable support [3]. An Arabic version of the book was published by Sheikh Zayed, President of the United Arab Emirates, and it was offered to 5,000 important Arab opinion leaders. The Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council supported the spreading of the version. Similarly, in Russia state-owned television channels dedicated a series of shows to the theories of Thierry Meyssan. General Leonid Ivashov, who was the chief of the Russian joint chiefs of staff on September 11 offered his full support once he retired.

In the United States, the fact that the official investigating commission had denied its attention to Thierry Meyssan or its reply to his theory, encouraged the followers of Meyssan, but at a national level as they only represent a small minority. However, they do include multi-millionaire Jimmy Walter [4], professor of Philosophy David Ray Griffin and even former advisor to President George W. Bush, Morgan Reynolds [5].

It is important to note that in different countries, the debate has focused on different parts of the book. In Europe and the United States, the focal point for criticism has been the chapter dedicated to the Pentagon, although it only takes 16 pages of the whole book. In the Arab World, they have focused on the issue of Bin Laden being an independent islamist or a CIA operative; while in Russia and Latin America, attention has focused on the real or imaginary evolution of the United States towards becoming a hegemonic military ruler.

According to statistics revealed by the United States Department of Homeland Security in June 2005, more than three thousand books were published around the world dealing with discussions about the theses of Thierry Meyssan, two thirds of that figure were favorable while the remaining third part were not.

The adversaries of Thierry Meyssan say that the support he boasts of comes from people or governments interested in accusing the United States, or at least in discrediting the team led by Bush.

[edit] On the Attempt against the Pentagon

In 9/11. The Big Lie, the author, based on several inconsistencies, limits himself to affirm that the official version of the high-jacked plane that crashed against the building is absurd. Offering no explanation on what happened, he limits himself to say that if US authorities lied about such a serious issue, they could have also lied about many other aspects linked to the September 11 events. However, the author deals with the issue later in another work: Le Pentagate, in which he affirms that the attack was carried out with the use of a missile.

For the author, it looks impossible that:

  • a) Air defense systems had not had enough time to act
  • b) The Pentagon Automatic air defense systems had not been activated
  • c) The course of the plane suggests its travelling along 500 km close to the earth's surface.
  • d) No parts of the plane were found outside the building.
  • e) Fire-fighters had not found any parts or pieces belonging to a Boeing jet.
  • f) The hole opened by the plane when it crashed against the Pentagon is too small for the size of the fuselage of a Boeing.

This thesis would be complete with an explanation on the disappearance of the plane which, according to the official version, crashed into the Pentagon. The official version has been rejected by the FAA, saying that the plane disappeared over a natural reserve 500 kilometers from Washington, without showing again on the radar screens.

According to Thierry Meyssan, it is always strange that US authorities have not released a video since the Pentagon is surrounded by surveillance cameras. Two months after the attacks took place the FBI, under the pressure of the US press, gave the CNN a low-quality video (taken from a side perspective) in which no plane can be seen, only a fast lighting and then an explosion in the building.

According to the officers, the plane fully disintegrated, a fact that allows Meyssan to use irony about some science fiction “dematerialization”. Neither a black box nor other plane part would have been recovered. On the contrary, different office components such as seats, books and desks appeared intact on the upper floor of the Pentagon, right above the site where the plane crash took place. Similar observation reveal that the Pentagon lawn remained undamaged after the explosion occurred.

According to an anonymous expert cited by Le Monde, all previous aspects can be well explained: “The huge energy of the impact provoked the disintegration of the plane, which immediately burned out. Unlike cars, planes are mostly made up of aluminium pieces, whose fusion point occurs at about 600 Celsius [Celsius] degrees and that makes it possible for the plane structure to have melted” (“Un avion a bel et bien frappé le Pentagone”, Le Monde, March 21, 2002). In the "Pentagate"[6], a book he published later and which focuses on the attacks on the Pentagon, Thierry Meyssan affirms that a fusion of the entire plane is not plausible, because even if some parts made of aluminium such as the structure could have melt, some more resistant components such as the engines should remain.

[edit] On the policy of George W. Bush

During an interview with the Saudi daily Al Watan, Meyssan compared the September 11 events to the Reichstag fire which documents seized after the war show was set by the Nazis, which allowed Hitler to use the Bulgarian communists as scapegoats and reinstate a dictatorship under the pretext of defending democracy against terrorism.

In a dossier of the Mexican weekly Proceso [7], picked up in chapter 8 of 9/11 The Big Lie, Meyssan accuses the Bush family of keeping many common businesses with the Bin Laden family and that financial resources of both families are managed by the Carlyle Group, an accusation reintroduced in the US Congress by Cynthia McKinney, a black representative for Georgia [8]. Since then on, the Bin Laden family has published numerous communiqués in order to achieve their separation from Osama and to reveal that they are quitting the Carlyle Group.

[edit] Sources

[edit] Books

Internal Plot Theory

  • Die CIA und der 11. September, by Andreas von Bülow, 2002, (ISBN 3-492-24242-1.
  • The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked, September 11, 2001, by Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed, Media Messenger Books, 2002 (ISBN 0-930852-40-0).
  • 11-S, Historia de una infamia. Las mentiras de la version oficial, by Bruno Cardeñosa, Corona Borealis, 2003 (ISBN 84-95645-53-X).
  • Operation 9/11, by Gerhard Wisnewski, Droemer, 2003 (ISBN 3-426-77671-5).
  • The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11, by David Ray Griffin, Interlink, 2004 (ISBN 1-56656-552-9).
  • The Terror Timeline: Year by Year, Day by Day, Minute by Minute: A Comprehensive Chronicle of the Road to 9/11--and America's Response, by Paul Thomson, Regan Books, 2004 (ISBN 0-06-078338-9).
  • Painful Questions, an analysis of the Sept 11th Attack, by Eric Hufschmid, Progressive Press, 2005 (ISBN 1-931947-05-8).
  • 9/11 Synthetic Terror, by Webster Griffin Tarpley, Progressive Press, 2005 (ISBN 0-930852-31-1).
  • The War On Truth: 9/11, Disinformation And The Anatomy Of Terrorism, by Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed, Olive Branch, 2005 (ISBN 1-56656-596-0).
  • 9/11 Revealed: The Unanswered Questions, by Rowland Morgan, Andian Henshall, Carroll & Graf, 2005 (ISBN 0-7867-1613-4).

External Plot Theory

  • The Day that shook the world, understang September 11th by BBC News, BBC ed., 2001 (ISBN 0-563-48802-6).
  • L'Effroyable mensonge : thèse et foutaises sur les attentats du 11 septembre, by Guillaume Dasquié and Jean Guisnel, La Découverte, 2002 (ISBN 2-7071-3825-8).
  • American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, by Steven Emerson, Free press, 2003 (ISBN 0-7432-3435-9).
  • The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It, by John Miller, Chris Mitchell et Michael Stone Hyperion, 2003 (ISBN 0-7868-8782-6).
  • Militant Islam Reaches America, by Daniel Pipes, W. W. Norton & Company, 2002 (ISBN 0-393-32531-8).
  • L'Effroyable Imposteur, by Fiammetta Venner, Grasset, 2004 (ISBN 2-246-65671-0).
  • 9/11 and Terrorist Travel: A Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, by National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Hillsboro press, 2004 (ISBN 1-57736-341-8).
  • Les Nouveaux imposteurs, by Antoine Vitkine, Editions La Martinière, 2005 (ISBN 2-84675-151-X).

[edit] External links

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