Sara Eckford Caruso English 1103 December 5, 2012 9/11 Conspiracy, Popular Culture

Comment [BC1]: Please refer to the MLA handout on Moodle for the correct version of MLA.

September 11, 2001 near 8:00 am, many students including myself were just entering their classrooms. Meanwhile, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines flight 175 depart from Boston, Massachusetts, both heading toward Los Angeles. Only twenty minutes in flight, American Airlines Flight 11 makes contact with ground personnel to alert them that the plane has been hijacked. America was clueless, as people continued to go about their everyday lives, heading to work, taking a morning shower, or enjoying a fresh cup of coffee. As for myself, the entire second grade class of mine in San Marcos, Texas, was celebrating a multi-cultural day enjoying different food from all around the world. What were you doing on the morning of September 11, 2001? The first tower to be hit was the North tower, struck by American Airlines flight 11 around the 93rd floor and 99th floor, killing everyone on board, and hundreds within the building instantly (9/11 Timeline of Events). Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 am, just one minute after the tenants of South tower were instructed by Port Authority Police to stay in the building; United Airlines flight 175 crashes into the South tower between floors 75-85 (9/11 Timeline of Events). Five minutes after the second WTC tower was struck, the FAA bans all flight take-off in New York City (9/11 Timeline of Events). Strangely enough, the Steel-built building, of the South tower collapses. Also, only six minutes after Bush presumed what he called an apparent

terrorist attack on the United States, Flight 77 crashes into the West end of the Pentagon, killing nearly 200 people in all (9/11 Timeline of Events). Amidst the evacuation of the White House and other high-profile buildings, the North Tower collapses to the ground as well. It is believed that just before this, Flight 93 of United Airlines, crashed into a Pennsylvania field, after passengers attempted to take over (9/11 Timeline of Events). It took, not even two hours from the time of the first impact, to the last collapse of the WTC building. Never before in history has a steel-built building collapsed so easily and quickly (The Truth and Lies of 9/11). As for most Americans, the most believed story is that these planes were hijacked and intentionally crashed into these buildings as a terrorist act. However, Korey Rowe, the maker of the 9/11 movie called Loose Change, believe otherwise. Most people will agree that anything other than what the media and government tell you are considered conspiracy theories. As for that, Korey Rowe contradicts the media and says, 19 hijackers are going to completely bypass security and crash four commercial airliners in a span of two hours, with no interruption from the military forces, in the most guarded airspace in the United States and the world? That to me is a conspiracy theory. President Bush let the nation know that no initial warning or sign was given that these attacks would take place. If he is correct, then why would a government agent, for the FBI have known? Approximately two months before September 11, 2001, an FBI agent in Phoenix, named Kenneth Williams sent a notification to D.C and New York; His memo states that an unusually high number of Muslims have been training in American Flight Schools, and that this may be a coordinated effort by Bin Laden (Ventura p 210). Needless to say, Kenneths memo was ignored at the higher levels. Even after the first warning to the United States Government, there was yet another warning stated directly to Bush. The CIA represented a two-page intelligence
Comment [BC2]: Close this paragraph. It seems to just end.

report titled Bin Laden Determined to Strike the U.S.; President Bush proceeded to leave for a month long vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas (Ventura p 213). The evidence suggests that our so called chief executive seems to have either let the 9/11 attacks happen or even took part in its happening. For example, why would Bush sit for an entire seven minutes after being informed of the first plane crashing into the towers? During his visit in a Florida Elementary school, video footage shows that he did not even budge a wink (9/11-Press for Truth). Does it really make sense that there was absolutely NO MILITARY RESPONSE after four Commercial Airliners of the United States have been hijacked (Loose Change)? October 15, 1999 six fighter jets tailed a single hijacked plane, tracked by the Federal Airline Administration (FAA), 25 minutes into flight (9/11-Press for Truth). Compare this to American Airlines Flight 11, who notified ground patrol at 8:19 am that their flight has been hijacked, only 20 minutes after take-off (9/11 Timeline of Events). Meanwhile, an entire 27 minutes later it is crashed into the North tower, with absolutely no military response between the time of alerting ground patrol and the time of the crash (9/11- Timeline of Events). After the dreadful attacks of 2001, resulting in the largest loss of life on American soil since the Civil War, thousands of family members were left questioning our government, with little answers. Several family members wanted an answer to the simple question as to Why the U.S air Force not attempt to stop these hijackers? On the day of 9/11, training missions with our nations fighter jets were taking place hundreds of miles away; leaving only 14 fighter jets all together to protect the entire U.S (The Truth and Lies of 9/11).
Comment [BC5]: What was happening during that time? Was there anything happening on the ground? What there anything that the pilots were doing? Comment [BC4]: All-caps wording is considered yelling, and is extremely informal in a paper. Comment [BC3]: Did the report say how and when this would happen?

As for the collapse of the North and South WTC, as well as WTC 7 which was not impacted with a plane at all (The Truth and lies of 9/11), these steel framed buildings seemed to have failed miserably September 11, 2001. However, never before in history has a steel framed building collapsed while burning, especially not within a span of ten seconds after burning less than an hour (9/11 Timeline of Events). Actually, according to official transcripts from Firefighter tapes, both towers were in fact NOT burning when the collapse took place; they had both stopped burning immediately before-hand (WTC tape on 9/11). October, 2004 in Caracas, Venezuala a fire in a 56-story office tower burned over 17 hours and spread more than 26 floors. Two of the floors collapsed, however the underlying floors did not, and the building remained standing (Meyer 1). In February 1991 a fire destroyed eight floors of the 38-story One Meridian Plaza building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This fire burned for 18 hours in all, and did not collapse (Meyer 1). Also, in February 2005 the 32-story Windsor Building in Madrid, Spain, caught ablaze and continued burning for two days. The building was completely engulfed in flames at one point. Even though several top floors collapsed onto lower ones, this building also remained standing (Meyer 1). Even the WTC building itself caught fire before the 9/11 attacks, in 1975. The serious fire burned for three hours and destroyed six entire floors, but it did not collapse then (Meyer 2). Why is it that our WTC buildings decide they want to collapse in 2001, rather than 1975? Some theorists may say that it is obvious why the WTC tower did not collapse in 1975, due to the fact that there was not an impact of nearly 390,000 pounds (Meyer 4), also relating to the other steel building examples. That may or may not be true, it could have very well been the amount of heat within the building. But if the collapse of our WTC buildings was only due to jet
Comment [BC6]: Show your audience how this influences the conspiracy theory idea. Comment [BC7]: (Continuation from comment 6) Work on giving a transition here or close the previous paragraph.

fuel and extreme heat wouldnt the jet fuel had to have stayed burning for longer than ten minutes? ; According to NISTs WTC chief investigator. Now here comes the most a-wall assumption amongst Americans and conspiracy theorists, could the towers have had explosives planted inside them? Daria Cord, a guard in Tower one, said security detail had been working 12 hr. shifts for 2 weeks prior to 9/11, due to numerous phone threats. They would sometimes only work between 1-3am, claiming to be working on the walls. For some reason on the Thursday before the attacks, bomb-sniffing dogs were removed from the building abruptly. It seems as though we as a nation have been set up on the days leading to the 9/11 attacks, by none other than our very government. MSNBC news reporter Don Perkal states Even before stepping outside, I could smell cordite. I know explosives had been set off somewhere. Cordite is used in initiating very heavy explosives, if our WTC towers collapsed merely because of the plane impact, why were there traces of explosives around the crash-site? WTC towers collapsed in an imploding type method. This means that the structures of the building must have been severely and totally weakened for this to have happened. Even WTC 7, which was not hit by a plane at all, still collapsed in the same manner. So how was WTC 7s structure weakened? The evidence shows inexplicably that some type of explosives MUST have gone off for these steel structured building to have imploded on themselves, each within a span of ten seconds (The Truth and Lies of 9/11). As for WTC 7, being 320 feet away from the North tower, hit by absolutely nothing, collapses in a mere 6 seconds (The Truth and Lies of 9/11). Along with the lives of over 3,000 people in the towers, approximately 300 on hijacked aircraft, 348 New York City firefighters lost their lives as well (The Truth and Lies of 9/11).
Comment [BC8]: Is this a citation?

Comment [BC9]: Use less conversational language here. (Also, this is an incorrect usage of AWOL, which means Absent Without Leave, and would not be appropriate here.)

The mainstream news reports, and TV coverage, only portray parts of the story. Many video clips that were shown have most likely been altered by the government before-hand. Use of electronic sources must have been used to fake certain instances, and to also steer youre thinking in a certain direction to make the 9/11 Terrorist Attack story seem legitimate. Throughout all of the lies and government cover-ups, one thing is known for sure; Our government cannot out smart us, as it was the very American citizens that have realized all of this information presented. In plain words, history is what you make it, and our government has been trying to alter the real history from what they want us all to believe. Right now in todays society, most Americans still lean towards the government for everything, however there are those very few people, that engulf themselves in research to find out the truth behind the lies.
Comment [BC10]: Please always include your name in the filename. Comment [BC11]: Sara, You have a fairly solid paper here ,and you definitely show your audience the plethora of reasons that would cause us to think that this is a conspiracy theory. However, in order to strengthen your paper, I would suggest a few changes: 1. Work on more deliberately wording your sentences. Your language is very conversational, and if you are wanting someone to take your side, you will have to be the epitome of professionalism. 2. Work on structuring your paragraphs. You have many paragraphs that simply end, rather than conclude, and while you sometimes pick up the idea again in the next paragraph, a reader will expect that you conclude the ideas in that paragraph before going on to another. Im looking forward to seeing what youll revise in the portfolio! -Ms. C

Works Cited 9/11: Timeline of Events. 2012. The History Channel website. Nov 11 2012, 11:17 http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-timeline. Watson, Paul J. "China's Tallest Building Catches Fire, Does Not Collapse." China's Tallest Building Catches Fire, Does Not Collapse. Prison Planet, 15 Aug. 2007. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. Dwyer, Jim, and Ford Fessenden. "Lost Voices of Firefighters, Some on 78th Floor." Lost Voices of Firefighters, Some on 78th Floor. N.p., 4 Aug. 2002. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. Meyer, Peter. "Other Fires in Steel-Structure Buildings." Other Fires in Steel-Structure Buildings. Serendipity, 15 Feb. 2012. Web. 8 Nov. 2012. <http://www.serendipity.li/wot/other_fires/other_fires.htm>. Ventura, Jesse, and Dick Russell. 63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read. New York: Skyhorse Pub., 2011. Print. Avery, Dylan. "9/11 Loose Change." YouTube. YouTube, 09 May 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORDE2_ttdyI>.

Comment [BC12]: Please refer to the MLA handout on Moodle for the correct format of a Works Cited page.