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- Point of transition: The September 11 debate has become relevant again in the United States
Point of transition: The September 11 debate has become relevant again in the United States
Tucker Carlson interviewed former Congressman Kurt Weldon. In it, for the first time, such a high-ranking official raised the topic of September 11 and declared the official version to be invalid. Moreover, Weldon said that the incident was a cover operation led by American intelligence agencies. Izvestia has studied how the United States treats the largest terrorist attack in history, which version is the main one, and in which case the Trump administration will fulfill its promise to declassify this extremely sensitive information.
A difficult congressman
Kurt Weldon is not an ordinary politician. He spent 20 years in the lower house of the American Congress (from 1987 to 2007), some of which were as one of the heads of several committees, including those on internal security and the armed forces.
For many years, he has been dealing with issues related to the events of September 11, 2001. Moreover, as he said himself, he had his first doubts about the work of the American special services a few months before the incident, when it became clear that the intelligence provided to Congress was not reliable. In 2005, he published a book in which he actually accused the CIA, the Pentagon and the National Security Agency of criminally ignoring the impending danger, and in fact of betrayal.
Former Member of the U.S. Congress Kurt Weldon (left)
In an interview released on April 16, Weldon went further.: He stated that the fall of the World Trade Center buildings could not have been caused by a collision with passenger liners, as the official version claims. It was a controlled demolition carried out by detonating explosives embedded in the buildings. Moreover, the CIA, according to Weldon, was aware of what was happening. "September 11 did not happen because a group of people hijacked several planes. First of all, I can confirm that two of the hijackers who were on board one of the planes worked for the CIA. That's a fact. But at some point, control over them was lost," the ex-congressman said.
The importance of Weldon's statements in the interview lies in the fact that they were made for the first time by such a high-ranking government official, albeit retired. As for the data used by the congressman, they are very well known in the United States.
A lot of information and two versions
The fact is that the events of September 11 were thoroughly analyzed by American and European (for example, Thierry Meyssan or Julietto Chiesi) investigators, journalists, and even some professional communities. The version of controlled demolition is being put forward by firefighters involved in extinguishing the WTC, architects of high-rise buildings.
Moreover, the very existence of the plane that flew into the Pentagon building is being questioned (not a single more or less large fragment remains of it, almost all video recordings of the collision are still classified by the FBI), and the airliner that crashed near the city of Shanksville.
The most mysterious and inexplicable remains the collapse of Building No. 7 of the World Trade Center. No plane flew into it, and yet it completely collapsed, turning to dust in a few seconds, according to the official report, as a result of a fire caused by the burning wreckage of the liner. It is noteworthy that this scenario is called "unlikely" later in the same document.
The main problem of the official version remains a lot of unanswered questions. All three WTC buildings fell vertically, almost at the speed of free fall, leaving behind a cloud of pyroclastic debris with minimal and geometrically very precise scattering of fragments. There are 118 witness statements (the lion's share of which was not included in the final document), including from firefighters, about explosions inside buildings. Allegedly, none of the four flight recorders were found due to the fire, as well as no more or less large fragments of the bodies of passengers or employees of the WTC, however, the passport of one of the hijackers survived. There is no answer even to the obvious question of why the fire alarm did not work in all three buildings (two of which are skyscrapers) that collapsed due to the fire. And all of this is just part of a very long list of questions.
This is a very complex operation that took place with absolute precision, which directly indicates the presence of centralized management, emphasizes Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada.
— The key to these events is in the plot with "building No. 7", where, among other things, the CIA offices were located. The attack on the Pentagon still remains a mystery, because it is obvious that at such a height it is almost impossible to fly into this building on a passenger liner. A group of people with incomprehensible skills from the caves of Tora Bora would never have been able to do such a thing on their own. And, of course, terrorists do not play on the stock exchange and do not benefit from the collapse of exchange rates. All this was no coincidence and was very well thought out," the expert concludes.
Defining context
September 11 and the subsequent tightening of national security standards (the "Patriot Act"), the "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction" launched a trend towards reducing Americans' trust in government institutions and traditional corporate media. In many ways, this predetermined the sharp increase in the popularity of the so-called alternative media (and their points of view), which coincided with the equally dramatic development of Internet technologies in the early 2000s.
At the same time, the idea of the importance and necessity of an external enemy for the organization of society has long been floating in certain circles in the United States and has accumulated practical potential since the mid-90s, recalls Vladimir Vasiliev.
— In 2002, the Ministry of Internal Security and the intelligence community were established, the "Patriotic Act" was adopted, and the "national security state" appeared. Simply put, the second edition of 1947 is a new cold war with a new adversary. After all, the war on terrorism was proclaimed as the "crusade of the West." And of course, Al-Qaeda (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) had nothing to do with itself," the Izvestia source points out.
The logo of the Ministry of Internal Security
Despite the fact that after almost a quarter of a century, the importance of September 11 in the eyes of Americans is consistently decreasing, but the number of those who doubt the non-involvement of special services in these events is growing. According to various polls, 9/11 is "the most popular conspiracy theory in the United States."
It cannot be declassified.
During the election campaign, Donald Trump publicly promised to declassify data on September 11, but experts doubt that the promise will be fulfilled. After all, unlike the "Kennedy affair," whose defendants have already passed away, the individuals involved in one way or another in the largest terrorist attack in world history are still alive. And many of them are still actively involved in political life.
US President Donald Trump's election campaign
However, in this case we are talking not only about criminal negligence. According to opponents of the official version, the motive should be sought in the program documents of the neoconservative organization New American Century, which included and collaborated with Donald Rumsfeld (in 2001, head of the Pentagon), Dick Cheney (vice president in the Bush administration), Paul Wolfowitz (in 2001— Deputy Secretary of Defense, later director of the World Bank) and many other very influential American politicians.
The prevailing view is that this terrorist attack was prepared by people from the Bush administration, says Vladimir Vasiliev.
— As a result of the events, Bush not only solved the problem of his legitimacy after the disputed elections, but also received tremendous support for his further actions and was even re-elected for a second term in 2004. The New American Century organization openly spoke about the need for "an event equal to Pearl Harbor" in order to push the promotion of a neoconservative foreign policy strategy, the expert said.
The National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York
Thus, another dark spot in American history becomes another argument in political bargaining.
By the way, Trump himself, apparently, also does not believe the official version. Thanks to Weldon, a 2001 interview is being distributed online, where another simple American billionaire builder of skyscrapers, Trump, declares that what happened is much more like a controlled demolition of buildings. 23 years later, in June 2024, in an interview with ABC, he stated the following: "It wasn't Iraq that blew up the World Trade Center, and I think I know who it was."
On the anniversary of the events, Laura Loomer, an odious but at the same time very influential ally of Trump, called September 11 an "inside job," which caused a serious scandal.
However, according to experts, declassifying all information about September 11 carries huge risks for Trump himself. As Vladimir Vasiliev notes, the US president probably knows what happened, but whether he will make such a decision is a big question.
— In 2001, Trump was in New York. He saw everything and, most likely, understood everything. He is a specialist who built towers himself, who realizes that such buildings simply cannot collapse and fall because of their design. The "Kennedy case" is a deep past, September 11 affected Trump personally, and for him these events can serve as an indicator of how the "deep state" can act. However, declassification of such information would deal a terrible blow not only to the establishment, but also to the Republican elites. Therefore, he needs to be extremely careful about the sins of the old guard of his own party," Vasiliev states.
Developer Donald Trump speaks to reporters next to a model of the proposed shopping mall known as the Twin Towers II
The issue of declassifying documents on September 11 may be the subject of internal political confrontation, as was the case with documents on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but over the past 24 years, the data could have been either destroyed or distorted, admits Vladimir Batyuk, chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada.
— Such expectations were in connection with the publication of documents on the "Kennedy case." However, in that case, it turned out that in reality everyone already knew. It was a conspiracy in which the "deep state", including the Central Intelligence Agency, was actively involved. At the same time, it became clear that many documents were either falsified or destroyed. Almost a quarter of a century has passed since September 11, and the opportunity to do the same, of course, was there," the source concluded.
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