I believe 9/11 was an inside job now

[Doubting Thomas]

Or, alternatively, they could have just detonated lots of bombs around NY. Same effect, maybe even the same casualties, but arguably a lot less planning required.

Exactly. Just plant and set off a few bombs in different places, perhaps in front of different important or well-known buildings, then round up a few Muslims holding anti-US sentiments, then claim they're members of al-Qaida, and invent evidence linking them to the bombings. Claim that there's a massive a-Q conspiracy to attack different cities across the country, declare a war on terror and start invading the Middle East. Much simpler and easier than an incredibly complicated 9/11 scenario which may or may not even work as planned.

And frankly, if 9/11 were an inside job, what's to gain by crashing an aircraft in a field in Pennsylvania?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Or, alternatively, they could have just detonated lots of bombs around NY. Same effect, maybe even the same casualties, but arguably a lot less planning required.

Exactly. Just plant and set off a few bombs in different places, perhaps in front of different important or well-known buildings, then round up a few Muslims holding anti-US sentiments, then claim they're members of al-Qaida, and invent evidence linking them to the bombings. Claim that there's a massive a-Q conspiracy to attack different cities across the country, declare a war on terror and start invading the Middle East. Much simpler and easier than an incredibly complicated 9/11 scenario which may or may not even work as planned.

And frankly, if 9/11 were an inside job, what's to gain by crashing an aircraft in a field in Pennsylvania?

What about a dirty bomb? Something small but with high fear impact? That would have taken literally no planning at all considering how many materials/resources the US govt. presumably already has.

Invent a story about radicals getting their hands on it (include Russia to re-kindle old patriotic values from the right), and gaining access to the states to detonate it (or, even better, make them internal terrorists, which would have the same net effect of increasing the mandate of surveillance if that was indeed the ultimate goal).

This would also double the mandate for ensuring the elimination of WMDs further down the line.

Man, I should totally be involved in this! I'd be a super star at instigating international conflicts. If you're watching Obama, put me on the team, I'm ready coach.

[Doubting Thomas]

But think about how incredibly complex 9/11 would have to be if it were actually a big conspiracy.

First, you'd have to get four airliners and fit them with remote control operation and be able to control them from hundreds of miles away. They'd probably need to be controlled via signals from satellites. Then somehow divert the actual four flights from NYC and make them land on an island somewhere and keep all the passengers from leaving. Then at the same time you make the actual flights disappear from radar you'd have to make the four empty aircraft appear on radar in their spot, since we have radar tracks of all four aircraft.

Alternatively, make it look like those four flights were leaving NYC but have the planes completely empty and remotely controlled, then pay off thousands of people to lie afterwards and say their loved ones were on board those planes.

Or, alternatively, you remotely control the aircraft toward their targets, and at some point you transport them into another dimension while beaming holograms that you invented to make it look like aircraft are hitting buildings, and then set off carefully hidden bombs inside the buildings where the hologram aircraft would appear to be crashing into the buildings.

Set off a massive bomb at the Pentagon and pay off dozens of people to lie about seeing an airliner crash into it.

Crash one of the aircraft in a field for no reason. Claim that the passengers fought back.

After the twin towers have been burning for a while, set off careful explosions in the bases of the buildings which destroy the structure's internal support but aren't noticed by anyone on the ground. Somehow make these second explosions collapse the buildings from the top down.

Hours later after the twin towers collapse, set off explosions in WTC7 after it's been burning for hours and demolish it for no reason when none of the news media are even watching or reporting on this particular building.

Remove all wires & other evidence leading to detonation charges after the buildings collapse so nobody will discover they were controlled detonations.

Keep the thousands of people involved quiet for 12 years about their role in killing thousands of innocent people just so the military industrial complex can go to war in the Middle East.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I agree. I think there are a myriad of easier and more efficient ways to get to the current status quo in American/international affairs than crashing a couple of planes into some buildings and then expecting everyone to keep quiet about it.

I mean, has the US even benefitted from the 9/11 attacks? Especially in the long term?

[Doubting Thomas]

Yeah, our military got some more practice dropping bombs and shooting people. Who cares if we had to destroy our economy to do it?

[Rayaan]

[Doubting Thomas]

Author James Bamford looked into the performance of the NSA in his 2008 book, The Shadow Factory, and found that it had been closely monitoring the 9/11 hijackers as they moved freely around the United States and communicated with Osama bin Laden's operations center in Yemen. The NSA had even tapped bin Laden's satellite phone, starting in 1996.

"The NSA never alerted any other agency that the terrorists were in the United States and moving across the country towards Washington," Bamford told PBS

If this had happened under Obama's administration, all the nutters would be claiming he was complicit and calling for his impeachment. Hell, they already do. But somehow W gets a free pass.

[Faith No More]

[Rayaan]

The destruction of any such documents, or any information regarding 9/11 for that matter, works equally in the favor of the claim that the Bush administration was covering their ass. A small group of men living in caves in Afghanistan subverted the U.S. government and its ability to keep its citizens safe, so of course they are going to start destroying information. It doesn't prove anything.

But the citizens will know that anyways (i.e. the government's failure to keep them safe), so then why still destroy them? And why destroy the 9/11 tapes even?

The fact that they destroyed them I think lends only more support to the 9/11 conspiracy although, yes, it does not 100% prove anything.

If this had happened under Obama's administration, all the nutters would be claiming he was complicit and calling for his impeachment. Hell, they already do. But somehow W gets a free pass.

Maybe ... or maybe not. Either way, that doesn't necessarily falsify what you just quoted.