9/11 was an inside job: US scientists

On the eve of the fifth 9/11’s anniversary, a group of leading US scientists have arrived at a conclusion that the attack was planned by a group of US neo-conservatives to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries.Calling it an “inside job”, around 75 top professors and scientists of various universities in the US under the banner “Scholars for Truth”, have said that they had enough evidence that points to one of the biggest conspiracies ever perpetrated in the US.

They believe a group of US neo-conservatives called the ‘Project for a New American Century’, set on US world dominance, orchestrated the 9/11 attacks as “an excuse to hit Iraq, Afghanistan and later Iran”. The group says scientific evidence over the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon is conclusive proof. Their claim has caused outrage and anger in the US, with many believing that it was just like one of the numerous conspiracy theories that come forth after every major crisis, like the assassinations of JFK or Martin Luther King.

Professor Steven Jones, a physics lecturer at the Brigham Young University, said that the official version of events was the “biggest and most evil cover up in history”.

“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,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

According to Professor Jones, it was “impossible for the twin towers to have collapsed in the way they did” from the collision of two aeroplanes. “Jet fuel does not burn at temperatures high enough to melt steel beams and claims horizontal puffs of smoke seen during the collapse of the towers are indicative of controlled explosions used to bring down the towers,” he added. The group also maintained that the World Trade Centre 7 - a neighbouring building which caught fire and collapsed later in the day - was only partially damaged, “but had to be destroyed because it housed a clandestine CIA station”.

Propagating the theory, Prof James Fetzer, a retired philosopher of science at the University of Minnesota, said: "The evidence is so overwhelming, but most Americans don`t have time to take a look at this."

The 9/11 Commission dismissed the numerous conspiracy theories after its exhaustive investigation into the terror attacks, as subsequent examinations of the towers’ structure have sought to prove they were significantly weakened by the impact which tore off fire retardant materials and led the steel beams bending under heat and then collapsing.

Christopher Pyle, professor of constitutional law at Mt Holyoake College in Massachusetts, has dismissed the academic group, saying: “To plant bombs in three buildings with enough bomb materials and wiring? It`s too huge a project and would require far too many people to keep it a secret afterwards. After every major crisis, like the assassinations of JFK or Martin Luther King, we`ve had conspiracy theorists who come up with plausible scenarios for gullible people. It`s a waste of time.”