For the Record

Let’s Roll 911 DVD Debunked

Conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks continue to circulate on the Internet, in books and articles, and on video and DVD.  The US Embassy in Wellington has become aware of a recent addition in the form of a ‘documentary’ on DVD entitled, Let's Roll 911.  As with all similar works purporting to be exposés or new revelations, this DVD is a collection of unfounded conspiracy theories that bear no relationship to the tragic realities of September 11.

The U.S. State Department website, ‘Identifying Misinformation’, uses a range of sources to debunk both the specific allegations below and the general myths that underlie works of fiction such as Let’s Roll 911.  Among the most prevalent myths debunked on this website, in a March 2005 article “9/11: Debunking the Myths” in Popular Mechanics magazine, and in The 9/11 Commission Report are:

• American Airlines flight 77 did not hit the Pentagon (see “Did a Plane Hit the Pentagon?” and Popular Mechanics, part 6) 
  
• The planes that hit the World Trade Center towers were remotely controlled (see “Did a Plane Hit the Pentagon?”)
  
• World Trade Center towers 1 and 2 were destroyed by controlled demolitions (see “9/11 Revealed?” and Popular Mechanics, parts 4 and 5)
  
• A missile was fired from a pod underneath the aircraft that struck the south World Trade Center tower (see Popular Mechanics, part 2)
  
• The plane that struck the south World Trade Center tower was a cargo plane or fuel tanker (see Popular Mechanics, part 3)
  
• World Trade Center building 7 was destroyed by a controlled demolition (see “9/11 Revealed?” and Popular Mechanics, part 5)
  
• The U.S. Air Force had more than enough time to intercept the hijacked planes (see The 9/11 Commission Report, section 1.2, “Improvising a Homeland Defense” and Popular Mechanics, part 3)
  
• United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, was shot down by a missile (see Popular Mechanics, parts 7 and 8)
  
• Insider trading in the stocks of United Airlines and American Airlines just before September 11 is evidence of advance knowledge of the plot (see “9/11 Revealed?”)
  
• Four thousand Jews failed to show up for work at the World Trade Center on September 11 (see “The 4,000 Jews Rumor”)
  
• Al Qaeda is not responsible for the September 11 attacks (see “Al Qaeda and September 11th”).