This is the theory: the 9/11 attacks were not the work of islamic terrorists, they were the work of the US government. The WTC towers didn't collapse because of the planes, they were carefully detonated with explosive devices that were planted all throughout them. The Pentagon wasn't hit by a big plane at all but by a cruise missile. The 4th plane didn't crash at the official crash site at all, that was entirely fake. The mobile phone calls from people on the planes were fake as well.

Wild stuff huh? Well, anyone can make things like this up. What makes this a great conspiracy theory is that it's not just based on the imagination of a few creative paranoids, but is being propagated by a whole network of people who have done some pretty serious and detailed research that does raise a lot of serious questions. For example they argue that the temperature of burning kerosine is far below the melting point of the steel used in the construction of the WTC, and demonstrate that some specific engine parts shown in the mainstream media's debris pictures could not have come from a passenger plane.

All this is explained in great detail in the documentary, which is really well put together. It has a lot of great 9/11 footage that I hadn't seen before (and I was glued to news channels for weeks after 9/11) and an excellent sound track to boot. It mostly sticks to detailing research that does pull the official version of the events of 9/11 in doubt. Many of the issues raised are at least strong enough to make me curious to find out more and to hear counter evidence, and some of them are outright convincing.

The strongest bit in my opinion is that about the Pentagon. The material and research presented here does make it hard to believe that the Pentagon was actually hit by a Boeing 757. Of course, I need to hear a well-researched refute of this theory before I can judge what to believe. But if only this one part of the theory would be correct, then that would already indicate a mind-boggling cover-up by the US authorities.

To be clear, I disbelieve any grand conspiracy theory because I am convinced it is entirely impossible to succesfully implement and then cover up an outrageous plan if it actively involves hundreds of people - which such a conspiracy by the US government certainly would have. Humans are too volatile for any large group of people to be so dedicated and disciplined, without exception, that something so outrageous could be pulled off and then kept secret. Only small conspiracies can ever succeed; there is not a single example in history of a grand conspiracy that had any measure of success for any amount of time.

I do however consider it entirely plausible that the US government would cover up aspects of the 9/11 catastrophy, perhaps to hide major political or military blunders for which it is responsible. What if the US army was succesfully inflitrated for example? What if the terrorists did not just manage to hijack passenger planes but also an armed military plane? Those are things I can see being covered up, and if there are indications that suggest this may have happened, I want to know all about them. This documentary presented many such indications, some stronger than others.

I hope that the people doing this research and propagating this conspiracy theory manage to break into the mainstream, so their questions must be answered and their arguments countered. I do worry though about the Arab media picking up this theory. Many in the Arab world still believe 9/11 was the work of Israel and that all Jews who worked in the WTC were warned in advance and stayed away from work that day, because Arab media spread that grotesquely absurd story. This theory could take hold just as easily, and further remove the muslim world from facing up to its inner rot.