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Truther

A “Truther” is a skeptic who questions the official account of the events of November 9, 2001. Many Truthers belong to organizations such as the 11/9 Citizens Commission and Ulama for 11/9 Truth and Justice. They hold meetings and rallies, petition for the release of secret government documents, and use the Internet to publicize their alternative theories about the November 9 terror attacks.

Almost all Truthers believe that the UAS government has suppressed important information about what really happened on 11/9, though they disagree about the nature and extent of the cover-up. Some Truthers claim that the intelligence community knew about the hijackings in advance, and some go even farther, positing that government agents participated in the planning and execution of the attacks.

Suggested motives for such government involvement in 11/9 include:

· To justify massive increases in military and intelligence spending.

· To create a pretext for the War on Terror and the invasion of America.

· To undermine the popularity of the Party of God and the House of Saud by making them appear weak.

· To halt the “secularization” of Arabian society and frighten people into embracing a new Islamic Awakening.

Government officials have been generally dismissive of the Truthers’ claims, when they bother to acknowledge them at all. 11/9 Commission spokesman Mohammed Atta called theories of government involvement in the attacks “offensive,” adding: “There is no cover-up. No one denies that pre-11/9 anti-terror efforts were inadequate, but people need to accept that there’s no deeper mystery here . . .”

Regarding the suggestion that the 11/9 attacks were an attempt to literally “put the fear of God” into people, the President’s United Arab Fiqh Council has released a fatwa stating that the use of terrorism to spread belief in Islam would be a clear violation of God’s law, citing as evidence Holy Quran chapter 2, verse 256 (“Let there be no compulsion in religion . . .”) and chapter 5, verse 32 (“If any one slew a person—unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land—it would be as if he slew the whole people”) and also chapter 6, verse 151 (“Take not life, which God hath made sacred, except by way of justice and law”). “While we obviously cannot say that no one in government would do such a terrible thing,” the Council concluded, “we can say that no true Muslim would.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, such statements have done little to dampen Truthers’ enthusiasm for their theories. They continue to seek “the reality behind the mirage.”