With the recent release of the film “United 93,” the wounds of Sept. 11 that were just beginning to mend themselves will be torn open. While the vast majority of Americans might be reminded of one of the worst days in American history, a growing number of people might continue to question the events of Sept. 11.
More than four years have passed since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The film focuses on the only flight to not reach its target, United Airlines Flight 93, that crashed in Shanksville, Pa.
The passengers are portrayed to be the true heroes of Sept. 11, fighting back in the last minutes of their lives while facing inevitable death. The release of the film has sparked controversy, and the media has posed the question of when is America ready to see a film about Sept. 11?
Tyler Mims, a freshman in respiratory therapy, said that because Sept. 11 is a touchy subject, there should be respect shown for everybody involved
“I just saw a preview for it. I think it looks pretty interesting. I don’t feel it’s too soon for a movie about it. I just hope the director and producers got the OK from the family members of the victims,” Mims said.
With the release of another Sept. 11 film later this year (“World Trade Center,” directed by Oliver Stone), Hollywood will continue cashing in on the tragedy and organizations around the country will fight for answers.
For those working to decipher the official story, the release of the two movies seem to be a distraction to their efforts.
Mike Burger, a member of the 911truth.org steering committee, feels the movie supporting the official story is a way to influence the American public to accept what they have been told.
“In essence, the film is a propaganda tool,” he said. “The passengers are made into heroes for a reason and those going into the movie will side with the official story.”
911truth.org is a research community of professionals whose goal is to seek the true events of Sept. 11 and research the flaws in the official story. The site is one of more than 15 million Web sites listed on the Internet attempting to find the truth and prove the official timeline of events wrong.
“For any event in U.S. history there are many conspiracy theories, the same as there were for Pearl Harbor and the assasination of Kennedy,” said John Mueller, a political science professor.”I think it is highly unlikely that the U.S. had a part in the attacks of Sept. 11th.”
Mueller said the only way to tell if it is too soon for a movie depicting the events is the turnout the film receives.
Burger has worked for the past four years to research the truth of the events. He said it is difficult to reach the public because mainstream media won’t touch the subject. Burger has appeared on CNN numerous times to debate the official story. He makes it clear that his intentions are not to divulge in conspiracy theories, like many of the sites on the Internet, but to provide factual evidence.
“(The) majority of the current documentaries questioning the truth have factual mistakes. There is a great deception in these movies that I think are pure conspiracy,” he said. “There hasn’t been a definitive account of what has happened. The questions haven’t been answered and the majority of them can only be answered by the government.”
Burger feels the mystery of the Pentagon can be solved quickly.
“It would be easy to show us the surveillance videos that were quickly confiscated from the Sheraton Hotel or from the neighboring gas stations,” he said.
Burger said the most mystery and confusion lies within the events of the World Trade Center and of Flight 93.
“I talked to recovery workers who said they found passengers bound and strapped to their seats in the rubble of the trade centers, showing that they were tortured,” he said. “I believe that there were hijackers on both of those flights, but who?”
Many questions have risen from Flight 93: Was it shot down or not? When did air traffic control know it was hijacked? Were the pilots of the flight notified that there were other hijacked planes?
The film stays true to the official story of Flight 93 that was released; however, there are published articles that question elements of the film and the official story.
WCPO, the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, reported that Flight 93 was grounded in Cleveland because of the fear of an onboard bomb. The story was removed three years later in late 2004, citing it was “factually incorrect”, leading to a popular theory that there were two planes grounded in an attempt to switch the passengers in a “mirror flight.” The theory suggests that United 93 and Delta 1989 were grounded, and more than 200 people aren’t accounted for from Flight 1989. Many theories add that the combined total of all the passengers from the four flights are about 200, and those people are either disposed of by the government or have become wards of the government.
Jackie Hribar, a senior in human development and family science, wrote a paper on government conspiracies for her political science course. In her research she found “In Plane Sight,” a documentary, to be a great resource.
“Everything in the movie made me doubt what I saw and read about,” she said. “It’s unclear to know what really happened, especially in the Pentagon; there was no way that a plane that hit. The size of the hole was too small for it.”
Enrique Pages Jr., a sophomore in engineering physics, and native of Long Island, N. Y., said he feels that making a movie to capitalize off of Sept. 11 is wrong. He also feels that the United States could have been involved.
“I would not like to think negative about it. The president’s reaction when he found out about the first plane crashing while he was in Florida seemed to show that he wasn’t that surprised, but I could be jumping to conclusions,” he said. “I just feel when a president is told that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center maybe you shouldn’t just sit around,” Pages said.
Burger said that while there are countless conspiracy theories and investigations, the truth can only come from the U.S. government. He said he hopes that with the release of “United 93” people will begin to think more about the complex events of Sept. 11 and research the official story for themselves.
More information, including timelines, articles and documentaries, can be found at 911truth.org.
