HIgh Number of German 9/11 Truther Sites Reflects Resurgent Anti-Semitism

It seems that every time September 11 comes around there is a flurry of 9/11 Truther activity in Germany.  This past September 11 the influential left-oriented "critical" Web site NachDenkSeiten promoted a Telepolis piece by Super-Truther Mathias Bröckers (Terror und Tabu) where he stated that the WTC attacks had to have been carried out as an "inside job" ("9/11 nur als "inside job" durchführbar war").  Prominent Truthers routinely appear in magazines, or are invited by German universities to speak to packed auditoriums.  To be sure, there are plenty of conspiracy theorists in the United States - indeed, most of the "theories" originated here in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. But the "9/11 Truth Movement" has for the most been been marginalized in the US and is confined to extreme right-wing groups that hardly anyone here takes seriously.  In Germany, on the other hand, 9/11 Trutherism is mainstream, and is considered gospel on both the right and left. Trutherism is just a component of pervasive anti-Americanism, which- as the sociologist Andrei Markovits has written - is the flip-side of anti-Semitism. 

I have started to keep a list of the Web sites that routinely publish 9/11 Truther content; the list is just a start  and I welcome any suggestions to make it more complete:

RT Deutsch

Sputnik

Telepolis

NachDenkSeiten

Kopp Online

Free 21

Hintergrund

Duckhome

Wissensmanufaktur

Der Honigmann sagt

KenFM

Alles Schall und Rauch

Jens Wernicke

Compact

Mathias Bröckers

Infokrieger News

The proliferation in Germany of these Web sites is upsetting to me personally.  I worked for ten years on in lower Manhattan, five of them at 222 Broadway directly across from the World Trade Center.  Each morning I rode the PATH Train to the underground stop at the World Trade Center, or would take the Hoboken Ferry across the Hudson and walk through the South Tower to my office.  I had countless business meetings at offices in both towers, and had many breakfast meetings, luncheons and attended presentations at  Windows on the World  on the 107th floor of the North Tower.  On September 11, 2001 75 employees of Windows on the World were killed. I knew several of the bond traders at the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald two floors down from Windows of the World.  They were killed along with every one of their colleagues. Most of the people I knew in the South Tower managed to escape - but one, a 33-year-old woman, was trapped on the 93rd floor and died a horrible death.  Altogether, 2,762 people were killed that morning in the terrorist attack.  Many others were severely injured;  all were traumatized. Hundreds of first responders and recovery workers are suffering and dying today from exposure to the toxic environment at Ground Zero.

It angers me to no end that people like Mathias Bröckers or Daniele Ganser make a living with their books and speeches from the deaths of those victims of terror.  It disturbs me that universities in Germany would invite them to speak on their campuses; it saddens me that so many people would choose to attend those presentations and applaud them.

And make no mistake: nearly all of these conspiracy theories somehow involve Jews. 

Willkommen in der Welt der Verschwörungstheoretiker: Juden haben vom Einsturz des World Trade Centers finanziell profitiert. Der israelische Geheimdienst Mossad war in die Anschlagspläne eingeweiht. Neokonservative Drahtzieher in der US-Regierung haben die Sache angezettelt, um eine neue Weltordnung durchzusetzen....Die Thesen der Verschwörungstheoretiker lauten: Nicht islamistische Terroristen haben die Anschläge auf dem Gewissen, sondern die US-Regierung und ihre Helfer. Das World Trade Center etwa sei von innen gesprengt worden. Kaum überraschend, dass auch "die Juden" ins Fadenkreuz geraten. "Da werden immer wieder Zusammenhänge hergestellt", sagte Marilyn Mayo von der amerikanischen Anti-Defamation League (ADL) der Jüdischen Allgemeinen. Mayo hat die kursierenden Theorien untersucht und sagt: "Antisemitismus ist ein wichtiger Teil in diesem Puzzlespiel".So ist von Larry Silverstein die Rede, der im Sommer 2001 den Hochhaus-Komplex gepachtet und eine Versicherung abgeschlossen habe, die verdächtigerweise auch terroristische Akte einschließe. Silverstein sei Jude und habe Verbindungen nach Israel. Merkwürdig sei auch, dass vor den Anschlägen angebliche Kunststudenten aus Israel verhaftet wurden: Mossad-Spione.

At least one in ten of the 9/11 victims were believed to have been Jewish.

I urge anyone traveling to New York City to visit the 9/11 Memorial Museum; it is a moving experience and gives a sense of what the people of New York and all Americans went through that terrible day.

 

 

Comments

[koogleschreiber]

RT is like a rebirth of the notorious "Black Channel", a communist TV propaganda show in the German Democratic Republic. They gathered facts from western media to doctor the absurdest conclusions. This show has never been more than a desparate attempt to make some ground in the propaganda war between the East and the West, but it was only a sermon to the strongest believers, nobody else ever took it serious.

But there is a big difference between RT and the Black Channel, and there is also a big difference between RT and the rest of your roll of conspiracy websites listed above.

RT is unchallenged in the world, we don't see any effort by western nations to confront their state-run desinformation campaigns.

In deed, RT is not a conspiracy site like the other websites you've mentioned. Their job is desinformation and propaganda, conspiracy theories are what their readers, left- and rightwing extremists, tinfoil hatters and paranoid potheads (the Bröckers fanclub) are making of it.

It is a good a good question why the leaders in the West ignore RT's efforts to gain influence and another one how long they can ignore RT.

[Zyme]

I toured around the One world trade center shortly before it was finished, so sadly I could not take a closer look inside of it.

While I sympathize with your personal connection to the victims, I would not be so sure whether the time you put into these conspiracy guys is well invested. Sure there are the odd 2-5% who believe all kinds of nonsense. But those exist in every society.
An event with such consequences to world politics as 9/11 is bound to create all kinds of theories, especially when a country's security services failed so miserably at preventing it.

This article however made me smile with regard to Jews in Germany today:

http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article151209776/Immer-mehr-Juden-tragen-Baseballkappe-statt-Kippa.html

Honestly, the age of enlightenment started off well over 200 years ago. However for some odd reason, those poor fellows still cannot grasp the idea how easy life could be - if they simply removed their funny caps and freed themselves from the bonds of spiritualism :-)

[David]

@koogleschreiber - I agree, but perhaps Putin is wasting his rubles:

http://www.vice.com/de/read/propaganda-putin-schmeisst-das-geld-zum-fenster-raus-mit-beiden-haenden-882

@Zyme, I believe it is far more than 2-5% in Germany.

Also, Jews wearing the "funny hats" are not being attacked on the street because of their religious beliefs, but because they are Jews.

[Zyme]

David I assume you missed my point. Once they would cease to be part of that religion (as millions of Germans ceased to be Christians), they would no longer provide this reason to be attacked.

[David]

Again, I disagree.

I know plenty of secular Jews. They are atheist, but are still recognized as Jews and subjected to hate.

[Zyme]

Is this the case? But they should no longer be recognizable as such this way, right?

I am simply sick of our state investing resources into backward-minded minorities. To put it blunt: Jews and Muslims shall either assimilate or cut their throats elsewhere if they like for all I care.

[KR]

I recommend the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung": "US-Offizielle behaupten, dass die Angriffe von 19 Al-Qaida-Terroristen ausgeführt wurden, aber viele Experten haben Fragen über die offiziellen Berichte hinaus gestellt. Sie glauben, dass Schurkenelemente innerhalb der US-Regierung, wie z.B. auch Vizepräsident Cheney, zusammen mindestens zum 9/11-Angriff ermutigt haben, um die US-Kriegsmaschine zu beschleunigen und die zionistische Agenda voran zu bringen." http://www.nrhz.de/flyer/beitrag.php?id=22176

[Onivido Kurt]

There are still fools and cynics al over the world who claim that 9/11 was the unaided work of terrorist. They stubournly neglect the facts.

[jabgoe]

telepolis on one list with kopp verlag? distiction is not one of you strengths. but what could you expect of putin loving trump voters.