Ten Resources Debunking September 11 Conspiracy Theories

Tomorrow marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of September 11. Even as the smoke was still rising in September 2001 from the ruins of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the wreckage of United Flight 93, conspiracy theories sprang up blaming the attacks on anyone but al-Qaeda. The specific claims varied. The attacks were an inside job. Carefully placed explosives rather than commercial passenger jets brought down the Twin Towers. The U.S. military fired missiles that struck the Pentagon. The Bush administration knew of the impending attacks but did nothing. Israel orchestrated the attacks as a false-flag operation. The list goes on.

None of these conspiracy theories is true. Many are preposterous on their face. And more than a few recycle long-standing anti-Semitic tropes. But that hasn’t stopped people from embracing them. And it’s not just the delusional who reject the idea that nineteen al-Qaeda operatives orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. Well-known people like director Spike Lee, talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell, podcaster Joe Rogan, the actor Charlie Sheen, and the late former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura have helped give credence to the idea that what we have been told is not what happened.

Many books have been written to explain why people embrace conspiracy theories. To be fair, conspiracies do exist. People and governments plot to do evil and lie about what they have done. The Cataline Conspiracy, the Gunpower Plot, Operation Valkyrie, the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadeq, and Watergate are just some of the actual conspiracies the world has witnessed. But the fact that conspiracies have occurred does not mean that all conspiracy theories are true.

Some conspiracy theories are harmless. It doesn’t really matter if people believe that the world is flat or that the Apollo moon landings were shot on a Hollywood backlot.

But the conspiracy theories that circulate about the 9/11 attacks are anything but harmless. They help to delegitimize democratic government. They demonize innocent groups that are falsely blamed. And they shift attention away from the real causes and perpetrators.

Left unrebutted, conspiracy theory can extend their reach, especially in through social media as new generations of Americans come of age. So, if you doubt the official story of the September 11 attacks, or know someone who does, check out one or more of the ten resources below. Three are books and reports, two are articles, four are video documentaries, and one is a radio show.

Books

9/11 Commission Final Report. Any attempt to understand what we know about the September attacks has to begin with the report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known as the 9/11 Commission. Established by Congress and President George W. Bush, it assessed how the attacks happened and recommended steps to prevent future ones. Its final report, released in July 2004, paints an unsettling picture of how unprepared the U.S. government was for the attacks despite mounting warnings during the summer of 2001 that al-Qaeda planned to attack the United States. In doing so, the commission showed that there is little need to believe in a conspiracy. The truth is alarming enough.

Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can’t Stand Up to the Facts, Popular Mechanics (2006). In 2005, the editors of Popular Mechanics ran an article debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories. The article was so popular that Popular Mechanics expanded it into a book. It addressed twenty of the most popular claims from 9/11 truthers. The article and the book discredited these claims using interviews with witnesses, military officials, engineers, and other experts. 

Reports of the Federal Building and Fire Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster, National Institute of Standards and Technology. If you are technically minded, you can plow through multiple scientific reports issued by NIST, the government agency tasked with investigating how the Twin Towers collapsed. Spoiler alert: The reports conclude that the impact of commercial jet planes could and did cause both towers to collapse.

Articles

10 9/11 Conspiracies That Still Persist Today, Snopes.com (March 15, 2024). A popular myth-debunking website, Snopes has refuted twenty rumors and conspiracy theories related to the September 11 attacks, even though the title of the article promised only ten. The claims Snopes takes on include whether Nostradamus predicted the al-Qaeda attacks, whether thousands of Israelis were mysteriously absent from the World Trade Center that day, and whether a CIA agent confessed on his deathbed to having blown up the Twin Towers. All three claims are bunk.

“The Biggest 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Debunked,“ Sky History UK. If you don’t want to devote hours to parsing the counterevidence to various September 11 conspiracy theories, Sky History UK has created what could be called the CliffsNotes version. In just over 1,800 words, it examines eight of the most common conspiracy claims, including that two planes could not have brought down the World Trade Center, that debris was missing at the Pentagon, and that United Flight 93 was shot down by another plane.

Video Documentaries

“Debunking 9/11 Bomb Theories,“ NOVA: PBS (2006). One persistent September 11 conspiracy theory insists that the planes that flew into the Twin Towers could not have brought them down. Therefore, their destruction must have been the result of explosives spread strategically around both buildings. So twenty years ago, NOVA, the PBS documentary series, decided to examine that claim. The show interviewed Shyam Sunder, the top investigator for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government agency that investigated the collapse of the Twin Towers. Sunder clearly and painstakingly dismantles the case that September 11 was an inside job that used explosives to trigger a controlled demolition.

“Disproving Every Major 9/11 Conspiracy Theory,” American September (2025). The American September Project, a documentary archive of memories from all fifty states of September 11, takes just twenty-seven minutes to demolish five common September 11 conspiracy theories, including the claim that the Bush administration either plotted the attacks or knew about them but let them happen anyway. Along the way, the video explains why so many people embrace conspiracy theories that defy basic logic.

“The Five Biggest 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Debunked Forever,” JOE Features (2021). Another offering for viewers who prefer the CliffsNotes version of arguments debunking conspiracy theories, Joe examines five popular claims, including that jet fuel cannot melt steel beams, that controlled explosions brought down the Twin Towers, and that a missile rather than a plane hit the Pentagon. All the claims are rubbish.

“This Computer Simulation Explains How the Twin Towers Fell,“ Smithsonian Channel (2015). If reading technical reports is not your thing, the Smithsonian Channel created a short video that explains how two passenger planes could cause the Twin Towers to collapse. The video is an excerpt from a longer episode titled “9/11: Secret Explosions in the Towers” that is available for rent or purchase.

Radio

“Conspiracy Theories and the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks,“ On Point: WBUR(2011). Fifteen years ago, On Point, which is produced by Boston public radio station WBUR, devoted an episode to September 11 conspiracy theories. The episode explores some of the best-known theories, assesses why they have such appeal, and discusses why they persist in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In just forty-six engaging minutes, the show exposes the gaping holes in leading conspiracy theories, holes that their proponents gloss over.

Oscar Berry assisted in the preparation of this article.

The United States celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2026. To mark that milestone, I am resurfacing essays I have written over the years about major events in U.S. foreign policy. A version of this essay was published on September 1, 2021.