Why the '9/11 Truth' movement endures 15 years later
Robert McIlvaine knows better than to talk, unsolicited, about the research he pores over at home in Oreland, Pennsylvania
His 26-year-old son, Bobby, died in the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. But as heart-wrenching a subject as that is, it's the circumstances around the attacks — specifically, McIlvaine's beliefs about precisely how the world-altering event unfolded — that he's cautious to discuss.
His family supports his views, albeit quietly.
"My wife doesn't take me out; doesn't go with me anymore because she's afraid I'll bring it up with friends," he says.
"Once in a while, someone will say, 'I hear you've got some opinions on 9/11.' And I say, 'You better believe I have opinions.' But, you know, it's tough to talk about."
McIlvaine is a 9/11 "Truther," part of a group that rejects the official account of al-Qaeda waging co-ordinated assaults on America 15 years ago, killing 2,996 people in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., and in Shanksville, Penn. (McIlvaine does not care for the "Truther" label himself, though he considers himself a truth activist on a quest to expose 9/11 as a "false flag" operation staged to draw the U.S. into war.)
That the 71-year-old retiree is also the father of one of the New York victims has caused some other families of victims to distance themselves.
"So many people have dropped out. No one wants to talk about it," McIlvaine says. "It's like you have leprosy."
9/11 and the internet
And yet, the Truther movement lives on. Fifteen years later, the devastating attack on America that coincided with the nascent internet age continues to spawn discussions hosted in forums that speculate about the moon landing, the Hollow Earth hypothesis and the JFK assassination.
The official account says McIlvaine's eldest son — an aspiring fiction writer who graduated from Princeton University — was working as a media relations specialist for Merrill Lynch on the 106th floor when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower.
McIlvaine suspects otherwise. Based on injuries his son sustained, including to his face and chest, he maintains Bobby was killed by an explosion, possibly before the plane crash. As Bobby was among the first 10 bodies found, he says, McIlvaine believes his son was in the tower's lobby.
"If he was on the 106th floor, he wouldn't have been found so quickly."
Despite an exhaustive 2005 special report by Popular Mechanicsdebunking 9/11 theories, polls still show a sizeable population of Americans dispute the official account.
An October 2006 New York Times/CBS News survey carried out by Angus Reid talked to 1,042 U.S. adults. Asked whether they suspected that the Bush administration had some foreknowledge about the attacks, 28 per cent believed the administration was "mostly lying" about its 9/11 intelligence prior to the attack.
Meanwhile, the group Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth continues to hold symposiums contending that a "controlled demolition" involving "explosives and/or other devices" brought down the Twin Towers and WTC 7. Online videos claim holograms were used to project airplanes into the sky. Local 9/11 Truth chapters around the U.S. still meet for potlucks and seminars. And on Saturday, McIlvaine is scheduled to deliver a speech to Truthers in New York City.
Periods of uncertainty, distrust
At a time when only one in five citizens (19 per cent) say they mostly trust their government, according to a 2015 Pew Research survey, scholars on the culture of conspiracy theories regard the longevity of the 9/11 Truth movement as a symptom of that pervasive distrust of government.
"People who are more personally distrustful tend to buy into conspiracy theories more," says Mike Wood, a Canadian lecturer at the University of Winchester in England specializing in the psychology of conspiracy theories.
If anything, Americans seem more distrustful of their government than in a long time. An anti-establishment mood pervaded the latest U.S. election primary season. It also culminated in the Republican nomination of Donald Trump, a party outsider who has propagated conspiracy theories questioning President Barack Obama's birthplace.
Wood says those suspicious of the government also tend to be more aware of "actual historical conspiracies, where the government did something shady."
