Originally posted by brigand
How can the government possibly cover up all of those passengers? Were they fabricated names? Were they real people that were murdered before the attack? If one was to conclude that the aircraft used in the attack were in fact military as opposed to commercial, how do you explain the people on those planes. I want to believe, but I need more evidence to convince me.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
If they supposedly completely disappeared, why are there pictures of plane parts on the ground in NYC, the Pentagon, AND Shanksville? The fact is that there WAS debris from aircraft found at all three sites.

Originally posted by artysmokes
I don't understand why people like Ultima think that it wasn't hijacked commerical airliners that crashed into the WTC and the Pentagon. Millions of people have seen the US/United Airlines jets crash. Those weren't military planes. They don't need to be. Why go to the bother of using military planes and fake passenger lists, when you have a group of suicidal nutters prepared to fly and crash airliners for you? Thousands of relatives of the dead knew they were on those flights. Arguing that these people didin't exist is pretty insulting to them.

There can still be a government cover-up.
It works like this:
Muslim terrorists want to attack America. Their idea is to fly hijacked planes into famous landmarks.
Hawks in Washington want a new war. They just need someone to start it.

In effect, the CIA allowed the terrorists to attack America and possibly helped fund the attack via the Pakistani Secret Service, while also perhaps rigging the WTC with explosives to make the devastation that bit more palpable. (The boss of the Parkistani SiS - alleged to be the man who wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta 3 months before 911 - was having breakfast with the future boss of the CIA on the morning of 911, would you believe?)
All the passengers in the airliners and those killed at the Pentagon and in NYC were sacrifices. The hijackers got what they wanted (a wildly "successful" attack on America) and the Hawks got they wanted too. With the massive amount of outrage caused by the attack (mostly targeted at Muslims, rather than the Government - "Oh, they suffered losses at the Pentagon, you know") the CIA/Military got the new war they needed.

3000 cheap deaths in the US allowed multi-billion dollar industries (military, construction, oil) to prosper, thus meaning more campaign finance for the Republicans.
The bottom line is this: Bush's cronies needed a Pearl Harbour. The Islamic fundamentalists were crazy enough to supply it. The people who gained most are the ones running the companies and the government. The people who lost out are the innocent victims in the planes and on the ground, the troops now serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the general population who now lives in fear of anyone who doesn't declare themself a US Patriot.