9/11 TRUTHERS BECOME PARANOID PANDEMIC DENIERS

Twenty years on, pandemic gives 9/11 conspiracists fresh impetus

Issued on: 06/09/2021 

A hijacked commercial plane approaches the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001

 SETH MCALLISTER AFP/File

Washington (AFP)

For Heather Bauer, 9/11 anniversaries are about something other than the fallen Twin Towers, smoking wreckage at the Pentagon, and a crashed airliner in a Pennsylvania field.

Instead of the accepted version of events -- that Al-Qaeda conducted the attacks -- she believes the US government was primarily responsible. That is among falsehoods being promoted at various events to mark the 20th anniversary of September 11.

"I question absolutely everything now, and I wonder how much or what we have been told of history is even really true," Bauer told AFP. That includes Covid-19, which she does not believe exists.

Bauer, a Wisconsin homemaker, was 14 when the attacks left nearly 3,000 people dead.

She believed the official narrative for years, but after falling into QAnon conspiracy theories, she looked again at the 9/11 story. She now thinks the attacks were orchestrated to justify the war in Iraq that followed in 2003.

She is a devoted adherent of the 9/11 truther movement. Its members tirelessly discuss online what they see as evidence that the Twin Towers fell because of controlled demolition techniques, not because commercial planes flew into them.

Those claims were developed in incredible detail over the past 20 years, and have been debunked just as minutely by documentarians and journalists.

The general idea, including the oft-cited "jet fuel can't melt steel beams" argument, is to prove that some entity must have planted explosives in the towers, because they could not have collapsed so neatly from being hit by planes.

- 'Uniquely conspiratorial country' -

In-person conferences planned by the truther community for the 20th anniversary of 9/11 will also discuss the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines.

The 17th edition of the "9/11 Truth Film Festival" will take place at an Oakland, California theater and be streamed online, featuring two documentaries related to the pandemic, including "Plandemic," a debunked documentary rife with falsehoods about the virus.

Carol Brouillet, the event's organizer and founder of the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance, said: "We have so much that we want to cover, and only eight hours."

The amount of 9/11 truther content is, as Brouillet said, enormous.

One of the festival's speakers, Ken Jenkins, alone has produced dozens of 9/11 DVDs, according to the event's webpage.

Conspiracy theories over 9/11 were the first to benefit from widespread internet access, spreading much faster than previous alternative interpretations of history, including about John F. Kennedy's assassination, and the Moon landings.

"America is a uniquely conspiratorial country," said Garrett Graff, a journalist and author of a book on the subject.

With the internet, he said, 9/11 truth theories were able to not only have a greater and faster reach than previous conspiracies, but also enabled those who believed in them to network far more effectively.

- 'Anthrax to the pandemic' -

"9/11 conspiracies arrived at the precise moment where social media and online media like YouTube really began to allow people to spread these ideas in big and colorful and compelling ways," he added.

Like Brouillet's group, the Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry will hold a conference on the 20th anniversary, and will feature a Covid-19 discussion.

The event is named "From 9/11-Anthrax to the Pandemic," in reference to letters containing the poisonous substance sent to journalists and politicians over several weeks in September 2001.

For Mick Harrison, an Indiana lawyer and the committee's litigation director, the connection between the anthrax in 2001 and the Covid-19 virus today is clear.

"Because we researched the history of US work on bioweapons for the anthrax case, we're now concerned that there may be an ongoing problem with the use of bioweapons in this country," Harrison said.

Asked about why they are fighting to overturn an established 20-year-old narrative, Bauer and Harrison both said they saw it as a civic duty.

"I'm trying to make this country better by making its government more democratic, more accountable, more transparent," Harrison said.

"9/11 is a big problem in that regard, because we still don't know the truth about what happened."

© 2021 AFP

9/11: Remembering The CIA’s Failure To Protect America – OpEd

A New York City fireman calls for 10 more rescue workers to make their way into the rubble of the World Trade Center site of the 9/11 attacks. U.S. Navy Photo by Journalist 1st Class Preston Keres, Wikipedia Commons.


September 10, 2026

By K. Lloyd Billingsley



Key Takeaways:

The author marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11 by arguing the CIA—and the FBI—failed to stop the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, including 24 Canadians.

John Brennan’s memoir is cited as evasive (Pentagon “attacked,” Pennsylvania plane “crashed,” little on the World Trade Center).  After the failure, the piece notes bigger CIA budgets and no clear account of bosses being fired; Tenet and Mueller kept their jobs.

Homeland Security and later CIA years are tied to later U.S. attacks. The author backs Angelo Codevilla’s call to abolish FISA, reform the FBI, and break up the CIA—presented as overdue congressional work, not a finding of new 9/11 facts.

On Sep. 11, 2001, al Qaeda terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people from many nations, including 24 Canadians. On the 25th anniversary, the people might recall the U.S. agency that failed to stop the worst attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor in 1941.

“At the CIA, our mission is to preempt threats and further U.S. national security objectives,” claims the secretive agency, whose budget is classified. Consider this account of the 9/11 events from John Brennan, a CIA officer since 1980 and CIA director from 2013 to 2017.

“We learned that the Pentagon had been attacked and that a plane had crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,” wrote Brennan. “George [CIA director George Tenet] called his senior staff back into the room to coordinate actions that the CIA would need to take as the attack against our homeland was unfolding,” starting with the evacuation of the CIA building.

That is from Brennan’s Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, at Home and Abroad, published in 2020. The author, Tenet’s chief of staff on 9/11, doesn’t explain how, exactly, the Pentagon was “attacked.” The former CIA boss also fails to mention the hijackers’ primary target, the World Trade Center, where most of the nearly 3,000 victims perished.

In a similar evasive style, the Pennsylvania plane had only “crashed,” with no mention of the heroic passengers who took down the airliner in a field before it could reach its target in New York or Washington. After this colossal failure, Brennan writes, the CIA “demonstrated its agility by “deploying officers to Afghanistan,” where the terrorists were hiding in caves.

The former CIA director is “absolutely certain” that al Qaeda “would have succeeded in carrying out devastating attacks against the United States after 9/11, including in the homeland, had it not been for the outstanding work of CIA officers around the world.” The people have cause to wonder if those are the same “outstanding” officers who failed to see 9/11 coming in the first place.

After 9/11, Brennan notes, the CIA budget was “significantly increased,” which implies that the problem was not enough money. So in the best bureaucratic tradition, the failure to prevent 9/11 earned a financial reward, but there was more to it.


George Tenet remained CIA director until 2004, and Brennan does not say if any CIA bosses were disciplined, demoted, or dismissed after 9/11. To be fair, the Federal Bureau of Investigation also failed to prevent 9/11, and director Robert Mueller held the top post until 2013, the longest span since J. Edgar Hoover. On the watch of Mueller and Tenet, other bureaucratic failures were in the works.

George W. Bush, president on 9/11, oversaw the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. In the style of the CIA and FBI, the DHS failed to prevent terrorist attacks at Fort Hood (2009), the Boston Marathon (2013), San Bernardino (2015), and Orlando in 2016, when John Brennan was still running the CIA and targeting enemies “at home.”

If friends and loved ones of the 9/11 victims thought the CIA was a failure at its duly appointed tasks, it would be hard to blame them. Those in search of a solution should consider the late Angelo Codevilla, author of Informing Statecraft: Intelligence for a New Century.

As a staffer on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Codevilla was one of the few to see everything on the CIA’s wish list. In 2020, the same year as Brennan’s Undaunted, Codevilla made a strong case to abolish FISA, reform the FBI, and “break up” the CIA. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Congress should get started on those long-overdue reforms.

This article was also published in The American Spectator

About K. Lloyd Billingsley
K. Lloyd Billingsley is a Policy Fellow at the Independent Institute and a columnist at The Daily Caller.
View all posts by K. Lloyd Billingsley →

Trump absent as New York marks 25 years since 9/11 with first Muslim mayor

New York marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on Friday, with President Donald Trump attending a ceremony at the Pentagon while Vice President JD Vance and four former presidents join commemorations at Ground Zero, where victims’ relatives will read the names of those killed.

Issued on: 11/09/2026 -
By: FRANCE 24

The 9/11 attacks killed almost 3,000 people, most of them at the World Trade Center in New York © JOHN MOORE, AFP

New York commemorates the 25th anniversary of the devastating September 11, 2001 attacks Friday with a ceremony marked by US President Donald Trump's absence and right-wing outrage at the attendance of the city's first Muslim mayor.

Trump will pay his respects at the Pentagon, not New York, where hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center and killed most of the 2,977 total victims on that world-altering day.

Vice President JD Vance and Trump's four living predecessors -- Republican George W. Bush, who was in office during the attacks, and Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton -- are all expected at the "Ground Zero" site in lower Manhattan.

No one will give speeches at the ceremony, while bereaved family members will read out the names of all of those killed and a bell rung to mark major moments during the attack.

"Memorials like this and discussions about those events are an important part of keeping it alive and understanding how we prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again," said Robert Kafka, a Chicagoan in his 60s visiting the 9/11 Memorial.

01:55

Alongside the former presidents will be Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Big Apple's first Muslim mayor, despite a campaign urging him to stay away spearheaded by the right-wing New York Post and former mayor Rudy Giuliani.

A petition, which has gathered more than 100,000 signatures, accuses Mamdani of associating with unspecified individuals who are "dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies."

"It's concerning to me that the mayor is being treated differently simply because he is Muslim," city council member Shahana Hanif told CNN.

Mamdani won plaudits however for recently revealing thousands of documents showing what city officials knew about toxicity levels of the air in Lower Manhattan following the attacks.

After the initial dust cloud that followed the collapse of the World Trade Center, months of pollution and lingering dust ensued, causing cancers from which thousands of New Yorkers still suffer today.

'Toxic air'

"People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air," Mamdani said Tuesday.

Nineteen Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four planes on that nearly cloudless day in 2001. Two jets slammed into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, causing the iconic 110-story buildings to collapse.

A third plane struck the Pentagon, while a fourth crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back.

Beyond those killed on September 11, more than 9,400 other people have died from 9/11-related illnesses, according to the federal program established to provide medical care to those affected.

Some 100 million Americans were not even born or are too young to remember the tragic events.

Logan Miller, 32, lost his uncle during the attacks, and his grandfather to 9/11-related illness in the aftermath.

"I think the next generation just can't fathom what actually transpired and how someone could be impacted by that, and so I actually find them asking more questions," he told AFP.

Huge crowds are expected to gather in Lower Manhattan for the memorial service.

The Secret Service has erected a security ring of steel around the site of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

Police commissioner Jessica Tisch said an anti-drone team would be deployed as a precaution, but stressed there was no intelligence of a specific threat to the gathering.

Al-Qaeda meanwhile has marked the anniversary by releasing a video showing images of late leader Osama bin Laden and his son Hamza, who Trump said in 2019 had also been killed.

Ahead of the memorial, a drone show with 2,977 lights rose above New York Harbor, one for each person killed in the attacks.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

 

25 years on, 9/11 continues to cast a long shadow over the US

Copyright Alexandre Fuchs/Copyright 2021 The AP. All rights reserved

By Simon Ormiston

Published on 11/09/2026 - EURONEWS

Alongside the thousands of Americans killed on 9/11, dozens of Europeans lost their lives that day — and 25 years on, some of the people accused of being behind the attacks have still not faced justice.

A quarter of a century after hijacked planes struck New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the attacks of 11 September 2001 remain lodged in the American psyche more firmly than almost any other event of the past 25 years.

A new Ipsos poll finds that roughly half of US adults, unprompted, name 9/11 among the most significant events of their lifetime — ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, the elections of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and Hurricane Katrina of 2005.

Nine in ten say the attacks changed the country "a great deal" or "quite a bit," and most Americans can still recall exactly where they were when they heard the news.

Yet despite that lasting wound, only around one in ten plan to actively mark Friday's anniversary - for those that do a moment of silence and the flying of the flag are the most common gestures.

Two planes flew into the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11 killing 2,977 people. 11 September, 2001. Chao Soi Cheong/Copyright 2026 The AP. All rights reserved

Confidence in the government's ability to prevent another attack has also declined steadily since the record highs recorded in the days after 2001.

What's planned for the 25th anniversary?

Commemorations will unfold across the three sites. In New York, victims' relatives will gather on the Memorial plaza to read aloud the names of those killed, punctuated by seven moments of silence — one more than in previous years, added to honour those who have since died of 9/11-related illnesses.

Ceremonies will also take place at the Pentagon in Arlington and at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

People were forced to flee as the streets around lower Manhattan were covered in a thick ash after the twin towers collapsed. 11 September, 2001. SUZANNE PLUNKETT/2001 AP

Trump will not attend the New York ceremony this year, opting to speak at the Pentagon instead.

Vice President JD Vance will go to Ground Zero - the area where the first search for survivors in began - while former presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are also expected to attend the New York event.

Why is it called 9/11?

For some, the shorthand can seem puzzling. The date was the eleventh day of the ninth month but the American convention of writing dates with the month-first leads to "9/11" which also mirrors how the emergency number 911 is dialled in the US.

How many Europeans died in 9/11?

While nearly 3,000 Americans died in the event, hundreds of foreign nationals were also among the dead. Estimates place the number of non-American victims at roughly 372, drawn from around 60 countries.

Britain suffered the heaviest toll of any country besides the US, with 67 nationals killed. Germany, Italy, Ireland and other European states also lost citizens, many of them financial workers employed at or visiting the World Trade Center.

Over 2,600 pieces of the World Trade Center were distributed across the US and 11 other countries including this display in London. FILE AP Photo

American financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald occupied floors 101 through 105 of the World Trade Center's North Tower, directly above the impact zone of American Airlines Flight 11.

The company employed a number of Europeans and in total 658 employees were killed that day - the largest loss of life of any individual firm.

Number of Europeans killed in 9/11 attacks:

• United Kingdom — 67
• Germany — 11
• Italy — 10
• Ireland — 6
• Poland — 6
• Portugal — 5
• France — 4
• Romania — 4
• FR Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) — 2
• Sweden — 2
• Switzerland — 2
• Belarus, Belgium, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Ukraine - 1 per country

What happened to the perpetrators?

All 19 hijackers died carrying out the attacks - 15 were Saudi nationals, two from the United Arab Emirates, and one from Egypt and one from Lebanon.

Behind them stood the wider terrorist al-Qaeda network who claimed direct responsibility for the attacks. Osama bin Laden, the group's leader, evaded capture for almost a decade before being killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.

His eventual successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed in a drone strike in Kabul in 2022.

The self-described "mastermind" of the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and has been held at Guantánamo Bay since 2006 charged with the first-degree murder of 2,977 people.

A US military judge has now set his long-delayed trial to begin in June 2028, alongside several alleged co-conspirators, following a collapsed 2024 plea deal that would have seen the men admit guilt in exchange for the death penalty being removed from sentencing options.

Proceedings have dragged for over two decades amid disputes over evidence obtained through the use of torture, including waterboarding, at secret CIA sites.

Never Forget Bush’s Bait-And-Switch Iraq War – OpEd

February 17, 2026
By James Bovard

A few presidencies ago, Washington politicians used boundless political and intellectual chicanery to drag America into a ruinous war. Thousands of Americans died and scores of thousands of Iraqis perished due to the official myth of Saddam Hussein as the Twentieth Hijacker.

Last November, Axios published new damning information on the role of Saudi government officials in bankrolling the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. Private lawsuits against the Saudi regime “unearthed evidence showing one Saudi official — who acknowledges aiding two men who became hijackers — made a drawing of a plane and a mathematical formula that allegedly could have been used to fly into the World Trade Center.”

That was only the latest stunning revelation in a coverup that will celebrate its 25th birthday this year.

In 2002 and early 2003, the Bush administration rushed to exploit 9/11 to justify invading Iraq. But there was a problem with that con job. A 2002 FBI memo stated that there was “incontrovertible evidence that there is support for these [9/11 hijacker] terrorists within the Saudi Government.” A joint House-Senate congressional investigation found extensive evidence that the Saudi government, not Saddam Hussein, propelled the hijackers. The Bush administration succeeded in suppressing the key 28 pages of that congressional report on the Saudi role on 9/11. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) became a leading proponent of declassifying those 28 pages, declaring in 2013: “If the 9/11 hijackers had outside help — particularly from one or more foreign governments — the press and the public have a right to know what our government has or has not done to bring justice to all of the perpetrators.”

Those 28 page were finally released (mostly) in 2016, revealing how Saudi government officials directly financed and provided diplomatic cover for several of the hijackers in the U.S. shortly before they unleashed havoc.

Truth delayed is truth defused. Blocking the evidence of the Saudi bankrolling of 9/11 enabled the Bush administration to kill tens of thousands of Iraqis.

The Bush administration sold the Iraq war as payback for 9/11. While false claims by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) have received ample coverage, the Bush Saudi-Iraqi Bait-and-Switch has faded into memory.

In a memo Bush sent on March 18, 2003, notifying Congress that he was launching a war against Iraq, Bush declared that he was acting “to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.”

Bush invoked this justification even though his administration had never offered a shred of evidence tying Saddam to 9/11. Bush and team continually threw out new accusations and then backed off, knowing that few people were paying close enough attention to recognize that previous charges had collapsed like a houses of cards.

In the first months after 9/11, there was little mention of Iraq in the public pronouncements by Bush and his top officials. But in his State of the Union address on January 29, 2002, Bush stunned many people by announcing that Iraq, along with Iran and North Korea, were part of an “axis of evil.” Since the war on terrorism had stratospheric support levels in the polls from the American people, the best way to sanctify a war against Iraq was to redefine it as part of the war on terrorism. Bush declared on September 25, 2002: “Al Qaeda hides, Saddam doesn’t, but the danger is, is that they work in concert. The danger is that al Qaeda becomes an extension of Saddam’s madness and his hatred and his capacity to extend weapons of mass destruction around the world. . . . You can’t distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror. They’re both equally as bad, and equally as evil, and equally as destructive.”

The next day, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that the U.S. possessed “bulletproof ” evidence linking Saddam and Al Qaeda. But it was a bullet that could never be exposed to sunlight. An earlier alleged link between Iraqi agents and hijacker Mohamed Atta meeting in Prague had collapsed, with the story disavowed by both the CIA and the Czech government.

On October 7, 2002, Bush, speaking to a selective audience of Republican donors in Cincinnati, laid out his logic: “We know that Iraq and the Al Qaida terrorist network share a common enemy—the United States of America. We know that Iraq and Al Qaida have had high-level contacts that go back a decade… And we know that after September the 11th, Saddam Hussein’s regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America.” The fact that some Iraqis cheered the carnage on September 11 proved Saddam could team up with Al Qaeda for a second 9/11.

The link between Saddam and Al Qaeda then took a three-month recess, returning in the 2003 State of the Union address, when Bush declared that “Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda.” Bush reached for the ultimate hot button: “Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans, this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known.”

Three days later, when Bush was directly asked by a journalist at a White House press conference, “Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on September the 11th?” Bush replied: “I can’t make that claim.” Yet, that did not stop him from endlessly making the inference.

But the Bush administration’s new “evidence” failed the laugh test. The Los Angeles Times revealed: “The Bush administration’s renewed assertions of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda are based largely on the murky case of a one-legged Al Qaeda suspect who was treated in Baghdad after being wounded in the war in Afghanistan.” Time noted of Bush’s message on Saddam and Al Qaeda: “If there was no visible evidence to link the two, he just used that fact to argue his point: the danger is everywhere, even if we can’t see it; the threat is growing, even if we can’t prove it. The Administration’s argument for war is based not on the strength of America’s Intelligence but on its weakness.”

In the days after 9/11, when pollsters asked Americans who they thought had carried out the 9/11 attacks, only 3 percent of respondents suggested Iraq or Saddam Hussein as culprits. But by February 2003, 72 percent of Americans believed that Hussein was “personally involved in the September 11 attacks.” Shortly before the March 2003 invasion, almost half of all Americans believed that “most” or “some” of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens. Only 17 percent of respondents knew that none of the hijackers were Iraqis. Seventy-three percent believed that Saddam “is currently helping al-Qaeda.”

American soldiers were hit with more concentrated doses of propaganda than private citizens. A 2006 poll of American troops revealed that 85% believed the U.S. mission sought “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9/11 attacks.” That belief likely helped spur some of atrocities against Iraqi civilians by U.S. troops.

U.S. intelligence agencies always knew that the Saddam-9/11 link was a political concoction by pro-war politicians. In July 2004, the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a 511-page report that recognized that the CIA accurately concluded that “to date there was no evidence proving Iraqi complicity or assistance” in the 9/11 attacks. The report noted that the CIA’s accurate judgments on Saddam, Al Qaeda, and the non-link to 9/11 “were widely disseminated [prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq], though an early version of a key CIA assessment was disseminated only to a limited list of Cabinet members and some sub-Cabinet officials in the administration.”

Neither George Bush nor Dick Cheney were ever held liable for their lies that led to carnage in Iraq. Perhaps that is the biggest lesson that Washington policymakers take from the Iraq War.

On the campaign trail in 2015 and 2016, Donald Trump sounded as if he recognized the vast folly of invading Iraq to topple Saddam. But Trump’s promise to “end the endless wars” seems like a hundred years ago. An Associated Press poll last month found that 56% of Americans believed that Trump had already “gone too far” with his military interventions abroad. But will pro-war politicians and political appointees fabricate new pretexts to attack Iran or elsewhere?

An earlier version of this piece was published by the Libertarian Institute.

James Bovard

James Bovard, 2023 Brownstone Fellow, is author and lecturer whose commentary targets examples of waste, failures, corruption, cronyism and abuses of power in government. He is a USA Today columnist and is a frequent contributor to The Hill. He is the author of ten books, including Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty.

9/11: Twenty years on, responders still paying a heavy price

The attacks’ horrific impact continues to be felt, with research from Edith Cowan University in Australia revealing rescue workers are still battling significant health issues related to the event.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: RESPONDERS CONTINUE TO FACE HEALTH ISSUES DUE TO 9/11. view more 

CREDIT: UNSPLASH.

New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Australia has revealed responders to the 9/11 terrorist attacks are still suffering 20 years later, with many facing significant health issues related to the event.  

More than 91,000 responders were exposed to a range of hazards during recovery and clean-up operations, with 80,785 enrolling in the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) set up after the attacks.  

ECU Associate Professor Erin Smith is an expert in disaster and emergency response. Her analysis of WTCHP participants shows 3439 are now dead – far more than the 412 who died on the day of the attacks – with aerodigestive illness (34 per cent) the number one cause, ahead of cancer (30 per cent) and mental health (15 per cent).  

Deaths attributed to these three factors and musculoskeletal and acute traumatic injuries have increased six-fold since the start of 2016.  

More than 36,000 (45 per cent) WTCHP participants have respiratory illness, 16 per cent have cancer and a further 16 per cent have mental health illness.   

An ongoing battle  

Professor Smith said the ongoing effects of the attacks were clear, as 16,009 responders only enrolled in the WTCHP in the past five years.  

“The number of responders enrolling in the program continues to steadily rise,” she said.  

The research shows cancer among 9/11 responders is up 185 per cent over the past five years – with leukaemia emerging as particularly prevalent.  

“Leukemia has overtaken colon and bladder cancer in the rankings,” Professor Smith said.   

“This equates to an increase of 175 per cent in certified leukemia cases within this cohort of responders over a five-year period.  

“It’s not surprising: there is a proven link between benzene exposure and acute myeloid leukemia, and benzene is found in jet fuel which was one of the toxic exposures at the WTC site.”  

Prostate cancer is also common among responders, increasing 181 per cent since 2016. Although this fits with the age profile of many WTCHP participants, Professor Smith said some responders develop an aggressive, fast-growing form of prostate cancer.  

“Inhaling the toxic dust at the WTC site potentially caused a cascading series of cellular events, increasing the number of inflammatory T-cells in some of these 9/11 responders,” she said.  

“This increased inflammation may eventually lead to prostate cancer.”  

The mental effects  

It’s estimated 15 to 20 per cent of 9/11 responders are living with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms – roughly four times the rate of the general population.   

Despite 20 years having passed, many studies show PTSD is a growing problem for responders, which contrasts with the decline found in the general population.  

“Even almost 20 years later, the prevalence of mental health disorders and need for mental health treatment remains elevated among this group of 9/11 responders: almost half of all responders report an ongoing need for mental health care,” Professor Smith said.  

Researchers have also found many brain scans on 9/11 responders indicate the onset of early-stage dementia.   

This is consistent with previous work noting cognitive impairment among responders occurs at about twice the rate of people 10 to 20 years older.  

COVID and other emerging threats  

Responders’ underlying conditions have also left them uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19, due to illnesses such as cancer and respiratory ailments.  

More than 100 have died due to complications from the virus, which has also exacerbated many responders’ PTSD symptoms.  

It’s also expected the number of responders with cancers associated with their exposure to asbestos at the World Trade Center site will rise in the coming years, as mesothelioma usually takes 20-50 years to develop.  

“We are now beginning to understand the long-term effects of responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” Professor Smith said.  

“9/11-exposure is still causing both physical and mental health impact to responders and it’s likely responders are still developing illnesses related to their exposures.”  

9/11 RESPONDER HEALTH STATISTICS  

CAUSES OF DEATH (3439 FATALITIES)  

1. Aerodigestive illness (34 per cent)  

1. Cancer (30 per cent)  

1. Mental health (15 per cent)  

MOST COMMON CANCERS   

1. Non-melanoma skin cancer  

1. Prostate cancer  

1. Melanoma  

MOST COMMON AERODIGESTIVE ILLNESSES AMONG 9/11 RESPONDERS  

1. Asthma   

1. Chronic rhinosinusitis  

1. Gastroesophageal reflux disease  

Background 

Erin Smith is an Associate Professor in Disaster and Emergency response at Edith Cowan University’s School of Medical and Health Sciences. 

Based in Melbourne, she has spent the past 18 years researching the ongoing effects of the 9/11 attacks after meeting the widow of a firefighter at a Brooklyn café. 

She has since had many research papers published on the topic. 

Her latest paper, Health trends among 9/11 responders from 2011-2021: A review of World Trade Center Health Program statistics, is published in Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.

---

JOURNAL

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine

DOI

10.1017/S1049023X21000881 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Health Trends among 9/11 Responders from 2011–2021: A Review of World Trade Center Health Program Statistics

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Sep-2021

COI STATEMENT

None

Decades after toxic exposure, 9/11 first responders may still lower their risk of lung injury

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NYU LANGONE HEALTH / NYU GROSSMAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Losing weight and treating excess levels of fat in the blood may help prevent lung disease in firefighters exposed to dangerous levels of fine particles from fire, smoke, and toxic chemicals on Sept. 11, 2001, a new study shows. Experts have long feared that this exposure would later lead to lung disease in first responders. High body mass index (BMI), an indicator of obesity, and exposure to the highest levels of toxins from the attack on the World Trade Center were the two greatest risk factors for lowered lung function, according to the study authors.

After two decades of research analyzing thousands of first responders, a new investigation led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine identified a cluster of five factors that predicted lung disease in these patients. Along with excess body fat, the combination of insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and increased levels of sugar and cholesterol in the blood are components of so-called metabolic syndrome, a group of medical issues known to raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Adjusting at least one of these factors, the study investigators found, can greatly lower the risk of firefighters’ developing lung disease within five years, even 20 years after toxic exposures at Ground Zero. For example, for a male firefighter of average height, a 7-pound weight loss could decrease his risk for lung injury by 20 percent.

“Our findings should reassure World Trade Center first responders that there are steps they can take to protect their lungs even decades after exposure,” says study co-lead author Sophia Kwon, DO, MPH. Kwon is a fellow in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep at NYU Langone Health.

In work presented earlier this year on 100 overweight 9/11 firefighters, the team found that placing patients on a calorie-restricted Mediterranean diet featuring unrefined grains, olive oil, fruits, and fish reduced their risk of lung disease. Those following the regimen for six months lost nearly 2 BMI points (from an average BMI of about 33 to an average of 31) and had fewer signs of lung disease than they had reported before the study period.

“These results offer firefighters a concrete way to lose weight and achieve the lung-health benefits predicted by our risk model,” says study co-lead author George Crowley, BA, a predoctoral fellow at NYU Langone. 

Experts had previously understood that first responders who developed metabolic syndrome shortly after 9/11 were more likely to have higher rates of asthma. However, lung injury risks for a firefighter whose metabolic syndrome instead appeared later in life remained unclear until now.

The new study, publishing Sept. 2 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, is part of what is likely the longest-running and most thorough exploration of the impact of metabolic syndrome on lung injury in 9/11 firefighters, according to the study authors. In addition, the investigation is the first to date to quantify how adjusting one or more of these risk factors changes lung disease risk.

For the investigation, the research team analyzed 20 years of data from more than 5,700 firefighters active on 9/11, of whom 1,475 later developed lung disease. Along with BMI, the data collected included smoking history, and whether they had served at the World Trade Center in early morning when pollutant exposure was at its peak.

“The lessons from our investigation can be applied not only to firefighters but to the millions of city dwellers exposed to air pollution on a daily basis,” says study senior author and pulmonologist Anna Nolan, MD. “They should be aware that while their environment poses real health risks, they may still minimize their risk of lung disease even if they cannot change their exposure.”

Nolan, a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Environmental Health at NYU Langone, cautions that while promising, the Mediterranean diet investigation only examined a small, specific group.

As a result, the research team next plans to expand the study to determine whether the diet could benefit a more diverse population who have been similarly exposed to urban pollutants. They also plan to explore how metabolic syndrome may affect other measures of lung function like asthma, says Nolan.

Funding for the study was provided by National Institutes of Health grants R01 HL119326 and CDC/NIOSH U01 OH11300, and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant R01 ES032808. Further funding support was provided by the World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Centers of Excellence 200-2017-93426 and Data Center 200-2017-93326.

In addition to Kwon, Crowley, and Nolan, other NYU Langone investigators involved in the study included Myeonggyun Lee, MS, and Mengling Liu, PhD. Other study authors were Theresa Schwartz, MS; Rachel Zeig-Owens, DrPhil, MPH; and David Prezant, MD; at the Fire Department of New York in Brooklyn.

 

Media Inquiries

Shira Polan

212-404-4279

shira.polan@nyulangone.org

---

JOURNAL

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Dynamic Metabolic Risk Profiling of World Trade Center-Lung Disease: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Sep-2021

Rethinking 9/11: Fascism, Memory, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century

by Henry Giroux

 September 13, 2024
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Photograph Source: Jason Power • Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 2.0) • Flickr

At this moment in history, we find ourselves in a society defined by relentless speed, overwhelming amounts of information, the proliferation of misinformation, and widening inequality.[1] Fascist politics are increasingly legitimized, long-term commitments are devalued, and the far-right’s vision of society constantly shifts, maintaining control through chaos and confusion. In such an environment, memory becomes fragmented and diluted, stripped of its complexity. The gravity of loss and its emancipatory possibilities are divorced from both the past and present, with little effort made to examine how it shapes politics, democracy, and the future. Loss is now produced and legitimized through historical amnesia—a refusal to interrogate, critically engage, or unearth history as a resource for addressing current crises.

Now, 23 years after 9/11, we must ask ourselves: what lessons have we truly learned from that tragic day? How did we, as a society, squander the political and moral opportunities to nurture the newfound sense of solidarity that emerged from such a profound crisis? And how did American foreign policy, through the war on terror, contribute to shaping contemporary Afghanistan—now one of the most repressive countries in the world, especially for women?[2]

Today, the rise of far-right authoritarianism and fascism, especially in the United States, is exacerbated by a society that prioritizes instant gratification, the commodification of experience, and a relentless focus on material self-interest. The triumph of corporate capitalism has led to staggering economic and political inequities and a disavowal of collective civic engagement. Public life has become privatized, government is demonized, and a culture of cruelty and hyper-individualism reigns. Within this landscape, “loss tends to be an experience we are advised to ‘get past.’” [3] But the consequences of this loss—whether it’s the erosion of democracy or the undermining of civic duty—are profound. What was once called “a war on terror” following 9/11 has produced in the last 23 years a country in which fear, if not domestic terrorism, has become central to politics itself.

The Post-9/11 Landscape: Memory, Militarism, and Fascism’s Roots

The decades following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, have been pivotal in shaping this shift toward authoritarianism and fascist politics in the U.S. Initially, 9/11 triggered a collective moment of grief and shared vulnerability, but it also laid the groundwork for militarism, xenophobia, and the erosion of civil liberties. The way in which 9/11 has been remembered and commemorated reflects a tension between genuine collective memory and the manipulation of that memory for political opportunism.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the United States experienced a fleeting moment of national unity, idealism, and solidarity. The loss of nearly 3,000 Americans, followed by over 6,000 more due to illnesses linked to toxic exposure at Ground Zero, sparked a profound collective mourning. In our vulnerability, we found compassion, a renewed dedication to public service, and a shared purpose grounded in sacrifice. Public servants—firefighters, police officers—were hailed as heroes, and the social contract seemed temporarily rebuilt around common goals. In that brief window, the country appeared to embrace a sense of community that transcended a poisonous and unchecked individualism.

Memory, however, can serve as both a symbol of despair and a threshold for hope, often blurring the line between the two. The shock and violence of 9/11 ruptured an era that had prematurely declared the end of ideology, history, and global conflict, replacing that narrative with unbearable grief, sorrow, and loss. Two and a half decades later, we face the burden of not only remembering the victims of that barbaric violence but also of asking what remains of the fleeting moment when community, solidarity, and compassion briefly reemerged from the shadows. What does it mean to expand our understanding of the loss experienced after 9/11 and recognize that, for a short time, this tragedy presented a rare opportunity—a “crucial experiment” in which the very possibility of the social state and democracy itself was once again up for debate?[4]

In the days following 9/11, the American public glimpsed what philosopher Étienne Balibar has termed “the insurrectional element of democracy,” a moment when “the very possibility of a community among humans” came into sharp focus.[5] Yet, just as quickly, this idealism was hijacked. The Bush administration exploited the tragedy as a springboard to expand the military-industrial complex, erode civil liberties through the Patriot Act, and launch a series of unjust wars. Instead of nurturing democratic values, 9/11 became a pretext for fear-mongering, increased surveillance, and hyper-nationalism, laying the groundwork for the rise of far-right extremism in the U.S. and perpetuating a culture of fear and suppression.

As the memory of 9/11 was weaponized, it shifted from a moment of unity to a tool for fostering divisions. The so-called “War on Terror” was steeped in racism and xenophobia, with Muslims and immigrants becoming scapegoats. Within a short period of time, the notorious war on “terror” ‘included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, unleashed blood and brutality from the Middle East, Asia and Africa to major European capitals [and] resulted in nearly a million dead and 38 million refugees.[7] This laid the groundwork for authoritarian policies that have only intensified in the years since. Fascism, which thrives on fear, resentment, and the dehumanization of the “other,” found fertile soil in this post-9/11 landscape, and is now a central organizing principle of the Republican Party in the United States.

The Rise of Fascism in the United States: From 9/11 to Trumpism

The rise of fascist politics in the U.S. is partly indebted to the post-9/11 period. After the initial surge of patriotism, the Bush administration’s policies ushered in a new era of militarism and nationalism that blurred the lines between democracy and authoritarianism. The erosion of civil liberties, mass surveillance, and the expansion of the security state created a framework for the far-right to build upon. These seeds blossomed under Donald Trump’s presidency, which took the latent fascist tendencies of the post-9/11 era and amplified them.

Trumpism represents the most overt manifestation of fascism in modern America. His presidency was characterized by the embrace of white nationalism, the rejection of democratic norms, and the stoking of fear, division, and hate. Trump’s rhetoric targeted immigrants, Muslims, and people of color, framing them as existential threats to the American way of life. His administration’s policies mirrored this fascist ideology, from the family separation policy at the U.S.-Mexico border to the Muslim travel ban. Trump’s alignment with far-right extremists, including his tacit endorsement of neo-Nazis and white supremacists, fueled the rise of violent far-right movements.

This shift toward authoritarianism was further cemented by Trump’s attacks on the media, judiciary, and democratic institutions. His refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and the subsequent January 6th insurrection were the culmination of years of undermining the pillars of democracy. Trump’s influence continues to loom large, as far-right extremism remains a potent force in American politics, emboldened by his rhetoric and policies. In his September 10^thdebate with Vice President Kamal Harris, Trump made clear both his embrace of authoritarianism and his addiction to lies, racism, pathological misogyny, contempt for democracy, and embrace of dictators like Viktor Orban—a modern dictator who has claimed he is against mixed races and democracy itself.

The Crisis of Memory and the Erosion of Democracy

The rise of fascism in the U.S. cannot be understood without recognizing the role that memory—or the lack thereof—plays in shaping contemporary politics. Memory is both a tool of resistance and a weapon of manipulation. In the post-9/11 world, collective memory has been eroded, commodified, and weaponized by those in power. The memory of 9/11 has been used to justify wars, normalize surveillance, and erode civil liberties. Meanwhile, historical amnesia about the dangers of fascism has allowed far-right movements to rebrand themselves and grow.

This crisis of memory is reflected in how the public increasingly disconnects from the past, failing to learn from the lessons of history. Fascism thrives on this amnesia, presenting itself as a new solution to old problems while obscuring the horrors of its past iterations. In the U.S., the failure to reckon with the country’s legacy of racism, violence, and inequality has allowed far-right movements to flourish under the guise of nationalism and patriotism. Moreover, corporate culture has not only normalized fascist politics in the U.S., it embraces it in its cultural politics and the powerful media platforms at its disposable. For instance, Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News star who is currently hosting one of America’s top podcasts, followed by millions, hosted for two hours in 2024 an apologist for Adolf Hiter. In the course of the conversation, the audience was treated to another version of Holocaust denial, the lie that Churchill not Hitler was responsible for WWII, and that everything we have been told about Nazi Germany is a lie. Michelle Goldberg captures profoundly what the implications of this type of fascist myth making means politically. She writes:

the weakening of the intellectual quarantine around Nazism — and the MAGA right’s fetish for ideas their enemies see as dangerous — makes it easier for influential conservatives to surrender to fascist impulses…. Ultimately, Holocaust denial isn’t really about history at all, but about what’s permissible in the present and imaginable in the future. If Hitler is no longer widely understood as the negation of our deepest values, America will be softened up for Donald Trump’s most authoritarian plans, including imprisoning masses of undocumented immigrants in vast detention camps. [6]

The attack on and falsification of memory is central to the rise of fascism. Instead of engaging with the complexities of the past, public memory is increasingly reduced to spectacle. Events like 9/11 are transformed into symbols of victimhood and used to stoke fear and division, rather than being platforms for reflection and dialogue. This pathological rewriting of memory erases the possibility of solidarity and collective responsibility, leaving a vacuum that fascism fills with its narrative of fear and exclusion.

Democracy in Crisis: Fighting Fascism Today

In the face of these rising threats, the fight against fascism and the defense of democracy have become urgent. The authoritarian drift in the U.S., intensified by post-9/11 policies and accelerated by the Trump era, has placed democratic institutions in peril. The suppression of voting rights, the rise of disinformation, and the erosion of trust in public institutions are all part of this broader attack on democracy. Yet, there is hope. The resurgence of democratic movements—whether through racial justice protests, climate activism, or efforts to protect voting rights—demonstrates that the fight for democracy is not over. These movements are a reminder that solidarity, memory, and collective responsibility remain powerful antidotes to fascism. They challenge the authoritarian narrative of division and exclusion with one of inclusivity and shared purpose.

Conclusion: Memory, Fascism, and the Future of Democracy

The rise of fascism in the U.S. post-9/11 is a stark reminder that democracy is fragile and requires constant vigilance. The erosion of memory, the commodification of loss, and the manipulation of fear have all contributed to the current crisis. Far-right movements thrive in this environment, exploiting societal divisions, fostering fear, and undermining democratic institutions.

But the future is not yet written. The challenge now is to reclaim the memory of past struggles against fascism, rebuild collective solidarity, and reimagine a democratic future. This means confronting the forces of neoliberalism and authoritarianism, resisting the pull of fascist politics, and embracing a vision of democracy rooted in justice, equality, and shared responsibility. Memory must be a tool for resistance, guiding us as we confront the dangers of fascism and work to create a future where democracy can truly flourish.

[1] Jonathan Crary, 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, (Verso, 2013) (Brooklyn, NY: Verso Press, 2013).
[2] Ishaan Tharoor, “Afghan women endure draconian Taliban, 23 years after 9/11,” The Washington Post (September 11, 2024). https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/11/afghanistan-women-taliban-rights/

[3]. Sheldon Wolin takes up this issue in Sheldon Wolin, “Political Theory: From Vocation to Invocation,” in Jason Frank and John Tambornino, eds. Vocations of Political Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), pp. 3-22.
[4]. Etienne Balibar, We, The People of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), p. 116
[5]. Ibid., Balibar, p. 119.
[6] Michelle Goldberg, “Tucker Carlson Welcomes a Hitler Apologist to His Show” The New York Times [September 6, 2024]. Online: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/opinion/tucker-carlson-holocaust-denial.html

[7]”FN Not only did the “anti-terrorist wars” cost of $1.5 trillion dollars, they unleashed a regime of torture, abductions, Black sites, and a regime of terror. Nikos Mpogiopolous,” September 11,” Imerodromos (September 11, 2024): https://www.imerodromos.gr/11h-septemvrh/.

This article first appeared in LA Progressive.

Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. His most recent books include: The Terror of the Unforeseen (Los Angeles Review of books, 2019), On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd edition (Bloomsbury, 2020); Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis (Bloomsbury 2021); Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance (Bloomsbury 2022) and Insurrections: Education in the Age of Counter-Revolutionary Politics (Bloomsbury, 2023), and coauthored with Anthony DiMaggio, Fascism on Trial: Education and the Possibility of Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2025). Giroux is also a member of Truthout’s board of directors.