August 21, 2002
Let Mulder and Scully Acts to Answer
The shortage of available facts did not prevent the creation of an instant legend - a legend that the US government and the US media were pleased to propagate, and that the American public have been eager, for the most part, to accept as fact. The legend goes like this: the passengers on the hijacked United flight, alerted on their mobile phones to the news of the other three hijacked planes, decide that if they are not going to save themselves at least they will do the patriotic thing and spare the lives of those who are the terrorists' intended targets; so they charge down the aisle, storm the cockpit, where a terrorist is at the controls, and, in the ensuing struggle, force the plane down.
This stunning article in the Independent reads like a lost episode of the X Files, or at least the script for a new Oliver Stone movie. While acknowledging the bravery of Flight 93's passengers, it calls into question what actually happened before it went down on 9/11. The US media has turned this tragedy into the stuff of legend, perhaps to understandably soothe a wounded nation with tales of unprecedented heroism. However, there are many unanswered questions listed in the article which can only add fuel to all kinds of conspiracy theories. Are we looking at yet another government cover-up?
Posted at August 21, 2002 06:09 PM | World
