ABSTRACT

On September 9, 2006, I returned to New York for my yearly anniversary visit. This year was particularly important, because it was the fifth anniversary of the attacks. I noticed an unusually large number of young people milling about in my hotel lobby and on the sidewalk outside. They appeared to know one another, blending themselves into small groups that stayed together and then separated again, whereas most tour groups of size tend to cluster together tightly in hotel lobbies. What was even more unusual was that these people were almost all male, and all were wearing similar black T-shirts illustrated with 9/11 iconography. Once I arrived at the WTC site, I learned that they were representatives of the 9/11 Truth Movement from around the country. They were here planning to stage the largest protest at the WTC to date, calling for transparency regarding the events of 9/11, citing conspiracy, and requiring an end to the national and global inequality and political power struggles that they believe enabled this tragedy. 1