Wikipedia: September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack/Misinformation and rumors

Kashmiri responsibility

: Early claim of Kashmiri responsibility quickly debunked.

World Trade Center survivors

: Several reported rescues from the World Trade Center on Sept. 13 proved to be false. The only ones rescued were some firefighters who became trapped earlier that day.
: All reports that cell phone messages were received from people trapped within the collapsed buildings have remained unconfirmed.

False Nostradamus prediction

: The following began to spread through the net within days of the attack:

In the city of god there will be a great thunder,

two brothers torn a part by chaos,

while the fortress endures,

the great leader will succumb.

The third big war will begin when the big city is burning

: NOSTRADAMUS 1654

: This is not an authentic Nostradamus quatrain. Here's a webpage on the matter:
: http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/predict.htm

: Occurrences of certain numbers (23) leading to the Illuminati.
: See also numerology

The Smoke Demon

: Several photographs were circulated through the Net the weekend following the tragedy, depicting smoke rising from the Twin Towers that resembled demonic heads. It has been confirmed by AP that at least one of these photos is authentic. See [1].

CNN faking Palestinian cheers

: There had been early rumours that the footage shown by CNN and others, depicting Palestinians cheering after the attacks, was old. This is false. The demonstrations did happen and were condemned by Arafat; the footage was current. See [here].

False fundraising

: Scambusters reported instances of email fundraising scams in the wake of the tragedy, and posted tips to help consumers ensure their donations reached the right agencies.

Jews were warned

: Rumours are circulation in the Arab world claiming that several thousand Jews working in the World Trade Center were warned ahead of time and didn't show up for work on September 11. This story appeared, for example, in American Pakistani-language newspapers. There is absolutely no supporting evidence. The persistent rumours about Israel's involvement in the terrorist attack are effectively refuted by Osama bin Laden's praising the terrorists as the leading lights of Islam.

"Credible threat" against Bush

: After President Bush faced some criticism for flying around the US in Air Force One instead of returning immediately to Washington or New York, members of his administration (Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice) told the press on several occasions that there had been a "credible threat" against Bush by terrorists. Later, AP and CBS news investigated this claim and found it to be false. In response to this, the Administration officials said that there had been a "misunderstanding". White House officials also claimed that the plane which crashed into the Pentagon originally was aimed at the White House. That claim was also debunked.

Osama and Evil Bert

: A photograph of a protest rally in Bangladesh supporting Osama bin Laden showed a poster of Osama bin Laden with a small but clearly identifiable images of Bert, a muppet from the children's television show [Sesame Street]?, over his right shoulder. (Another smaller image of bin Laden is immediately to the right of Bert's image.) The photo is from Reuters, and was not doctored. In fact, the image of Osama and Bert had been created earlier and placed on a website, and the person who made the poster must have copied it from the World Wide Web, leaving the image of [Evil Bert]? in.

: As a response to this, the creator of the "Bert is Evil" website has taken down the site and posted a note explaining the decision. "I am doing this because I feel this has gotten too close to reality," he says, "and I choose to be responsible enough to stop it right here." For full message text, see [2]. For a detailed account of the use of the image, in the Mideast as well as by Western news agencies, see [3]. (The latter also argues against the notion that inclusion of the Bert image of the photo is some kind of coded communication.)

Avoid malls on October 31st email

: A number of people across the country received an email chain letter saying that an Afghan left a letter to his girl friend on Sept 10, asking her not to take any flight on Sept 11 and not to go to any shopping mall on Halloween. It was said that the letter is now in the FBI's hands. The letter implied that there is a second phase of the terrorist attacks and the targets will be the trick or treaters.

: The email was traced back to a person named Laura Katsis, who apparently has no first-hand knowledge of the event and regrets passing the note along. The FBI has investigated the matter, and took the unusual step of issuing a statement on a hoax, declaring the claim to be unsubstantiated. A few variations on this message are also circulating. [4] [5][6]

Atta was a known terrorist

: There have been persistent rumors that Mohammad Atta, the suspected leader of the September 11 attacks, was a known terrorists who had bombed an Israeli bus in 1986 and was freed from Israel on insistence by the US as a result of the Oslo peace accords. This is incorrect. The bus bomber is the Palestinian Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta. He is a naturalized US citizen and was extradited by the US to Israel in 1990, but freed after that extradition was held to be invalid by the Israeli supreme court. His whereabouts are unknown. He was 47 years old at the time of the September 11 attack, while Mohamad Atta was 33. [7] [8]

Other incidents

Various incidents have occured since September 11, 2001, with no evidence to support a causal link to the terrorist attack. They include:

: On September 21, 2001 a chemical factory in Toulouse, South France, exploded, causing 29 deaths. On October 4, 2001 France's environment minister declared that it may have been a terroristic attack.

: In the morning of October 3, 2001, a man slits the throat of the driver of Greyhound bus No. 1115, en route from Nashville to Atlanta, 50 miles southeast of Nashville. The bus crashed, killing four of the 36 passengers. Early reports stated at least 10 were killed. Later reports assert that the bus attacker was a drug addict with a history of erratic behavior.

: On October 4, 2001, a Russian jetliner en route from Tel Aviv to Siberia with 77 passengers exploded in mid-air before plunging into the Black Sea. All flights from Bengorian Airport were grounded in response. Later reports asserted that a Ukrainian missile mistakenly took down the jetliner. Missile fragments were recovered from the crash site, and the government of the Ukraine has accepted responsibility for the accidental targeting of the jet.

: On October 4, 2001, it is announced that Bob Stevens, a 63-year-old Lantana, Florida resident was admitted to a hospital on Tuesday with non-contagious pulmonary anthrax. He later died. Bob Stevens, a British-born outdoorsman and gardener, was a photo editor at the supermarket tabloid The Sun. On October 8, 2001 health officials and the FBI report that they have discovered [bacillus anthracis]? spores on a computer keyboard at the offices of The Sun and in the nose of a co-worker, who was not diagnosed with the disease. The FBI sealed the building.

: On October 11, 2001, 700 pounds of explosives were discovered missing from a facility in Texas.

: On October 12, 2001, a case of anthrax is reported in New York City. A female NBC Nightly News employee is reported to have been exposed to anthrax. It is believed that she received it from a letter containing powder on September 25. The powder in the letter was tested negative for anthrax. A skin test of the employee by the CDC returned positive this morning for non-contagious cutaneous anthrax. She had been exposed on September 25. She began presenting symptoms on the 28th. She began receiving Cipro on October 1. A biopsy was done on the 10th and sent to the CDC.

September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
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/Misinformation and rumors talk

References and External Links

[About.com--Urban Legends and Folklore] A definitive site on rumor-mongering.
[Scambusters]
[ArtBell.com] Some pictures of ''The Smoke Demon' on this site.
[RUMORS: As Thick as the Ash, Myths are Swirling, New York Times, 9/25/2001]