Prove him wrong - get $1 million

Walter Offers $1 MillionTo Prove Explosives Not Used

Sydney Morning Herald
11-22-5


The twin towers did not fall because aircraft hit them. Demolition explosive charges made them collapse.

If you look at close-up video you see puffs of explosives coming out the sides of the buildings as they topple. An advertisement that makes this allegation has been airing in New York for months. It ends with a voice saying: "Reopen the investigation and address the unanswered questions of 9/11."

If you go to the website reopen911.org you find a series of even more startling claims.

Did a plane actually hit the Pentagon? Photos taken on September 11, 2001, show no cabin, no tail and no engines.

The ads and website are the brainchild of Jimmy Walter, who is convinced the US Government was involved in a conspiracy.

Why would American leaders want to kill nearly 3000 of their fellow countrymen? Mr Walter points to a September 2000 document called Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century, produced by a neo-conservative think tank, Project for the New American Century.

It argued for a dramatic build-up in US military spending, but warned this transformation "is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalysing event - like a new Pearl Harbour".

He is offering $US1 million ($1.36 million AUS) to anyone who can prove that explosives were not used in the World Trade Centre.

Any bounty hunter might want to start with the 43 reports of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which has produced 10,000 pages of evidence on how and why the buildings collapsed.

It said this: "NIST found no corroborating evidence for alternative hypotheses suggesting that the WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolition using explosives planted prior to September 11, 2001." It adds that there is no evidence that missiles were fired at the towers either.

Someone seeking Mr Walter's US$1 million could also cite the 567-page official 9/11 Commission report, which meticulously details the movements of the 19 hijackers before September 11.

Then again, it's that report that Mr Walter thinks covered up the truth, so you are unlikely to get his money using that.

Mr Walter's conspiracy theory goes further: the aircraft were robot planes; the passengers were mainly military contractors; the aircraft were only 10 to 25 per cent full, while all other planes that day were booked out; the airlines blamed this on a "computer glitch".

But what about the phone calls by passengers from the hijacked planes? "You can't make calls from aircraft," he says.

Dozens of websites peddle similar allegations. What sets Mr Walter aside from other conspiracy theorists is his money. He inherited a fortune from his father, a successful builder, and intends to spend it on uncovering the truth, as he sees it. So far he has spent more than $US5 million - three-quarters of his net worth.

Why is he spending his money on this? "I'm 58 years old, I have no kids, no wife, no family."

He is now living in Austria, where he moved after his car was attacked. When the phone line drops out, he jokes about the CIA. "Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you," he says.

So is Elvis still alive? "Well, now you are going too far. But John F. Kennedy was not killed by a lone gunman "