The Big Lie Banned in America
by Christopher Bollyn
September 7, 2002
The books by the French author Thierry Meyssan, which "challenge the official
version of the Sept. 11 attacks," have been best-sellers in Europe. Their
reception may be different in the United States, however, where they have been
banned for being "anti-American."
Meyssan's two best-selling books, 9/11 – The Big Lie and Pentagate, refute "the
entire official version of the Sept. 11 attacks," and will soon be available in
the United States. The books have been extremely successful in Europe, selling
more than 200,000 copies in France, but strong resistance and censorship suggest
a different fate may await them in America.
I spoke with Patrick Pasin, the French publisher, who said that 70,000 copies
have been printed and shipped to the United States. The books should be
available by the end of September, he said. The on-line book store Amazon.com is
already offering the books promising delivery in "three to five weeks".
Meyssan's books claim that a military faction in the U.S. government used remote
control to guide two aircraft into the twin towers and that a U.S. cruise
missile - not an American Airlines jet - smashed into the Pentagon. While
thousands of articles about Meyssan's theories can be found on the Internet,
only 2 articles have appeared in the U.S. mainstream media, and these have
avoided engaging the substance of his arguments.
The cover of 9/11 – The Big Lie says the book "is based exclusively on documents
published by the White House and the U.S. Dept. of Defense, as well as
statements by American civilian and military leaders to the international
press."
Pasin, the founder and director of the Carnot publishing house, said that while
the books should be available to American readers by the end of September, many
bookstores have said they will not carry the books because they are
"anti-American." Even Amazon.com, the on-line book dealer, was criticized in the
U.S. media with an article, "Amazon to sell anti-U.S. 911 book," Pasin said.
While one of the English translations was ready in April, Pasin said he held off
on releasing the books in America until after the anniversary of Sept. 11
because he "considered it was too early."
"We had to wait some time," Pasin said. "We don't want to provoke people. There
is a lot of pain in many families - I share their pain."
Meyssan's controversial theories first appeared in March in a website in which
he presented the video footage from a security camera at the Pentagon which
shows an unidentified object striking the Pentagon and exploding in a white hot
flash. Meyssan's site suggests that this object is a cruise missile, precisely
as one eyewitness described it: "a cruise missile with wings", and challenges
the viewers to examine the photos to "Find the Boeing."
The photos from the security camera are problematic because the object appears
to be much smaller than the Boeing and the white hot flash seems to be more
indicative of the impact of an explosive warhead - rather than a civilian
aircraft - according to independent investigators.
"DISGUSTING" BOOKS
Pentagon spokesperson, Victoria Clarke, called Meyssan's books "disgusting."
"There is no question," Clarke said, "there is no doubt what happened that day.
And I think it's appalling that anyone might try to put out that kind of myth. I
think it's also appalling for anyone to continue to give those sorts of people
any kind of publicity."
FACTS, the largest Swiss-German news magazine, recently featured Meyssan's
arguments and evidence in a cover story titled, "The Evil sits in the Pentagon."
While a spokesman for FACTS said the article was "quite critical" of Meyssan's
theories, the way in which the photographs and text are presented must raise
serious questions in the mind of the reader.
I contacted Lt. Col. David Lapan at the Pentagon to ask about the photographs
found in the FACTS article. Lapan said that the photos came from a Pentagon
security camera video which CNN had "unofficially obtained." The photos had been
"snuck out" of the Dept. of Defense and "leaked" to CNN, Lapan said. When asked
to comment on the images, Lapan balked and requested that the photos be sent by
e-mail. I promptly sent the images, easily obtained from the websites of CNN and
other news networks, with relevant questions about what can be discerned from
the images, their origin, and whether CNN had been reprimanded for divulging
information that had been "unofficially obtained" from the Dept. of Defense.
"DoD did not release the security camera video," Lapan said, "contrary to what
CNN claimed in their story. Video images related to the terrorist attack on the
Pentagon had been turned over to law enforcement agencies as part of their
investigation, he said, but the Pentagon is "not engaged in trying to determine
who leaked the video/photos, nor has there been a reprimand."
While the events at the World Trade Center received greater attention than the
crash in Washington, Meyssan focuses on attack on the Pentagon. While the
official explanation is that the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 with its
64 passengers flew into the Pentagon, Meyssan says the object was a military
cruise missile. The white-hot blast seen in the photographs, he says, indicates
that the object striking the Pentagon resulted in a "detonation" of a
high-explosive, rather than the less intense "deflagration" one would expect to
see from a kerosene-laden jetliner striking the wall of a building.
Dorothea Hahn, the author of the article in FACTS, said that Meyssan "asks the
right questions" but added that he is "very categorical" and selective about the
information that he presents in order "to prove his theory." Although more than
200,000 copies of his book have been sold in France, the French media is
"extremely critical of him," Hahn said.
"If Meyssan's theory is true, there must be hundreds of people involved in the
conspiracy," Hahn said. "They would have started to talk by know." Hahn added
that Flight 77 must have been destroyed somewhere else if it didn't crash into
the Pentagon.
"WE NEED TO KNOW"
"We need to know what really happened," Hahn said. "What has been explained by
the officials has too many contradictions and irregularities. Without a proper
investigation, these conspiracy theories flourish."
"What I hope is that there will be a debate on what really happened and that
opinion in the United States and the rest of the world is alerted," Meyssan
said. "The U.S. government has chosen its scapegoats…But we cannot allow those
who are really guilty to go unpunished and the innocent to be bombed."
Pasin wrote in a recent letter to Amazon, "As the publisher, from the beginning
I had in mind all these innocent victims. For their memory, we must know; we
cannot accept that the culprits remain unpunished, whoever they are. The books
of Mr. Meyssan are our contribution, and I can assure you that I never felt
anti-U.S. at all. On the contrary: we need a strong democracy in the United
States of America."