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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, August 11, 2006

Conspiracy theorists question Stone's film

By Tina Daunt
Los Angeles Times

Conspiracy theorists say Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" movie does not look at alternate views of the events of Sept. 11.

ADVERTISER LIBRARY PHOTO | Sept. 11, 2001

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Memo to Oliver Stone: Conspiracy theorists have a bone to pick with you.

The filmmaker's latest release, "World Trade Center," does not engage in any of the cloak-and-dagger mumblings that have made the rounds, particularly on the Internet, since the Sept. 11 tragedy. All this has conspiracy theorists very disappointed. They figured if anyone would be willing to — as they see it — challenge the "official" version of events, it would be Mr. "JFK" himself.

"Oliver Stone, having done 'Nixon' and 'JFK' and other movies that have been quite revealing, had a chance to use his power to ask a few very damning questions," said Prison planet.com radio show host Jack Blood, who is urging a boycott of the film. "Instead, what we have is an establishment movie that certainly condones and endorses the cover story that was given to us by the government on 9/11."

Stone has a simple answer: He wanted to tell the story of two New York Port Authority officers who tried to save lives that day but ended up fighting for their own. Politics wasn't involved.

Alex Jones, who has an Internet radio show on Infowars.com and Prisonplanet.com, said he doesn't fault Stone for making a movie that honors the heroes of Sept. 11. "He is allowed to make a movie about this microcosm that was such a big part of 9/11," said Jones. "We know that the police and firefighters were heroes, and I agree with that. But there is concern in the 9/11 truth community that the movie will be used to bolster the official story."

To be sure, there are plenty of alternate views on what happened.

Some believe the CIA was in on the attacks. Others wonder if bombs had been planted inside the towers. Still others think the U.S. government knew the attacks were coming but chose not to act. In March, actor Charlie Sheen said in an interview with Jones that he too questions the "official 9/11 story."

"It seems to me like 19 amateurs with box cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting 75 percent of their targets, that feels like a conspiracy theory. It raises a lot of questions," he said.

Sheen added: "There was a feeling, it just didn't look like any commercial jetliner I've flown on anytime in my life, and then when the buildings came down later on that day, I said to my brother, 'Call me insane, but did it sort of look like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?' "

Sheen also told Jones he wanted an independent investigation of the events leading up to Sept. 11. "It is up to us to reveal the truth. It is up to us because we owe it to the families; we owe it to the victims. We owe it to everybody's life who was drastically altered horrifically that day and forever. We owe it to them to uncover what happened," he said.

Now with Stone in the mix, there's even more intrigue. Some theorists theorize: Maybe the director himself is part of the Sept. 11 plot.

"Was Stone used by the Illuminati as an unknowing pawn to whitewash the 9/11 conspiracy theories to the masses?" wondered blogger John Conner. "Was he approached with the project and coerced into a commitment to occupy his time in attempts to thwart any other 9/11 angle from being used? Is Stone a pawn in the game? Perhaps Stone didn't know at the time and found out too late. Perhaps production had begun, and he was already on board when he found the 9/11 rabbit hole."

The questions just add fodder to the debate.

"At some point, you will see a Hollywood film that looks at alternative views of the official 9/11 story," said Jones. "It's just who's got the courage to do it."