September 11th rears its head at Alternet.com

I was in New York City on September 11th if that makes any difference to the take on how it happened and my reactions. But I don't think at the time I considered a conspiracy.

What I was thinking was how to reach home, where were my loved ones, how to arrange for the staff's safety, how long I'd stay in my office building or if my colleague coming to meet me from Albany would arrive in Penn Station.

He arrived safely. My loved ones were safe although not all of them were out of harm's way. I left the building earlier than most and walked to the Village to be with my god-daughter.

And it was only after the day unfolded that I learned of who survived and who didn't make it. One of my neighbors didn't. More than half of my local fire station firefighters died. The priest from my local Catholic parish expired.

The City was in shock and remained so for months.

Then whilst living in Taos (NM), my dear friend and neighbour, Cath, came over to the house, exited, red-faced and frantic. She had received a tape from some group that expounded the theory that the fall of the World Trade Center was an inside plot rather than a terrorist attack.

Her partner, now retired, had actually worked for many years for the DoT, and knew more about that day from the aeronautics perspective than I could from the ground on 33rd Street. He gave us a blow by blow of how the aeroplanes and flights were grounded that day, and what was in his pipe-line--very little.

Now here we are seven years later and the theory of conspiracy has not died and reads like a fast paced suspense novel.

Like other conspiracy theories, it is doubtful we'll have the answers, or at least in my life-time. I am neither a believer of or a disbeliever of the theory, but rather intrigued by the notion that something other than outside terrorists hi-jacked some of the US's finest aircraft and then proceeded to crash land in my City on a sunny Autumn day at the behest of a man more than 7000 miles away.

But, Griffin's recent book, 9/11 Contradictions, continues to explore the scientific and non-scientific evidence of the destruction of one of New York City's icons.