Does anybody still believe in the official version?

The first articles about The Big Lie were not published in French newspapers [1]. When the book began to appear in French bookstores and Thierry Meyssan had not been invited yet to any television program, two newspapers, one in Chile and another in Hungary, talked about his research on 9/11 with interest [2]. Later, French dailies Le Monde [3] and Libération [4] wrote full pages to accuse him after the author’s appearance at the Thierry Ardisson’s show (France 2) on March 16. The position of the two newspapers that accused him of “lying” and “revisionism” was completely accepted by the French media as a whole. But abroad, countless newspapers highlighted the pertinence of the research.

In Argentina, Page 12 explained that Thierry Meyssan “rightfully” questioned the official version whose “contradictions and silences are numerous” [5]. In Switzerland, Le Courrier described The Big Lie as a book “written in a clear and documented way” in which “the final result has an absolute coherence and the fabrication is convincingly revealed [6].” In China [7] and Russia [8], the research awoke great interest. In the Balkans, the book was particularly welcomed and its first translation was made into Slovene. On the other hand, the book was published divided into 35 episodes in two Yugoslavian newspapers: Polítika and Draganic [9].

In Canada, a violent polemic was provoked by bringing supporters of the official version and its opponents face to face. Newspaper Le Soleil published a long article by Professor Omar Aktuf: “I am offering you the disturbing elements pointed out by Thierry Meyssan […] in his most polemic book about 9/11 The Big Lie. The only responses received have been the denial of his statements and arguments…apart from threats and insults to his person. Before rejecting his revelations as a whole (revelations that have been taken from official American statements and documents!), let’s wonder if we have the answers to the questions he makes and if this were the case, what are we waiting for…? [10].

Support of the Press in Muslim countries

Hundreds of articles were published in the Arab press. Saudi newspaper Al Watan devoted its front page to the issue [11]. On April 8, Thierry Meyssan gave a lecture to diplomats of the Arab League in the prestigious Zayed Center in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) [12]. Mohammed Khalifa, director of the Zayed Center, introduced the author of The Big Lie in the following terms: “Today, we are happy to welcome one of the sons of France, a country that represents one of the symbols of civilization and the defense of rights in the contemporary history. When world values and their references are being lost and fears multiplied, only the peoples that have the spirit of history and the continuation of civilization can illuminate the path to the future. This is what we think of France […] Thierry Meyssan has the spirit of an investigative journalist, of a thinker; he has an independent viewpoint about world events and political directions.”

The conference was covered by the regional media [13] and the Financial Times [14]. The British journal informed in detail and with no comments all questions raised by the author regarding the improbability of the official version, echoing Thierry Meyssan’s call to “create a UN investigative commission on 9/11 events and the identification of its authors.” The Zayed Center published the text of the conference in a book and translated later The Big Lie which was spread among the political leaders of the Middle East. On June 25, Abdul Rehman ben Hamad Al Attiyah, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council publicly congratulated the Zayed Center for the publication of the book in Arabic which “responds to a historical and cultural need, to a constructive dialogue beyond different points of view and schools of thought.” [15]. On August 9, Marwan Moasher, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan, thanked the Zayed Center for the translation of the book too.

The Associated Press reported the success of Thierry Meyssan’s trip to Morocco to present his book: “Invited by almost all Moroccan audiovisual media, including the public networks, Thierry Meyssan visited the big cities of the Kingdom (Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, Tangier) […] His stay caused real big lines in Moroccan bookstores out of which some, like Livres-service of Rabat, decided to use its total capacity to keep this ‘successful book’. More than 200 000 copies had already been sold in France and it was being translated into 18 languages.” [16].

Moroccan journal Libération said exactly the opposite of its French homonym about Thierry Meyssan: “Some would describe him as a negationist even when the History of those terrible events had not been written yet by historians or journalists who abdicated completely their critical spirit. Thierry Meyssan is not the problem in this story; he is far from being the illuminate who has been presented to us during the last months. He is just the media’s sufficient man.” [17]. Weekly Réalités in Tunisia also denounced the French press’ lack of critical spirit and pointed out that the author “has become the target of criticism of dozens of journalists who, if not ‘honest’ are, at least, politically correct men and above all show what professionalism and deontology are when some of them are not models of virtue.” [18]

Dawn, that in Pakistan followed the matter closely, presented Voltaire Network as follows: “Voltaire Network was founded on the anniversary of the French philosopher of the XVIII century, Voltaire, who defended its convictions up to the point of being imprisoned for not giving up his not-welcomed-by-the-governmet-and-literary-institutions-of-his-time ideas.” [19]

Received by Iranian authorities the week before 9/11 anniversary, Thierry Meyssan revealed new elements on the attacks and defended the secular character of international relations in view of the American clash-of-civilizations project. Journal Kayhan published a long interview granted by the author and welcomed the courage of the French intellectual [20].

The English language media denounced “an insult to the victims”

At the beginning of April, the book began to be announced and criticized by the Anglophone press. The first articles were published on April 1st. in the United Kingdom by The Guardian and The Scotsman [21]. After reporting the violent attacks against the book by the French press, The Guardian concluded: “Le Monde admits Washington’s public reports are not too coherent.”

The next day and regarding The Big Lie, the FBI stated that “suggesting that flight AA77 did not crash against the Pentagon on September 11 is the last insult to the memory of the 59 men, women and children of the flight AA77 and to that of the 125 sacrificed military men and civilians who worked in the Pentagon and were mercilessly assassinated by September 11 terrorists.” [22]

But the FBI’s statement did not prevent information from being spread. The same day, a long news by Reuters press agency and particularly picked by the BBC and The Daily Telegraph echoed the polemic caused by the book [23]. During the next days, numerous articles were published in Europe and around the world (Norway, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Australia, The United States, etc.)

The United States Department of Defense tried to diminish the book’s importance by invoking again the memory of the victims. Questioned during a press conference about the information based on which Meyssan says no plane crashed against the Pentagon, Assistant Secretary of Defense Victoria Clarke replied that “the very same fact of suggesting this was grotesque; and, at the end, it’s just an absurd insult to the friends, relatives, and family members of more that 200 people who died there on September 11 and to the thousands who died in New York.” [24]

At the end of April, an article picked up by an important network of American regional newspapers explained the book was not logic although at the same time it mentioned several surprising details still unanswered by the Bush Administration. The article began with these words: “If you can believe the American government planned the attacks of September 11 against the Pentagon, that a missile and not a plane was what crashed against its façade and that President Bush had been previously informed about the first attack in New York but did not alert anybody, then you are going to love The Big Lie [English title of the book].” [25]

On May 20, the world edition of American magazine Time devoted a full page to the book [26]. The next day, British journal The Times also had an article about it [27]. The following day, it was the New York Times’ turn to publish a long article announcing the book’s success on its front page: “Is it a symbol of the latent anti-Americanism? Is it the reflection of the poor confidence of the French opinion on its government and press? Or the French’s love for logic has been attracted by the allegedly Cartesian logic of this theory?” This text was reproduced by those journals linked to the famous New York daily and the International Herald Tribune [28].

On June 25, during a press conference at the Pentagon, Assistant Secretary of Defense Victoria Clarke threatened those media that whished to keep talking about Thierry Meyssan’s “repugnant” investigation: “It is not arguable; there’s no doubt about what happened that day. And I believe that the fact that someone can spread such lies is unacceptable. I also believe that promoting this kind of person in one way or another is unacceptable.” [29].

But the book was still analyzed in CNN [30] on April 26. Press agency Associated Press published also an interview granted by the author the next day [31]. Thus, R. Emmet Tyrrell Jr. wrote in conservative newspaper The Washington Times the following day: “I have a perfect book for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.” [32] The author of the article, who’s also the editor in chief of The American Spectator and editorialist of the New York Sun, thought that the former First Lady of the United States would find in the book of whom he described as the “new Jean-Paul Sartre” parallelisms with her own position.

The polemic continued during the summer. On July 3, the Los Angeles Times described the book in virulent terms [33]. In August, the circulation of The Big Lie and The Pentagate in the United States was what was in the middle of the editor and the bookstores that refused to sell them. After a controversy with online bookstore Amazon.com, it finally agreed to circulate the books. In its presentation of The Big Lie it made emphasis on the fact that it was the non- “censured English version.” [34]. Press agencies France Press and Reuters, the popular British newspaper Daily Record and some others announced the launching of the book in English [35].

A Press Campaign about Anti-Semitism

On May 7, a huge press campaign against “Anti-Semitic” France was launched by the American Jewish Congress (AJC) which compared the present situation with that of 1942. “In 1942, the crowd yelled ‘Heil Hitler’; in 2002, ‘Long live Bin Laden.” According to Le Monde: “For the AJC, The Big Lie […] has replaced the Nazi-program today” [36]. New York former mayor Edward I. Koch ended his weekly radio programs with a declaration of war inspired in Caton: “Omni Galia delenda est” (The whole Gaul must be destroyed).

This campaign continued in the first pages of the Washington Post in which an editorialist defamed violently of Thierry Meyssan who, according to him, “repeats the theories about the Jewish people who had been warned to keep away from the World Trade Center.” [37]. The fact that Thierry Meyssan never wrote anything about this was meaningless to this important newspaper.

In France, the polemic had already begun in March. In an interview granted to the digital edition of the Nouvel Observateur, Gerard Miller explained what should have been thought about a book he had not read: “I haven’t read the book in question; I have heard what the media has said […] This book is part of what could be called the New Obscurantism mainly active through the internet. […] The same thing happens exactly with negationism”. [38] The following day, Le Monde stated in an editorial in which all elements that could have the opposite effect were rejected: “If a plane actually crashed against the Pentagon this thesis should not be considered a simple hypothesis among others: it is just revisionist, simply.” [39]. Le Nouvel Observateur published an interview granted by Pascal Bruckner who used the term “revisionism”. “Regarding Thierry Meyssan’s thesis, said the philosopher, I personally believe it is repugnant.” [40] Some days later, Pierre Marcelle insisted in Libération and denounced “Meyssan’s repugnant thesis” whom he compared with Faurisson. “Under his presidency, what Voltaire Network used to be looks like the Old Mole after being taken by Faurisson […] We are not going to deny what Meyssan says. Certain law of supply and demand forces us not to reply to Meyssan, as Faurisson hasn’t been denied either.” [41]. In Le Figaro, Alain Finkielkraut analyzed: “Thierry Meyssan is making negationism in real life” [42].

While the people could not read the books in the United States and television in France was forced to remain silent as a request of a member of the CSA, in other parts of the world the whole matter made a lot of noise. From Al-Jazira to the Arab News Network, going through Sahar and Abu Dhabi, big Arab television shows had programs in which Thierry Meyssan was the invited star. The author debated with important political leaders who usually shared his positions: the rejection of the clash of civilizations and the need of having international relations based on rights and not on religion. By also devoting a program to the author of The Big Lie and The Pentagate, CNN attacked its adversary with extreme violence and accused him of anti-Americanism.

Likewise, the very aggressive attitude of the French press contrasted with that of other European countries. Weekly French Paris Match, as well as some other 11 newspapers, sued by libel by Thierry Meyssan, announced in an editorial signed by its editor in chief, Alan Genestar, that “he commits himself to publish and to spread the acts of the proceedings through the big international media” [43]. Immediately, its Swiss counterpart, L’Illustré, devoted two full pages to “French journalist Thierry Meyssan [who] hasn’t believed in the official version of September 11 attacks. This spring, after publishing The Big Lie, and despite the criticisms against him, he persists and signs The Pentagate” [44].

In countries where the first book had already been published, it awoke a popular important interest and was ranked among the first ten best sellers (see the list of translations in www.effroyable-imposture.net).

The Spanish-Language Press

In the United States, the English-language media accused the book although the important questions made were published. On its part, the reception given by the press in Spanish published in the country was extremely favorable, similar to that of the Latin-American and Spanish newspapers.

In Argentina, the edition of the book was different from the version published in Spain and the left and right wing media showed a great interest. Left wing newspaper Página 12 closely followed Thierry Meyssan’s investigation on 9/11 [45]. Conservative journal Clarín presented him to its readers as “a French who doesn’t trust the White House” [46]. In Colombia, El Tiempo ended an article with these words: “In his book The Big Lie Meyssan does not say his version is definitive. But he has doubts and takes a risk: to oppose the order given to the media by the White House not to investigative any further to protect the ‘national security’. In addition, he makes us wonder.”

The same thing happened in Spain where investigations awoke the interest of center-right journal El Mundo and that of center-left El País. On September 11, 2002, a year after the attacks in New York and Washington, El Mundo welcomed Thierry Meyssan. “In the whole world, the United States’ allies are worried by Washington’s silence regarding these questions, its bellicose projects and the deep interior crisis this attitude shows […] International peace appears submitted to a democratic mess in the United States, ready for a Pentagate.” [47]

The International Press Institute (IPI), that covered Latin-America, published a long interview granted by the author. “Meyssan writes with the precision of a clockmaker, it said. Facts, places, dates, names, official documents and all kind of sources are quoted. In addition, he provides internet links so that readers can verify what he is saying; most of the sites are official institutions.” [48]

A similar interest is shown in the press in Spanish towards Thierry Meyssan’s investigations, even in the United States where countless newspapers follow his works with great attention. In an article published simultaneously in Spain by El País and in the United States by La Tribuna Hispana, José Vidal-Beneyto included issues questioned in The Big Lie and demanded answers [49]. The former president of the Foreign Delegation of the Autonomous Organizations during Franco’s regime and the current president of Le Monde Diplomatique Friends Association insisted on the fact that these questions needed answers.