9/11 theories subject of debate
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March 13, 2008
Tamsin McMahon
RECORD STAFF

WATERLOO

There was a time not long ago when holding a debate about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was taboo, even among university students.

But nearly seven years after two planes felled the World Trade Center towers in New York, the University of Waterloo debating society is opening the door on the issue in a discussion next Wednesday.

While there now seems to be no shortage of scholars trying to debunk the U.S. government's conclusions about Sept. 11, debate organizers struggled to find someone willing to defend the official version of events contained in U.S. 9/11 Commission Report.

Students had hoped representatives from Popular Mechanics magazine would defend the government position, since the magazine issued a report challenging some Sept. 11 conspiracy theories. But the group couldn't afford the honorarium, said Adnan Zuberi, public relations manager of the debating society and a third-year math and physics student.

"Nowadays, it's 10 times easier to get the opposition people out," Zuberi said. "I think the government (supporters) have just moved on. . . . The opposition is just growing in big numbers to the point where we thought, 'Whoa, we've got to get on to this.' "

The debate society hopes to have a later event with speakers willing to take the pro-government side.

Next week's debate includes University of Western Ontario professor emeritus Alexander Dewdney, who conducted experiments on whether passengers could have made cellphone calls from the doomed airplanes, and retired McMaster University professor Graeme MacQueen, who has examined inconsistencies in the 9/11 testimony of New York City firefighters.

"A Forensic Analysis of September 11, 2001: Questioning the Official Theory" will be held Wednesday, March 19, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Hagey Hall, Humanities Theatre at the University of Waterloo. It is open to the public.

tmcmahon@therecord.com