An advertising campaign in Canada raises questions about the US government's official account of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Are Canadians more sympathetic to anti-American conspiracy theories than Americans themselves?

The posters, displayed on buses in Ottawa, show an image of a World Trade Center building collapsing in the inferno of the terrorist attack that morning.

The advertising campaign is supported by a Lafayette, California-based organisation called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

The office tower, 7 World Trade Center, may have been destroyed in a controlled demolition, members of the organisation purport, rather than in a fire.

Frank Greening, a nuclear scientist who lives in Hamilton, Ontario, knows the people behind the organisation - truthers, as they are known - well. He first met them years ago.

Like them, he initially thought there was something more to the story of 9/11 than the US government let on. To him it seemed unlikely that a small group such as al-Qaeda could have pulled off such a monumental act of horror.

Besides like many Canadians, he harbours a deep scepticism of US officials and their explanations for why things happen.

"I think Canadians are more tolerant of conspiracy theories when it's anti-American," he said.

Experts agree.

Jonathan Kay, an editor at the National Post and author of Among the Truthers, said 9/11 conspiracy theories resonate for a reason.

"There's an underlying neurosis about American power," he said. "In Canada, it's very fashionable to casually attack the US as neo-imperialist.

"If you went up to someone and said, 'Hey, was George Bush lying about Iraq?' they'd say, 'Oh, yeah, that sounds like something he'd do.'"

Or, as Jordan Michael Smith, a Toronto native who writes for the Wall Street Journal and other publications, explained: "Canadians are more likely to believe in conspiracies in American life. But so is everyone else in the world."

"But belief in conspiracies about life in Canada are extremely rare," he said. "I can't think of any, in fact."

Ted Walter, the manager of the advertising campaign for the 9/11 Truth organisation, said the advertisements have appeared in Ottawa, New York, London and Sydney. In Ottawa, he said, the response was particularly strong.

"The ads in Canada sparked more public discussion than anywhere," he said.

Truthers said many Canadians were receptive to their argument

The campaign has been controversial. Ottawa councillor Diane Deans, head of the transit commission, said earlier this fall that she thought the ads seemed "insensitive", according to the Ottawa Citizen.

Last week new ads were approved for the buses, according to Walter. David Pepper, manager of business and operational services, provided the BBC with a statement that said they are undergoing a review of "Advertising Standards". The ads, said Walter, will run until early January.

For an online poll, a sample of Canadians viewed a 30-second video of the collapse of 7 World Trade Center put together by members of the 9-11 Truth organisation.

The participants were then asked whether they were inclined to believe officials who said that a fire caused the tower's collapse or critics who claimed that explosives brought down the building.

Among Canadians, 49% said they were inclined to believe the critics, while 37% of Americans said the same. In other words, the Canadians who responded to the online questions were somewhat more sceptical of the official account than were Americans.

The online poll was unscientific. Yet polls from more established groups also show that Canadians do not necessarily believe US officials, at least when it comes to 9/11.

According to a 2011 Canadian Press/Harris Decima poll reported by the Toronto Star, 42% of Canadians believed that "information about 9/11 is being intentionally hidden", while 47% did not.

In the US, the truther movement has resisted numerous official, scientific and journalist accounts of what happened that morning

Greening stood out, even among conspiracy-minded Canadians. Indeed, he decided to do his own research. He discovered that al-Qaeda did in fact have the capacity to destroy the World Trade Center.

"When I ran the programme, I thought, 'Holy smoke, it can collapse the building,'" he said. He published his findings in the October 2008 edition of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics.

His research was hardly shocking. It has been backed up by plenty of other experts, including those at Popular Mechanics who published a special report called Debunking the 9/11 Myths.

Yet some Canadians felt he had betrayed the truther cause.

"I was called a government shill - a scumbag," he said. One evening he met some of his critics in a Hamilton coffeehouse. They belonged to "a cell, so to speak, of 9-11 truthers", he said.

"They were polite," he said. "But I could sense this tremendous animosity." He understood.

Some believe dust from the towers, shown in 2001, contained explosive residue

"They felt they had the moral high ground and this was something that needed to be exposed," he said. "It's very idealistic and I respect their sincerity."

After he published his paper, he began hearing stories that dust from the World Trade Center contained explosive residue. He spoke with a scholar who had previously worked with him and asked if he wanted to go further with the research.

"He said, 'Frank, look, the intent of the paper was to silence the truthers. I consider it mission accomplished,'" Greening recalled.

He was disappointed. Even after proving the truther theories wrong, he still had their idealism. Like conspiracy theorists and truth-seekers in Canada, the US and everywhere else, he believes there is a bigger story that has not yet been told.

"My motive was not to silence anybody, but to get to the truth," he said. "If I ever make it to heaven, my first question will be: 'OK, tell me what really happened on that day.'"

Bb
bbc.com

My Seyi Adebayoor can now laugh out loud...

Nice 1

Another good news coming out of my oduduwa republic

Jona and his drunken cabinet always looking for who to blame for their inefficiency...na APC sign agreement with ASUU in 2009? Abi na APC be CBN dt will release funds? Maku, u re a big fool

Is this a joke?

thisisayus: Is it by party or individual perspective? Ask my amosun if he's brilliant to that level, is he not APC? Don't just bring party issue to everything!

My Amosun is a chartered Accountant with sense(come to ogun state and see things for urself) and not a shoeless PHd holder

Cnn and bbc just dish out garbage. Never think anything good can come out of africa, asia and d middle east. I trust al jazeera and euronews for a little balance news. My take though.

Broken TV:
what is that mudafucker doing in anambra state.

@last, fashola was right in deporting this murdafuckers....

Chino.Elect:
From what am seeing already, I have no doubt that APGA will win today..

Our Igwe in council just mobilized the youths, men, and women this early morning and hinted them that the party we are going to vote is APGA and there was great endorsement from the huge crowd

At your age, u still can't take decision on your own. Your igwe told you who to vote for....hope he's not telling you when and how to sleep with your wife.

U wan take juju serve juju....100 million dey below poverty line and u think say hunger go fear dem...u no try oo

This gvt can't get more clueless. When a published world bank report claimed that Nigeria is one of world's fastest growing economy, our dunce govt were quick to congratulate demselves for a job well done. But now that the same world bank claimed over 100million nigerians are below the poverty line, d govt is quick to blame APC for the unfavourable report. Pls own up and clean ur mess.

@op nice write up from omojuwa. I hope d gvt can jst get d place fixed. After almost 13hrs flight in january, I visited d airport restroom to wash my face, what I met is just unprintable. Gvt pls act now, bt pls don't set up any crazy committee.

Nice 1...1 billion for GEJ and PEJ feeding should be diverted here to help out

Badoo on point

No sane stakeholder in ogun state will suppport u and ur sponsors. For good 8 years of ogd administration in ogun state, life was hell. From political assassination to all social vices that u can think of. It beats my imagination that rather than accuse the governor of non performance, u re accusing him of creating lcda dt will bring governance closer to d people and ensure more participation in govt. The blind can feel and d deaf can also see the transformation going on in ogun state. ..

Is that all? U need to go hug a powerline

If you or a family member is having issues with his/her pension administrator please visit any office of public complaints commission in nigeria. Their service is free of charge. You can visit them online here www.publiccomplaints-ng.org

The Senate of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, has announced the withdrawal of the Bachelor Degrees Certificates of her three graduates.

DailyPost recalls that the three graduates were earlier mobilized for National Youths Service. Corps, NYSC, 2012 Batch B, but lacked academic competence and intelligence-level expected of a genuine Nigeria graduate.

The university disclosed this in a public notice published on Daily Sun, Tuesday 22nd of October, 2012 titled “Certificate Withdrawal”, signed by the registrar, Barr. Chris C. Igbokwe.

The affected students include; “Nwankwo, Elias Chukwuebuka, code number NG/11B/1660, B.Sc Electrical/Electronics with call-up No. NYSC/EST/2011/177093.

“Mba, Linda Alumnae, code number LA/11B/5245, B.Sc Electrical/Electronics, call-up No. NYSC/EST/2011/178882 with matric No. ESUT/2005/96998.

“Okochi Adaeze Kate, code number AD/12B/0389, B.Sc geography and Meteorology with call-up No. NYSC/ESUT/2012/148292, matric No. ESUT/2006/10400″.

The notice added that the “general public is hereby informed that following the reports of the investigation panels set up by the National Universities Commission, NUC, and the university on the matter, the ESUT Senate at its 239th regular meeting held on Wednesday June 5, 2013, received and considered the reports of the investigation panels and upheld that the certificates issued to the above named persons be withdrawn and have therefore been withdrawn”.

The ESUT further warned that anybody or institution dealing with them on degree certificates purported to have been issued by ESUT does so at his or her own risk.

It could be re-called that the three graduates, when put to test, could not write common sentences.

Send your press release/articles to: newsdesk@dailypost.com.ng

A youth in the area, Abiodun Olawore, said the demolition brought joy and sorrow to Ijoko.

He said, “As you can see, some of us are happy because we believe the road expansion project will bring development to Ogun State. Some others are sad because they have lost their property. We need companies to come and invest here and give us jobs. We also want banks in Ijoko, which we presently lack. I believe if these will happen, then we cannot rule out things like this.”

Dats all

We already have a female president...GEJ

Are u annoyed? U can go hug a transformer. Ur pdp is worse off..

How una go organize show on a sunday for abuja.. 90% of resident be civil servant now.. Nxt day na monday. Sallah self don chop dem salary...u re on ur own oooo

The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe appeared to have snubbed the campaign train of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA when they paid him a courtesy call in his Ime-Obi palace on Wednesday, before moving down to their campaign rally at the All Saints’ Anglican Church Catedral Field, Onitsha, Anambra State.

The APGA campaign team, comprising the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh; Governor Peter Obi and his wife, Margaret; the Deputy Governor of the state, Mr. Emeka Sibeudu and his wife; the the APGA Governorship bearer, Mr. Willie Obiano and his wife had gone to Achebe’s palace for a scheduled courtesy call but they discovered to their chagrin that Obi Achebe was not around to receive them in person.

However, the Ajie of Onitsha, Engr. O. C. Adibua, a member of Achebe’s cabinet who received the team briefly at the palace on behalf of the Igwe, told them that Achebe was not readily available to receive them.

A source from the palace told newsmen that Achebe was occupied in another engagement which could be more important to him than the APGA team, more so, when the team might have missed the time scheduled for the visit.

Another anonymous source hinted that the royal father was not happy with the manner with which Governor Obi single-handedly brought out Obiano as APGA’s flag bearer, after tasking the traditional rulers in Anambra North Senatorial District to produce a consensus candidate from the district for APGA.

The sour relationship between Achebe and Governor Obi over the handpicking of Obiano  came to lime light last month when the royal father threw in the towel as the Chairman of Anambra State Council of Traditional Rulers, explaining that he had other more important assignments  to  attend to.

It was gathered that Igwe Achebe like other traditional rulers in Anambra North Senatorial District were slighted  that after undergoing a rigorous search to pick Chief Chike Obidigbo as the consensus candidate of Anambra North, Gov. Obi made a last minute somersault on his earlier promise and personally handpicked Obiano, his fellow director in the Fidelity Bank and foisted him on the party barely two weeks to close of entries of governorship candidates by the parties.

Gov. Obi was said to have promised the people of Anambra North that he would be succeeded by a candidate from the zone. The zone through a group known as “Olu Na Adagbe”,  chaired by Chief Shedrack Anakwue  and an 18-man committee set up by Gov. Obi with Prof. Sylvester Anika and Felix Ekulide respectively as chairman and secretary, respectively, worked together to select and screen  14  aspirants  across party lines and Chief Obidigbo was also chosen as the consensus candidate.

After the Committee’s recommendation, another committee  of Igwes from Anambra North, including Igwe Achebe and Presidents-General of Town Unions in Anambra North, equally confirmed Chief Obidigbo as their preferred consensus candidate, but during the APGA primaries, the Governor was said to have splashed money on the delegates and requested them to vote massively for Obiano, a strategy which worked out as planned.

A source close to the monarch revealed that the Onitsha monarchs and other royal fathers are disturbed that after such a rigorous search for a credible candidate from Anambra North zone, Gov. Obi betrayed them and rubbished the entire process by foisting his business partner on the party.

Commenting on the development, a cultural organization, Ndigbo Voice, led by Dede Uzor A. Uzor, noted that if it was true that Governor Obi foisted Obiano on the people, after under going rigorous search and setting committees led by Achebe, then the governor was not fair to the royal institution.

Uzor however advised Achebe not to be too disappointed by the action or else people will at a stage begin to interpret his action as being partisan politics, instead of being  neutral as a father to all and sundry.

Stay updated with Abusidiqu.com, a member of the NIGERIANEWSDECK team.  Follow us on TWITTER or be our fan on FACEBOOK

by Dare Lawal

When the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) disqualified Charles Soludo, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and stopped his bid to contest the November 2013 election in the state, there were speculations that this was done because of Soludo’s alleged closeness to Nigeria’s former vice president, Atiku Abubakar.

Anambra is a crucial state in the South East, and according to the speculations, President Jonathan who is very close to Anambra governor, Peter Obi, could not afford to allow the state fall into the hand of an Atiku ally. Soludo was economic adviser to the Atiku 2011 campaign.

Today in Abuja, just 24 hours after a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party led by Atiku Abubakar and seven PDP governors staged a walkout from the party’s national convention at the Eagles Square in Abuja, Soludo paid Atiku a visit at the latter’s Abuja residence.

And the men couldn’t stop laughing. Interesting times indeed!

The Abia State government last year came up with an ingenious policy. All non-indigenous employees in the state public service, including teachers, were to be relieved of their duties because the government’s resources were meant for the indigenes. Over 80% of the people affected are from Imo, Ebonyi, Anambra and Enugu states. Most leaders maintained a conspiracy of silence on this policy which for long will remain one of the greatest impediments to Igbo unity. Abia State was actually treading the path of the Enugu State government which had in the late 1990s decided to sack all non-indigenes in the state’s public service in order to “save resources”. Almost every casualty is Igbo.



But a number of Igbo social activists have now suddenly found their voice. The overnight activists have created an unmistakable mass hysteria in both the social media and the traditional media over the bogey that Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has been “deporting” Igbo people from the state. Some politicians who are determined to make political capital out of the so-called repatriations have been busy simulating the hysteria. But perhaps, unbeknownst to these people, they are hurting in a most profound manner strategic Igbo interests. No people can survive—let alone—progress on a diet of lies and emotions, or by allowing politicians to create and sustain a culture of paranoia or siege mentality, otherwise called persecution complex.



The Lagos State government launched a few year ago an ambitious project to turn Lagos, Nigeria’s economic nerve centre with a population of some 16million, into a true mega city. This entailed, among other things, the enthronement of a new social order and a different aesthetic regime. Consequently, the state began to clear thousands of homeless people, beggars and urchins from the streets. Thus, a large number of “area boys” who are mostly Lagos Island indigenes, like the governor, are to this day still arrested and hounded into “Black Baria” trucks by Kick Against Indiscipline (KIA) officials. Borrowing a leaf from such places as New York and Hawaii, Lagos initiated a programme of returning many destitute individuals to their home states. Over 3,000 of such people have been relocated back to northern states where they have now been reintegrated with their families. When about 80 were sent to Oyo State in November, 2009, the governor screamed to the high heavens that “they were dumped on Molete “Bridge” in Ibadan.



About 14 destitute people from Anambra State were sent to Onitsha last week because of the failure of the State’s Ministry of Social Welfare to arrange for the arrival of these people , unlike those of Akwa Ibom and Katsina states which made proper logistic arrangements for their own people. A section of the media has since gone to town with the extremely dangerous propaganda that the Lagos State governor is driving Igbo people out of Lagos through “brazen deportations and repatriations”. Even professionals and scholars expected to be more thoughtful and strategic in their actions have capitulated so easily to the mind poisoning reports and have been responding exuberantly. A man who introduced himself as a professor from Nnewi called me on the phone on Thursday morning to assert with so much authority that “only Anambra indigenes are being targeted for expulsion from Lagos because all Nigerians know that Anambra is the leader of the Igbo nation”. A lawyer in Maryland, United States, wrote that Fashola dare not relocate beggars of northern extraction, alleging that the Igbo are the whipping boy of Nigerian politics. He is blissfully ignorant of the thousands of northern beggars taken away from Borno Street in Ebute Metta and environs.



How did the industrious, highly republican and intelligent Igbo people embrace, all of a sudden, this level of groupthink that has made us look like a people with unimaginable amnesia? Only last month, a very big plaza in Olodi, Apapa, belonging to Igbo entrepreneurs and housing hundreds of 1gbo traders was burnt at night. The next day Fashola was at the site and promised to rebuild it at the Lagos State expense. No Igbo governor has visited the place up to this moment, and none has promised to assist the victims. Last December, Ngozi Nwosu, an actress, was reported to be down with a serious liver ailment, so an appeal fund was launched. No Southeast government, including her home state of Imo State, responded, just as no wealthy Igbo men and women did. Only N1.5million out of 6m needed for treatment in the United kingdom, could be raised. Fashola provided the remaining N4.5m. And now some so-called Igbo activists are accusing him of anti-Igbo sentiments.



Two months ago, Fashola completed the biggest housing estate he has built and named it for Emeka Anyaoku, an erstwhile Commonwealth secretary general from Anambra State. At a time some Igbo people cannot be hired as teachers or civil servants in Southeastern states other those of those of their origin, Fashola recruits them in large numbers, with some becoming judges and magistrates. His Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Ben Akabueze, is from the Southeast. The chief executive of the state Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency, Joe Igbokwe, is an engineer and publisher from Nnewi. Mac Duruigbo, from Imo State, is Fashola’s Personal Assistant on the Media.



Fashola gave Ikemba Nnewi practically a state burial last year in Lagos, the only non-Southeast governor to accord the famous Biafran leader this high honour. He was the only governor who attended last March the Chinua Achebe colloquium at Brown University in Rhode Island, United States, where he praised Achebe for his monumental achievements at a time the great writer was the butt of criticism by the Yoruba political establishment following Achebe’s unflattering remarks about Obafemi Awolowo in his new book, There Was A Country, a personal account of the Nigerian civil war. So, how did some of us come about the brainwave that the dynamic and cosmopolitan Lagos State governor is anti-Igbo? Simply because his government relocated some Igbo elements to their home state, some of whom came to Lagos to do business but instead took to hard drug consumption and became urchin, better known as “area boys”! Interestingly when Fashola began to crack down on “area boys”, most of whom are from his state, Igbo traders were over the moon, rejoicing that the governor had saved them from the miscreants of “area boys” who had for decades been tormenting the traders daily, extorting huge sums from them and viciously assailing those who refused with dangerous weapons.



There are more Igbo people in Lagos than any other state. There are so many investments in Lagos because Lagos has for long welcomed the Igbo people, enabling NdIgbo to prosper in Lagos more than any other state. And no governor in Nigeria’s history has demonstrated as much affection to our people as Fashola. Commonsense dictates we protect in a strategic manner the interests of our people and reciprocate the friendship of well meaning individuals and groups. It will be a colossal tragedy if we savour the dishes of salacious lies and terrible propaganda which we are being served by opportunistic politicians and garnished by hysterical Igbo social activists. We must be guided at all times by truth and reason.



Adinuba is head of Discovery Public Affairs Consulting.

https://www.facebook.com/kayode.ogundamisi/posts/670863232926729

Many governors of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, shunned Monday evening meeting called by Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau.
Mr. Jang, the self-proclaimed chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum,NGF, had called the meeting to discuss crucial national issues including revenue sharing between the federal and state governments.
PDP governors including Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto, Abubakar Aliyu of Niger, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, and Seidu Dakingari of Kebbi all shunned the meeting.
All the 11 governors who are members of the newly formed All Progressives Congress, APC, also shunned the meeting.
The meeting was, however, attended by 16 governors, who are believed to be loyal to Mr. Jang. The governors are expected to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan after the meeting.
Mr. Jang had lost last month’s election of the governors’ forum chairman to Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers by 16 to 19 votes, but rejected the result.

http://news.naij.com/37465.html

Dear Gov,

How much you come pay b4 dem dash u dis award?

The police at Sango Ota, Ogun State, southwest Nigeria, have arrested a cow following the killing of a 24-year old teenager identified as Azeez Salako at Ilata area of Ota, a suburb of Ogun State.

P.M.NEWS gathered that youths in Ilata Ota were planning to hold a carnival on Saturday 27 April, 2013 and there was an argument between some of the youths which led to a fight and one of the boys identified as Dayo broke a bottle which he used to stab Salako in the neck and he bled to death.


When the police arrived at the scene of the fracas everyone had fled leaving behind the cow bought for slaughter during the carnival and the police arrested the cow and took it to the station where it is currently being detained. When P.M.NEWS visited Sango Area Command where the incident was reported, both the Area Commander ACP Titi Kayode and the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Sango Division CSP Dibie were not available for comment. However, a source at the station who confirmed the incident on condition of anonymity said the suspected killer is on the run as no arrest has been made.
“Both the Area Commander and the DPO are not around now. We are still investigating the matter as no arrest has been made. The person who was alleged to have stabbed the deceased is on the run. It is only the cow the youths wanted to use for the carnival that was brought from the scene,” said the source.


Yusuf Muhammed / P.M.NEWS / http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/04/30/police-arrest-cow-over-murder/