False: The 1995 Illuminati card game proves that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job.

By: Nikita Kochhar
September 21 2022

Share Article:

Context:

A Facebook post with four images of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States claims that the attacks were orchestrated by the United States government. The pictures illustrate the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon building alongside the shots of the two burning after the strikes. The text on the image reads, "1995 Illuminati card games. Everything was conspired". The post's caption reads, "Some Sheeples still think Ali Baba did this." The post has been shared 130 times and has been liked by over 400 people. 

The user has implied that the Illuminati exist, and their card game released in 1995 shows the twin tower and the Pentagon burning, indicating that it was planned well in advance. However, there is no basis for the claims made in the post. 

In fact: 

According to The Independent, Illuminati: New World Order is an out-of-print multiplayer card game released by Steve Jackson Games that first appeared in 1994. According to conspiracy theorists, the game has a strange capability of "predicting" major global events like the 9/11 attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Capitol riots.

The first image shared by the user is, in fact, the "terrorist Nuke card" from the game. It shows an explosive midway up a skyscraper in a scene that looks like the attack on the WTC Twin Towers in New York City in September 2001. The image under it is another card depicting a bomb blast at the Pentagon. 

The Independent quoted Lloyd Blankenship, one of the employees who worked at Steve Jackson Games, speaking about his boss Steve, saying, "Steve is a huge fan of conspiracy theories. Not that he believes in them - as far as I could tell in five years of working with him - he is immensely entertained by them." He added, "The 'Terrorist Nuke' card was inspired by anxiety about the threat potentially still posed by post-Soviet Russia rather than any vision of what was to come from Al-Qaeda."

According to a report by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, on September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airliners in the eastern U.S. They flew three planes into buildings: the twin towers of the WTC in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania after passengers heroically rebelled. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and injured thousands more. The report adds that the attacks were carried out by 19 men from Al Qaeda, Bin Laden's terrorist organization. "Bin Laden eventually admitted to his role in orchestrating the attacks."

On October 29, 2004, Bin Laden appeared in a message aired on an Arabic TV station for the first time claiming direct responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, CBC reported. Dressed in white and yellow robes, he said, "The militant Islamic group decided we should destroy towers in America because we are a free people... and we want to regain our nation's freedom". 

The verdict: 

Considering terrorist Group Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, and because there is no basis for the claims made by the user, we have marked this claim as false.