'9/11 Truth' activists march through Denver Nick Juliano

Published: Wednesday August 27, 2008





Print This Email This Hardball host mocks demonstrators



DENVER -- Around 100 activists convinced that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 were perpetrated by dark and mysterious actors within the US government marched across the city Tuesday in a sanctioned protest that resulted in no confrontations with police.



Members of the so-called "9/11 Truth" movement gathered outside Denver's city hall proceeding to snake through cordoned off streets towards the Pepsi Center, where the Democratic National Convention is being held this week. Radio host Alex Jones, who runs the conspiracy theory Web site infowars.com and is a leader of the movement led demonstrators in chants of "9/11 was and inside job" and "Down with the New World Order."



Denver police on bicycles preceded the marchers through an empty street just outside of downtown. Few Democratic delegates saw the protesters as they marched -- a goal the parade route seemed designed to achieve.



Along with the activists, the march included a mock parade float. Labeled "God's Gitmo," it displayed protesters wearing masks depicting George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, John McCain and Barack Obama locked up behind a chain-link fence.



The march never got very close to the Pepsi Center itelf, which was surrounded by a security perimeter more than two blocks from the main entrance, but it did snake past a back entrance to the security perimeter around 2 p.m., when a scattering of delegates, reporters and other guests were arriving to the convention.



Stopping outside the gates, Jones and the marchers outlined their view that the 9/11 attacks were a "false flag" operation carried out by the US government for the sake of starting wars in the Middle East. At least a dozen police in riot gear stood guard near the outer entrance to the convention site, but the protesters had no intention of causing trouble. They moved on after about 15 minutes.



"That was the most organized anarchy I've ever seen," remarked one woman standing inside the security fences.



Moving on from the convention site entrance, the protesters decided to break up their march rather than continue into the designated free speech zone tucked off a corner of the convention site. The area's been dubbed the "freedom cage" by activists in town to protest the conventions.



The demonstrators reconvened near Denver's union station later Tuesday afternoon and set up behind the MSNBC set that had been erected nearby. They waved signs and chanted while Hardball was broadcast.



The show's host seemed at best bemused by the display. At one point during a commercial break, Matthews stepped to the edge of the set and seemed to taunt the demonstrators, making a "you're crazy" gesture circling his finger around his ear.







Additional photos:









Police escort a march of "9/11 Truth" activists through Denver









A protester speaks to two reporters headed into the Democratic National Convention









"9/11 Truth" activists demonstrate in the crowd gathered to watch MSNBC's Hardball







