Thierry Meyssan () is a French

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

conspiracy theorist A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

. He is the author of investigations into the

extreme right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

-wing, particularly France's National Front militias, as well as into the

Catholic church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Meyssan's book '' 9/11: The Big Lie'' (''L'Effroyable imposture'') challenges the official account of events of the

September 11 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

Career

Meyssan is president of the

Voltaire Network The Voltaire Network (french: Réseau Voltaire) is an international non-profit advocacy and alternative media organisation founded and lead by French journalist Thierry Meyssan. It specialices in international relations and has become known fo ...

, which had been a respected independent

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

prior to the publication of ''9/11: The Big Lie''. His reputation helped raise his conspiracy theory to prominence. Meyssan has been noted as using cross-citations of other conspiracy theorists' works in order to lend the appearance of credibility to his ideas. Regarding the events of 9/11, Meyssan cited

Webster Tarpley Webster Griffin Tarpley (born September 1946) is an American author, political activist, and conspiracy theorist. A one-time follower of Lyndon LaRouche, Tarpley is known for his role in the 9/11 truth movement, believing 9/11 was a false flag o ...

; Tarpley cited

David Ray Griffin David Ray Griffin (August 8, 1939 – November 26, 2022) was an American professor of philosophy of religion and theology and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.Sources describing David Ray Griffin as a "conspiracy theorist", "conspiracist", "conspirac ...

; and Griffin cited Meyssan.

Publication of ''The Big Lie''

In 2002, he published a book on the September 11 terrorist attacks, with the English translation titled ''9/11: The Big Lie''. Meyssan argued that the attacks were organized by a faction of the US

military–industrial complex The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the r ...

in order to impose a non-democratic regime in the United States and to extend US imperialism. It is one of "the first wave of book-length conspiracy speculations" in France and Germany about 9/11.Peter Knight
Outrageous Conspiracy Theories: Popular and Official Responses to 9/11 in Germany and the United States
New German Critique, No. 103, Dark Powers: Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in History and Literature (Winter, 2008), pp. 165-193 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27669225 Retrieved 30 January 2018 16:25 UTC A follow up to his first book titled ''L’effroyable Imposture II'' (''The Big Lie 2'') accused

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

of carrying out the

assassination of Rafic Hariri On 14 February 2005, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri was killed along with 21 others in an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. Explosives equivalent to around 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of TNT were detonated as his motorcade d ...

Response

French media quickly dismissed the contents of the book, and a Pentagon spokesperson also deprecated the book. In 2005, the U.S. State Department declared Meyssan a '' persona non grata'' due to his active promotion of misinformation about the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Works

* ''La Protection des homosexuels dans le droit européen'' de Collectif, Projet Ornicar éd. (Paris), 1993, . * ''L'Intégration des transsexuels'' de Collectif, Projet Ornicar éd. (Paris), 1993, . * ''Charles Millon, le porte-glaive'' de Collectif, Golias (Lyon), 1999, . * ''L'Énigme Pasqua'', Golias (Lyon), 2000, . * ''Terrorisme en soutane : Jean-Paul II contre l'IVG'' par le Réseau Voltaire pour la liberté d'expression, L'Esprit frappeur (Paris), 2000, . * ''9/11 The Big Lie'', Carnot Publishing (London), 2002, . * ''Pentagate'', USA Books (New York), 2002, . * ''Os Senhores da Guerra'', Frenesi (Lisboa), 2002, . * Foreword (with

Jean Ziegler Jean Ziegler (; born Hans Ziegler, 19 April 1934) is a Swiss former professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris, and former vice-president of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations Human Rights Council. He ...

), ''Le Cartel Bush'', Timéli (Genève), 2004, . * ''Politicamente Incorrecto'', postface by Fidel Castro, Ciencias sociales (Cuba), 2004, . * Foreword (with

José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which hec ...

), ''El Neron del siglo XXI'', Apostrofe (Madrid), 2004, . * ''L'Effroyable imposture 1 & Le Pentagate'', Nouvelle édition annotée, Demi-lune (Paris), 2007, . * ''Resistere alla menzogna'' in ''Zero, Perché la versione ufficiale sull'11/9 è un falso'' (avec

Giulietto Chiesa Giulietto Chiesa (; 4 September 1940 – 26 April 2020) was an Italian journalist, author, lecturer, and politician. He was Vice-President of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, European Parliament's Committee on Inter ...

), Piemme (Milan), 2007, . * ''L'Effroyable imposture 2. Manipulations et désinformation'', Editions Alphée-Jean-Paul Bertrand (Paris), 2007, . * ''Before Our Very Eyes, Fake Wars and Big Lies: From 9/11 to Donald Trump'', Progressive Press, 2019,

References

External links