9/11 conspiracies are, I would not say popular, but certainly have a certain foothold, in the Anti-Imperialist political milieu in Germany (I use capital letters to denote an actual political tendency, and not the mere position of being in opposition to imperialism. I prefer Anti-Imp to loaded and potentially misleading terms like "Stalinist" and "Maoist").
But it is rare that it takes the form of actively advancing theses concerning alleged conspiracies of 9/11. It far more often takes the form of posing "unanswered questions" concerning 9/11.
It is difficult to assess how far these ideas have penetrated "the left" as a whole. My guess would be not much. Certainly not at all in the political milieus I interact with.
I suspect 9/11 conspiracism to be a marginal phenomenon. Far more problematic for the cognitive process of leftists, I think, are schematic, overly simplified models of the actions of state actors, positing one-to-one correlations between the intentions of social groups and state policy.
Or at least, I used to think that until yesterday. Then I read a report in one of the newspapers concerning the positioning of American aircraft carriers near Iran, and now I really do suspect that the Bush administration are fucking insane, and that its quite possible that American policy *really is* operating according to the intentions of an elite handful of policy makers, regardless of the objective needs of "capital as a whole."
Unless of course it is merely sabre-rattling intended to cultivate an *image* of irrationality, which I think Kissinger has actually formulated as a tactic of foreign policy.
I sincerely do hope it's the latter. Not just because the result might be less catastrophic for humanity, but also because elegant theories of the state create enough headaches for me without having to pull factors like this into consideration.
____________________________________________________________________________________ Have a burning question? Go to www.Answers.yahoo.com and get answers from real people who know.