In the hours immediately following the $9/11$ attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, hundreds of reports from news broadcasts and the Internet circulated that identified the source of $t$ attack. These stories, or rumors, included:

$$ claims that Osama Bin Laden had been captured and executed.

claims that al Qaeda was planning other sneak attacks for the next day.

disguised, remote$-$controlled US military aircraft had actually been used to carry out the attack.