Nico Haupt

Nico Haupt is a notoriously unhinged 9/11 truther based in New York City. If David Ray Griffin is the kindly old grandfather figure of the truther movement, Haupt is its crazy uncle.

MIHOP, LIHOP, and No-Planers (oh my!)
Haupt was one of the earliest to join the truther bandwagon and coined the acronyms MIHOP ("Made It Happen On Purpose") and LIHOP ("Let It Happen On Purpose"). MIHOP theories propose that the events of 9/11 were deliberately planned and carried out by the Bush administration, usually involving schemes such as explosives being planted in the Twin Towers or a cruise missile being fired at the Pentagon building. LIHOP, on the other hand, proposes that the Bush administration had prior knowledge of the attacks but, obviously, let them happen to ensure support for the War on Terror.

Haupt is not only a hardcore MIHOPer, but a "No-Planer." While MIHOPers generally assert that planes did hit the towers and Pentagon, they argue that explosives were what ultimately brought them down. No-Planers go one step further in the crazy department, claiming that holographic images were projected into the sky and/or that all the crash videos were faked to hide a missile striking the World Trade Center (Haupt calls the latter "9/11 TV fakery"). (Although there are even more out there theories.)

Haupt versus the truthers
Haupt's belligerence and penchant for the crankiest forms of 9/11 conspiracy theories have made him incredibly unpopular even within the truther movement. More "serious" truthers have accused him of being part of an attempt to hijack the movement and gone out of their way to debunk no-planer theories. After he harassed members of We Are Change, another conspiracy group, he was widely accused of being an agent for a COINTELPRO operation. He also had a brief run-in with Dylan Avery. He has intentionally marked out his territory as an internal dissident within the 9/11 "truth" movement, accusing the conspiracy theorists of conspiring against him.