This is a good point, and I almost made it in my post upthread. Even though I think that the Bush Administration knew an attack was “imminent”, I doubt they had enough specific information to publicly do anything about it. If they had given some general warning, they risked setting off a national panic.
However, in light of the “chatter” they were getting, I do think they made plans on how to respond to the aftermath of the attack, and I do think this included utilizing the political capital gleaned from a homeland attack. The Project for a New American Century had already written a position paper about how they wanted to revamp the military, and the Neo-Cons already had foreign policy ideas in mind, so I think they were ready to use the attack as a launching point for their changes in military and diplomatic directions.
Also, adding to the OP, I also think Karl Rove was involved in the release of the forged documents regarding Bush’s military record that got Dan Rather and CBS in such a shitstorm. I believe the fact remains that the substance of that report remains true.
Not to mention there wasn’t much they could have done to stop it. Cease all flights? Nothing would happen but the citizens would be mad and left in the dark because they didn’t perceive it as a risk, and the terrorists would probably just attack as soon as they resumed again. Tighten Security? They used box cutters, security was still somewhat tight at the time, I doubt they would have caught it that easily just after tightening it, no one would’ve taken it seriously. Negotiate? Wouldn’t work, their mission was clear. Keep fighters on standby and shoot them down? Then we’d be sitting here today saying “HowTheFuckCanYouShootDownCivilianAircraftBush!?” Of all possible courses of action the one taken, or possibly the last one (because it would have saved more lives) seem like the logical ones to take. Then again, I don’t know what info they had so I can’t say that for sure, but it seems to me once we had the info necessary to stop it we were, well, powerless to stop it.
Although I agree, I suppose they could have put locks on cockpit doors, an idea championed by the likes of Ralph Nader for many years. But he’s a crazy old crank. and nobody listens to him anyway.
Let’s also not forget that they had a “shadow government” all ready to go in the wings were Washington to fall to some sort of major attack. It scared the hell out of me at the time, and it still does.
Since when did they make them disappear ? We’ve been hearing off and on for years about the various people who tried to warn Bush and friends.
Because the fact that what happened is just what they wanted is rather suspicious. If I stand to inherit a lot of money from my rich but young uncle, and I comment on how I’d really like it if he dropped dead so I could inherit right now, and lo and behold he ends up murdered and I inherit - don’t you think the cops would be the tiniest bit suspicious of me ? Especially if I was known to be making plans beforehand on the assumption that I would inherit the money shortly ?
How about NOT call the State Department off Bin Laden ? One of the first things Bush did was call off Clinton’s hunt for Bin Laden. How about actually listen to the warnings instead of saying ( to quote Bush ) “Alright, you’ve covered your ass” and ignoring them ?
I dont believe in any of the famous conspiracy theories but I DO believe that successive British governments of all political persuasions allowed the Northern Irish troubles to drag on for decades in the hope that there would be a politically acceptable(Not to mention face saving)way for N.I. to either join the Republic of Ireland or exist as an independent entity.
My reasons for believing this are that the provisional I.R.A.,Sinn Fein and other extreme Irish Republican organisations were so heavily infiltrated at all levels up to and including the leadership by turncoats or British agents that they virtually couldn’t take a trip to the bathroom without the Secret Intelligence Service knowing about it.
I agree that this wasn’t always the case but suspect that after the Brighton bombing that nearly took out the Conservative party leaders(At time the government of the day)this became the mission of the security services and finally the reality.
An incredible amount of ambushes by U.K. special forces on so called “Active Service Units” of P.I.R.A. were cancelled literally with the terrorists in their gunsights with no explanation given.
But the surmise is that there were just so many A.S.U.s composed of one or more people working for the Brits that Ops had to be stopped for fear of killing one or more of our own undercover people during the firefight.
I can give no cite for this.
Since the end of the Troubles there have been a succession of senior PIRA leaders outed as having worked for the S.I.S and MI5 including paymasters and the head of the IRAs much feared security force,The "Nutting "squad so called because after torturing their suspects they executed them with a bullet to the head ie. the Nut.
But why would any British government wish to give up a part of our national union?
The fact is that N.I. hasn’t really got anything we want based on unemotional evaluation,no natural resources of any note,no booming industries and NO we dont hang on to places for the sake of our Imperial pride,we’ve given up a lot of Africa,Asia and other parts of the world so a few thousand acres of farmland are of no importance to us.
But the big stumbling block was that the majority of N.I.s population just didn’t want to leave the Union and especially not join the R.O.I.
With the higher birthrate of the Catholic population maybe that opinion will change over the years,maybe not.
All of this theory is based solely on my own extrapolation of facts and events as judged by me and nothing else.
I don’t think anyone really knows what was going on in Roswell or Dallas and the Feds had to come up with something. Not that I buy the alien corpses story in regards to the former.
Likewise, I think the only people who really knew what 9/11 was about were the terrorists on the planes.