Why hasn't there been a massive investigation into what the US intelligence community knew before 9/11, and why they failed to prevent it? By now we're all used to waiting in line at the airport, getting searched and taking our shoes off. But does anyone really feel safer? Why should we expect terrorists to attack the US in the same exact way as they did 21 months ago, using commercial aircraft as bombs? And how exactly does invading first Afghanistan, and then Iraq, address the root causes of terrorism which is directed against us?
The Project for a New American Century advocates using American force to exert authority on the world stage, and had long held designs on ousting Hussein, business which they felt had been left unfinished after the first Gulf war. This does not mean, however, that they had anything to do with orchestrating 9/11, and consequently launching the Bush administration's war on terrorism.
Last Sunday, in an interview on C-SPAN2's Book TV, Professor Noam Chomsy, MIT Linguistics Professor and Political Observer, responded to the popular theory that the White House let 9/11 happen as follows:
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Host: Jacksonville, Florida, Good afternoon.
Caller: Hi. Professor Chomsky, it's an honor to speak to you, sir. I'd like to have you address the idea of 9/11 as like as a false flag, or a let it happen on purpose kind of situation. I mean it's not exactly unprecedented in American history, or world history for that matter. Especially given the Project for the American Century, where Paul Wolfowitz said that it would take like a Pearl Harbor-like attack on America to be able to implement their plans. Could you address that for me, please?
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Chomsky: Well, I know that's a widely held belief. Frankly, I'm personally extremely skeptical about it. I don't think there's any likelihood that an action like that could have been planned. And I don't really think there are any historical precedents for it.
If the White House had been in anyway involved in planning this, it would have been an act of absolute madness on their part. For one thing, you could never tell what, where it was going to go. For another, it would certainly have leaked, and it's inconceivable that a plan of that nature wouldn't have leaked. And it just doesn't make any sense in my opinion. And I don't think the evidence is at all compelling, that there is.
You're quite right about the exploitation of it. When it happened, it was exploited. Not just in the United States, but all over the world. So for example the Russians were, exploited September 11th, as they saw it as a window of opportunity, to step up their really brutal repression and violence in Chechnya, claiming, presenting it as a struggle against terrorism, and expecting to get authorization from the United States, the world ruler, which indeed happened.
Israel used it as a window of opportunity to step up repression in the occupied territories, claiming it as a war against terror. China did the same in western China, with their carrying out, again, harsh, repressive activities against dissidents, sometimes rebel groups, again expecting US authorization, which they got.
All over the world, governments, including more democratic governments, used it as an opportunity to impose more discipline on their own populations. So yes, it was recognized throughout the world by state power as an opportunity to increase repressive actions that were underway, and to impose discipline, and so on, but that doesn't mean that all those countries planned it.
They just recognized it as a window of opportunity, and I think the same is true here.
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Senators Bob Graham, Diane Feinstein, Joseph Leiberman and others have been calling for an investigation into the events leading up to 9/11, and why our intelligence failed to warn us, but the White House continues to play the secrecy game.
