Editor's Note: You will not find a compendium of, or endorsement of, any of the myriad "conspiracy theories" surrounding the 9/11 attacks on this page. I do not personally believe that the Bush administration played an official, active role in planning or launching the attacks, nor do I advance such theories from other sources. I do, however, believe that this administration has completely failed to adequately explain the circumstances leading up to the attacks, the huge amount of puzzling and disturbing events of the day itself that do not lend themselves to being part of the simplistic explanations, or lack thereof, given to us by Bush administration officials, or the disturbing and sometimes horrific chain of events that followed the attacks. Whatever the truth actually is, we have not been provided anything approaching that truth by Bush or his officials. I do feel that there is reason to believe that the attacks were, at some level, known to be "in the works" by at least some members of this administration, and that someone, or a group of someones, made a decision to allow them to happen and to reap the political and financial benefits that accrued thereafter. You are welcome to disagree. -- Max Black
The majority of the content is on the following pages. Below this menu you will find introductory, mostly editorial, material. Peruse that if you wish, and come back to this menu for the real information.
"For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy, June 1962
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." -- Philip K. Dick
"Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers" as the result of terrorist attacks. -- Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, opening line of a report from the United States Commission on National Security, September 1999
As usual, the Bush administration, its cronies and compatriots, and the corporate media have all done their level best to redirect America's attention away from the idea that the Bush administration might have had an inkling -- or more -- of what was to come on September 11, 2001. Former press secretary Ari Fleischer warned us to "watch what we say." George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Trent Lott, Robert Mueller, and innumerable others told us to be quiet, take what we're given, and go away, at risk of being considered "contemptible," "despicable," "unpatriotic," or even worse, "aiding and abetting the cause of terrorism." Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft intoned, "Disagreeing with the President only helps the terrorists," and Cheney thundered, "such commentary is thoroughly irresponsible and totally unworthy...in a time of war." Dick Morris penned a nasty little article accusing the Clinton administration of being responsible for the country's lack of preparation; he and talk show maven Sean Hannity engaged in a barrage of accusations that had Clinton all but flying one of the hijacked planes. (Karl Rove, Mary Matalin, and Donald Rumsfeld all called right-wing talk show hosts and asked for their help in circling the wagons.) First Lady Laura Bush sorrowfully accused anyone who asked questions as "play[ing] upon the victims' families' emotions." Accusations flew that the Democrats and the liberal wing of political society are using the situation as political cannon fodder; one Democratic representative who stated that the administration may have withheld knowledge of the impending attacks was painted as a "loony" who is working "directly against American interests." The Pentagon removed Democrats from a number of advisory boards, ensuring that sensitive information only went to Republicans who would, presumably, keep their mouths shut. In the months after the attacks, Bush stated that he will not tolerate any further "second-guessing" of the administration, and Rumsfeld, doing his best Soviet kommisar impression, threatened that "those who ask questions could face government charges," and said that any government agencies or media outlets who ask the wrong questions could be charged with "giving aid and comfort to the enemy." Believe it or not, the administration has the force of law on its side -- if you agree with their apparent conclusion that their USA PATRIOT bill (and its concurrent expansion of the War Powers Act of 1947) supersedes the Bill of Rights. I guess they loved this article.
Meanwhile, the powers-that-be desperately tried to keep Congress from investigating the shocking intelligence lapses (in Tom Daschle's own words, "The vice president expressed the concern that a review of what happened on September 11 would take resources and personnel away from the effort in the war on terrorism"), and, when such an investigation became inevitable, did their level best to cow misdirect the investigators. They asserted the claim of "executive privilege" when questions were asked. They begged for "unity" and "bipartisanship" while simultaneously attacking dissenters as "traitors" and "political agitators." They trotted out the usual attempts to pin the blame on the Clinton administration ("Mr. Clinton can be held culpable for not doing enough when he was commander-in-chief to combat the terrorists who wound up attacking the World Trade Center and Pentagon," proclaimed Rush Limbaugh in the Wall Street Journal, and Cheney's former chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby told the New Yorker that the attacks occured because the Clinton administration had made it "easier for someone like Osama bin Laden to rise up and say credibly, 'The Americans don't have the stomach to defend themselves.... They are morally weak.'" ABC and Disney "honored" the fifth anniversay of the attacks by airing the TV "docudrama" The Path to 9/11, a farrago of lies and misrepresentations that pinned the blame for the attacks directly on the inaction and cowardice of the Clinton administration, and portrayed Bush and his officials as noble, outraged warriors reacting to the crisis with decisive action.).
And, as expected, the administration lined up one high-ranking official after another -- Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Colin Powell, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Condoleezza Rice, and others -- to try to scare us back into line with vague warnings of further terrorist attacks and questionable "alerts." As one bought-and-paid-for journalist put it, "Any argument against any aspect of the conduct of the war against terrorism must begin with those airplanes smashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And then it must stay there and never move from that spot." Wouldn't George W. Bush just love it if we were to all toe that line?
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." -- George W. Bush, December 18, 2000
On May 21, 2002, the White House admitted that it had issued some of its "threat alerts" for political reasons and not because the threats were considered to be serious. "As US officials continued to issue warnings yesterday about the possibility of attacks by suicide bombers and terrorists, the White House quietly acknowledged that the threats are not urgent and that they are partly motivated by political objectives," reported the Globe and Mail. "White House officials told reporters that the blunt warnings issued [on May 19 and 20, 2002] do not reflect a dramatic increase in threatening information but rather a desire to fend off criticism from the Democrats." The Washington Times, a strong supporter of the Bush administration, reported that "[t]he Bush administration issued a spate of terror alerts to deflect criticism that its national security team sat on intelligence warnings in the weeks before the September 11 attacks. "The warnings, including...uncorroborated FBI reports that terrorists might target the Statue of Liberty, quieted some of the lawmakers who said President Bush failed to act on clues of the September 11 attacks...." It has been revealed that some of the "alerts" were sparked by Arab prisoners watching the latest version of Godzilla and having a little fun at our expense. At no time during this barrage of fraudulent alerts and warnings did the Department of Homeland Security change the color of its "threat level" from yellow, where it has been since the alert system was implemented in March 2002. As an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle put it, "The evildoers are coming. Again. No, really, they are. This time we really mean it. Those last 17 times we only partially meant it.... Like some horrible clockwork they come, fresh terrorist attack warnings from the Bush administration or possibly a stern-faced government security agency, paced out every month or so just so you don't get too complacent, too wary, too, you know, suspicious. Just so you don't possibly become a little too skeptical and maybe start looking around and noticing you seem to have misplaced a great many of your civil liberties and maybe your healthy cautious patriotism."
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Theodore Roosevelt
Bush Knew: An American Requiem
One of the best presentations on the subject I've ever seen, from Take Back the Media