Hi James Thomas,
You certainly opened up a can of worms didn't you? This thread just might go on as long as the 607/587 debate. ( kidding )
I too, am bothered by many of the irreconcilable anomalies and unanswered questions from 9/11. I personally, was dissatisfied with the 9/11 commission. I thought that so many issues were not addressed. I am convinced that there are several issues that the government has deliberately kept quiet about, and perhaps even lied about. I personally, have viewed most of the popular videos, and "reports" that are out there on the net, and I have to say that despite the unanswered questions, I just don't think that there was government involvement in 9/11. Here's why:
I think that we often give government bureaucracies way too much credit than they deserve. We have to remember that the CIA, NSA, and the Pentagon are huge bureaucracies. Bureaucracies by their very nature are incompetent, and inefficient. It was noted that what lead to the Pearl Harbor attacks was a climate of denial, ineptitude, and just plain bad intel. I have heard from retired intelligence officers (radio interviews) that there has always been bitterness and petty rivalries between the agencies of the FBI and the CIA. The notion that they would cooperate in such a massive operation without some maverick leaking something to the press is extremely far-fetched
Here's a question: if the U.S. government was unable to keep their secret wire tap program (NSA program) from being leaked to the New York Times and Washington Post, how on earth would a massive operation like 9/11 be kept secret without someone leaking at least some portions of the operation?
If the U.S. government was unable to keep the Abu Garab prison scandal a secret, how would they be able to keep an operation that spans across several government agencies a secret?
If the government can't prevent the details of a Senate committee's business from being leaked to the media, how would the government prevent information being leaked by a collection of hundreds of operatives working in competing agencies like the FBI, CIA, Pentagon, FAA, NYPD, and FDNY?
As far as the failure to promptly scramble aircraft; we must realize that their was pandemonium at the FAA on the morning of 9/11. The FAA as a bureaucracy, just wasn't able to adequately communicate back and forth with the Defense Dept, because they were not even sure for a while that the wayward aircraft had even been hijacked. I think that we must factor in how massive bureaucracies are not able to respond to sudden crisis of this magnitude. Again, I admit that there are indeed some unanswered questions as to why the Pentagon was able to be hit. But, just because a question is unanswered; doesn't mean that a certain theoretical answer must be correct.
As far as the towers collapsing; I have some possible ideas. I realize that several engineers have said that the steel should not have melted. That the steel structure was designed to withstand that impact and a temperature of some 2000 degrees. Has it ever occurred to anyone that the actual structure was never built to specs? What I mean is, isn't it possible that the contractors who built the twin towers half-assed or cut corners to save costs? I remember that there have been various contractors who have been prosecuted for lying about design specifications in the past. As it turned out, the actual constructions did not match the design specifications. Corners were cut to save money, and was made possible by paying off inspectors. The buildings were not as safe as the builders said they were.
I'm wondering if this is what happened in the construction of the twin towers. It could be possible that it was covered up by the Federal government in an effort to prevent the City of New York from being bankrupted by lawsuits from families of victims; and from the companies that actually inhabited the buildings. Again, I admit that there are several unanswered questions. But to go from these unanswered questions to concluding that the government had a hand in the operation is a huge leap of faith.
The idea of 19 men hijacking 4 aircraft is not far-fetched to me. Airplanes had been hijacked by Arab knuckleheads on numerous occasions in the past. The belief as to how to deal with them was always "do what they tell you, and you'll be okay". That is the paradigm that Americans were operating under prior to 9/11.
I know that some will argue that there is a massive global shadow government operating under the direction of the Illuninati and the Bildabergs that carried this out. Well, that is venturing into the grandiose, unprovable ideas of alien abductions, and bigfoot sightings, of which I won't even bother to go into.
I am not one who naively believes that the U.S. government is a saint. I do realize many of it's faults and past sins. And, I am disturbed by the amount of influence that the military industrial complex is having in Washington. But, I am not prepared to attempt to answer my own unanswered questions with such a grand exercise in speculation. Many of the people who disagree with me will say that I am "naive", "brainwashed by the American media", and "sticking my head in the sand". That's okay. I respect our differing opinions.
I like to refer to the scientific principle that says that when two separate competing hypothesis are possible, the simpler one is usually always the correct one. Was the United States government able to design, fund, and implement a massive operation involving several federal, state, and local agencies consisting of hundreds of operatives, bribed officials, and bureaucrats who were willing to commit treason without any information being leaked beforehand? Or, were the American people failed by incompetent policies, ineffective agencies, inept bureaucrats, and bad intelligence which was revealed to be the county's Achilles Heel?
