9/11 questions are unanswered
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/a...702150328/1006
Todd Lockwood
Published: Thursday, February 15, 2007
Many Americans are reluctant to accept the government's version of the events of 9/11, and perhaps with good reason. Our entry into the war in Iraq as a result of faulty or misleading intelligence has given the public pause.
People are logically looking backward to 9/11 and wondering if there could be a connection. They ask the question, "What is it I'm not being told?"
This atmosphere of chronic distrust of the government provides fertile ground for conspiracy theories. One only has to scan the Internet to find a wellspring of Web sites and documentaries about the "real" events of 9/11.
These well-meaning efforts tend to support each other's findings, and the result is a kind of "collective truth" about what happened on 9/11. Theories range from the plausible to the absurd. However, not all of these conspiracy theorists are crackpots. The 9/11 Truth movement has also attracted a cadre of esteemed academics, engineers and lawyers who are picking apart the official story piece-by-piece, looking for inconsistencies.
The government, for its part, has helped fuel the conspiracy fires by avoiding transparency. The White House has resisted releasing evidence at every turn. This hoarding of evidence is counter-productive, unless it really does protect national security.
A suspicious public sees this behavior as further proof that the administration has something to hide.
While the 9/11 Commission's findings may be largely valid, many Americans feel that there is more to the story. There are still lingering questions. At the top of this list would be whether the administration had prior knowledge and allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur. Such an idea would have been unthinkable in the months following the attacks.
But five years later, after seeing how the administration used 9/11 as a pretext for redefining presidential powers, the concept seems less absurd. At the very least, one has to wonder how the administration could use 9/11 to justify a war with Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.
Was our foray into Iraq really about terrorism?
The war in Iraq has been a financial bonanza for the defense and oil industries. The administration's ties to these industries are common knowledge. Billions of dollars have been spent, much of it in the form of no-bid contracts. Meanwhile, our fiscal policy at home has gone out the window. We've racked up a nearly trillion-dollar debt, a record trade imbalance, and our currency is losing value. Furthermore, our country's reputation has been severely tarnished.
Has America's foreign policy been hijacked? Have corporate-funded think tanks replaced our elected government? Where are the checks and balances? These are the kinds of questions that need to be asked, before we close the book on 9/11.
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