Cui Bono? The 9/11 Promotions

By Arabesque

The 9/11 official story is a tale of outlandish incompetence. We are led to believe that Al Qaeda successfully evaded a multi-billion dollar defense establishment, NORAD air defenses, standard FAA intercept procedures, US airbases,[1] the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, international intelligence agencies, etc. without any significant or effective resistance. While any serious investigation of the 9/11 attacks was blocked by President Bush and Dick Cheney for more than a year,[2] a theory of systematic and incredible incompetence emerged: Al Qaeda got “lucky”. Mindy Kleinberg, of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee in an opening address to the 9/11 Commission criticized this notion:

“It has been said that the intelligence agencies have to be right 100% of the time. And the terrorists only have to get lucky once. This explanation for the devastating attacks of September 11th, simple on its face, is wrong in its value, because the 9-11 terrorists were not just lucky once. They were lucky over and over again. When you have this repeated pattern of broken protocols, broken laws, broken communication, one cannot still call it luck. If at some point, we don’t look to hold the individuals accountable for not doing their jobs, properly, then how can we ever expect for terrorists to not get lucky again?”[3]

What happened to those who “failed”, and what exactly were their “failures”?[4]

Former Senator Gary Hart observes that, “in terms of accountability, I think this is one of the great mysteries of the last three or four years. Three thousand Americans died three years ago, and no one lost his or her job over it. A president who says that he is a strong president, and those around him say he is, did not fire anyone. Either he was misled, in which case, somebody should have been fired. Or he misled us, in which case he should be fired.”[5] Senator Charles Grassley similarly noted that “I can’t think of a single person being held accountable anywhere in government for what went on and what went wrong prior to Sept. 11, it seems that nobody in government makes any mistakes anymore.”[6] According to testimony given to congress these statements are accurate; not one single individual within the CIA, FBI, and NSA has been reprimanded, punished, or fired for the events of 9/11.[7]

How could this be possible? The 9/11 Commission admitted that its aim was “not… to assign individual blame.”[8] Why not? Paul Craig Roberts notes that “the purpose of a government investigatory commission is to place blame where it does the least harm politically.”[9] “In… blaming everybody a little, the Commission blames nobody,” observed Harpers’ Magazine.[10] But not only were no individuals held accountable or reprimanded for the 9/11 attacks, as 911truth.org observes, “officials who ‘failed’ (like Myers and Eberhard, as well as Frasca, Maltbie and Bowman of the FBI) were given promotions.”[11] A Justice Department official commented that the FBI, “basically promoted the exact same people who have presided over the… failure.”[12]

Who was responsible for these “failures” and who got promoted?

According to Laura Brown of the FAA, “Within minutes after the first aircraft hit the World Trade Center, the FAA immediately established several phone bridges that included FAA field facilities, the FAA Command Center, FAA headquarters, DOD [meaning the NMCC in the Department of Defense], the Secret Service… The US Air Force liaison to the FAA immediately joined the FAA headquarters phone bridge and established contact with NORAD… The FAA shared real-time information on the phone bridges about the unfolding events, including information about loss of communication with aircraft, loss of transponder signals, unauthorized changes in course, and other actions being taken by all the flights of interest.”[13] This was standard protocol:



  • “Consider that an aircraft emergency exists ... when: ...There is unexpected loss of radar contact and radio communications with any ...aircraft.”[14] —FAA Order 7110.65M 10-2-5 (6)
  • “If ... you are in doubt that a situation constitutes an emergency or potential emergency, handle it as though it were an emergency.”[15] —FAA Order 7110.65M 10-1-1-c (7)
Given this standard protocol, and Laura Brown’s statement, why were no planes intercepted? The 9/11 Commission noted that, “suspicion of [Pentagon] wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation,”[16] Senator Mark Dayton Claimed that NORAD officials “lied to the American people, they lied to Congress and they lied to your 9/11 commission to create a false impression of competence, communication and protection of the American people.”[17] What happened? Promotions.

Richard Myers, in charge of the Pentagon on 9/11—Promoted

Who was in charge at the Pentagon? Richard Myers,[18] who gave several contradictory accounts of his actions on 9/11,[19] was promoted as a new Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on August 24, 2001 by President Bush.[20] As Jim Hoffman notes, “General Richard Myers was Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 11th… As Acting Chairman, Myers was the highest-ranking military official, and the principal military advisor to the President.”[21] On 9/11, Myers was in charge because Chairman Henry Shelton[22] was out of the country.[23] Amazingly, just three days after 9/11, following NORAD’s stunning failure to intercept any of the planes on 9/11, he was promoted from Vice-Chairman to Chairman, replacing Henry Shelton.[24] A few months after his second promotion, Myers curiously said that “the goal has never been to get Bin Laden.”[25]

Ralph Eberhart, in charge of NORAD on 9/11—Promoted

On a day in which routine procedures should have prevented 9/11 from even happening, the attacks were mirrored in military drills.[26] NORAD commander-in-Chief Ralph Eberhart[27] was asked by the 9/11 Commission if these war games “helped” response to the 9/11 attacks and responded nonsensically, “sir, my belief is that it helped because of the manning, because of the focus, because the crews - they have to be airborne in 15 minutes and that morning, because of the exercise, they were airborne in six or eight minutes. And so I believe that focus helped.” This was clearly a ridiculous statement; if the war games “helped” response to the attacks, why were none of the planes intercepted during the attacks; what “response” was there at all? In fact, there is very strong evidence that these drills hindered response since they moved air defenses away from New York and Washington,[28] added “injects” to radar screens, and created general confusion.[29] Like Richard Myers, Eberhart was promoted[30] shortly after 9/11; “nominated by President Bush to command the… U.S. Northern Command,”[31] a new creation of the Department of Defense which Eberhart said was “needed” after the attacks.[32]

Norman Mineta reported that alleged Flight 77 was incoming into the Pentagon while in a bunker with Dick Cheney.[33] While NORAD was nowhere to be seen, a C-130 was sent by civilian air traffic controllers to intercept the incoming aircraft from Andrews Air Force Base.[34] This very same Air Force Base was 10 miles away from the Pentagon and had fighter jets available on 9/11.[35] Why wasn’t a fighter jet sent to intercept? Were civilian air traffic controllers left in charge of defense and intercepting planes on 9/11 when this was supposedly NORAD’s responsibility? Why wasn’t the Pentagon evacuated when the White House was evacuated?[36] Why was Ralph Eberhart promoted?

Ben Sliney, in charge of FAA on 9/11—Promoted

9/11 was Ben Sliney’s first day on the job as National Operations Manager, described as “the chess master of the air traffic system.”[37] He successfully accomplished the landing of all commercials aircraft—an unprecedented event carried out “flawlessly”.[38] As David Ray Griffin observes, “[is] it plausible that FAA personnel, on the same day that they carried out an unprecedented task so flawlessly, would have failed so miserably with a task that they, decade after decade, had been performing routinely?”[39] The interception of aircraft was a routine protocol as noted previously. Perhaps it was a bad day to start his job, but Sliney was not reprimanded and was later promoted.[40]

Marion (Spike) Bowman, blocked FBI investigations into the alleged hijackers before 9/11—Promoted

FBI director Mueller awarded Bowman with a presidential citation and cash bonus of about 25 percent of his salary.[41] Bowman, who was head of the FBI’s National Security Law Unit, was given an award for “exceptional performance” after a 9/11 Congressional Inquiry report claimed that his unit gave Minneapolis FBI agents “inexcusably confused and inaccurate information” that was “patently false.”[42] As well, Bowman’s unit “blocked an urgent request by FBI agents to begin searching for Khalid Almihdhar after his name was put on a watch list.”[43]

Pasquale D’Amuro, in charge of counterterrorism in New York—Promoted

Pasquale D’Amuro,[44] was the FBI’s counterterrorism chief on 9/11 in New York City, and was promoted to the top counterterrorism post after the attack.[45]

Michael Maltbie, the supervisor handling the case at the FBI's Radical Fundamentalist Unit—Promoted

According to FBI Agent Harry Samit, he “wrote FBI headquarters about 70 memos about Moussaoui's likely terrorist plans between his arrest on Aug. 16 and Sept. 11, all to no avail.” He was warned by his supervisor Michael Maltbie that pursuing this could be “bad for his career”, and that he should not pursue this to “preserve the existence of his advancement potential” in the FBI.[46] Instead of reprimand, Michael Maltbie was promoted to the Joint Terrorism Task Force at the FBI’s Cleveland office after 9/11.[47]

David Frasca, head of the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit—not fired

It has been observed that when it came to the success of the 9/11 attacks, “most roads lead to counterterror chief’ David Frasca”,[48] head of the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit.[49] Interestingly, he came into the job a week before 9/11 and was not fired after the 9/11 attacks.[50] Paul Thompson observes that, “The Phoenix memo, which was addressed to Frasca, was received by his unit and warned that al-Qaeda terrorists could be using flight schools inside the US…[51] Two weeks later Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested while training to fly a 747, but Frasca’s unit was unhelpful when local FBI agents wanted to search his belongings—a step that could have prevented 9/11.”[52] Time Magazine reports that, “The Phoenix memo was buried; the Moussaoui warrant request was denied.”[53] The New York Times indicates that Frasca, “[threw] up roadblocks” even after 9/11 in the Moussaoui investigation.[54]

Apparently, the FBI was so “incompetent”, that some of the alleged hijackers lived with an FBI informant without intervention.[55] The Able Danger program similarly identified some of the alleged hijackers.[56] Not only this, some of the alleged hijackers trained on US military airbases.[57] Despite this, the hijackers themselves were widely described as “incompetent”,[58] and several were reported to be “alive” after the attack.[59]

FBI: “Incompetent” then Suddenly “Competent” after the Attack?

Immediately following the attacks, the FBI suddenly changed from being “incompetent” to very competent. Family member Kristen Breitweiser asked, “How did the FBI know exactly where to go only a few hours after the attacks? How did they know which neighborhoods, which flight schools and which restaurants to investigate so soon in the case?… How are complete biographies of the terrorists, and their accomplices, created in such short time? Did our intelligence agencies already have open files on these men? Were they already investigating them?”[60] Most of the hijackers were identified within hours of the attacks.[61] Videos of the Pentagon strike were taken by the FBI minutes after it happened from multiple locations.[62]

Failures Promoted, Whistleblowers Silenced?

Coleen Rowley,[63] Sibel Edmonds,[64] Robert Wright,[65] Kevin Ryan,[66] and others were silenced, fired, punished, and ignored for speaking out about what happened behind the scenes before and after the 9/11 attacks.[67] As well, many credible professionals, scientists, professors, and others have expressed their doubts about the official story.[68]

The US Government Knew the Date, Method, and Targets of the 9/11 Attack

Family member Patty Casazza explained that, “The Government knew… other than the exact moment… they knew the date, and the method of which the attacks were supposed to come... And none of this made it to mainstream media. None of it made it into the Commission. And yet, again, all of your Representatives, on the day that the Commission book came out, were on their pulpits saying, ‘What a fabulous job this Commission has done. A real service to this nation.’ And it was anything but a service. It was a complete fabrication… They knew the targets.”[69]

Cui Bono?

From Wikipedia:

“Cui bono… is a Latin adage that is used either to suggest a hidden motive or to indicate that the party responsible for a thing may not be who it appears at first to be… Commonly the phrase is used to suggest that the person or people guilty of committing a crime may be found among those who have something to gain, chiefly with an eye toward financial gain. The party that benefits may not always be obvious or may have successfully diverted attention to a scapegoat, for example.”

To believe in the 9/11 “official story” is to believe in a massive, coordinated, and “coincidental” failure at many levels in which those most responsible for preventing the attacks were not fired or reprimanded and instead promoted. The 9/11 official story depends on your ignorance of the facts, not on your knowledge of them. On top of this, there is very strong evidence to suggest that other parts of the attacks including the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers and Building 7 were deliberately orchestrated to make sure that the attacks were successful.[70]

Who really benefited from the 9/11 attacks? Why were whistleblowers silenced? Why weren’t officials reprimanded? Why were they promoted? Why did the FBI suddenly become “competent” immediately after the attacks? Who profits from the billions of dollars spent on the 9/11 wars?[71] Cui Bono?