Generating 9/11 conspiracy theories

While I'm on the subject of conspiracy theories, it's worth observing, once again, that one of the chief reasons they arise is the failure of government officials to be forthcoming about significant issues that affect the public. This is especially the case with the post-9/11 conspiracy theories I discussed yesterday.

And if anyone needs a clear example of why these theories are spreading, read Joe Conason's terrific column in today's New York Observer:

What's Bush Hiding From 9/11 Commission?

... The President is fortunate that until now, the bipartisan National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has received far less attention than controversies over the design for a World Trade Center memorial. At every step, from his opposition to its creation, to his abortive appointment of Henry Kissinger as its chair, to his refusal to provide it with adequate funding and cooperation, Mr. Bush has treated the commission and its essential work with contempt.

In the latest development, the President?s aides refused additional time for the 9/11 commission to complete its report. Although the original deadline in the enabling legislation is May 27, the commissioners recently asked for a few more months to ensure that their product will be "thorough and credible."

... Following the creation and staffing of the commission, many months passed before the administration agreed to let Mr. Kean look at any of those crucial documents. The commission still has hundreds of interviews to conduct, and millions of pages to examine, before its members begin to draft their conclusions.

But the President's political advisers, concerned about the political impact of the commission's report, are unsympathetic to its requests for additional time -- and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who would have to approve an extension, is perfectly obedient to his masters in the White House. According to Newsweek, the administration offered Mr. Kean a choice: Either keep to the May deadline, or postpone release of the report until December, when its findings cannot affect the election.

Mr. Bush doesn't want his re-election subject to any informed judgment about the disaster that reshaped the nation and his Presidency. But why should such crucial facts be withheld from the voters? What does the President fear?

Of course, this is not merely a lack of transparency -- it has the reek of a coverup, though a coverup of what is as yet anybody's guess. And a lot of people are guessing.

This, as I pointed out a few weeks ago, is precisely the problem that Howard Dean tried to bring up when he talked about the president's stonewalling:

DEAN: There is a report, which the president is suppressing evidence for, which is a thorough investigation of 9/11.

REHM: Why do you think he's suppressing that report?

DEAN: I don't know. There are many theories about it. The most interesting theory that I've heard so far, which is nothing more than a theory, I can't -- think it can't be proved, is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis. Now, who knows what the real situation is, but the trouble is by suppressing that kind of information, you lead to those kinds of theories, whether they have any truth to them or not, and then eventually they get repeated as fact. So I think the president is taking a great risk by suppressing the clear -- the key information that needs to go to the Kean commission.

Of course, for saying this, Dean was accused of being a "conspiracy theorist."

For what it's worth, I for one believe that the aspect of the 9/11 attacks that is most in dire need of clearing up is the question of why the military was so slow in scrambling its interceptors, particularly in the case of the airliner that slammed into the Pentagon. That this occurred is not a disputed fact. And it has never been explained.