Logic and the Perception of Conspiracy

A popular argument advanced by supporters of the official conspiracy theory against any suggestion of government connivance or complicity in the events of 9/11 and the subsequent cover-up, can be summarized fairly simply, as follows ...

It would require too many people to be involved in a conspiracy of that magnitude ... with so many people involved, someone would have spoken by now, and anyway, the government is just too incompetent to pull off something that sophisticated.

Now this really is a nonsensical argument. For starters, the logic involved in the first statement, that a conspiracy of this nature would require very many people, is contradicted by the official claim that 19 Arab hijackers were the only conspirators involved in 9/11. The only logical explanation for this apparent contradiction is that terrorists are way more competent than government. This proposition is oviously absurd.

But the "incompetence theory" has gained enormous support and credence from within the ranks of government itself. Richard Clarke, former White House Counterterrorism Adviser, is a prominent exponent of the "incompetence theory".

An interesting aspect of the "incompetence theory" is the fact that no government official has ever been fired, reprimanded, investigated or even directly accused of anything aproaching incompetence, let alone dereliction of duty, as a result of their inaction or incompetence before, on and after 9/11.

So it seems that the "incompetence theory" applies solely to the institutional structures of government, and not to the individuals who populate those structures.

However, this logic then allows for the possibility that certain competent individuals (say at least as competent as terrorists) within the institutional structures of government, could feasibly exploit these institutional incompetencies for their own ends.

In other words, corrupt government officials could take advantage of secretive government agencies, bureaucratic barriers, executive orders and the constraints of hierarchical command structures to further criminal self interest.

Without proper, independent judicial review of all the evidence, with full and frank deposition under oath of all the officials involved, we cannot reasonably rule out the possibility.