I can think of a couple of reasons offhand.
One is that at some point DOJ hopes to get prosecutions. Evidence is quite commonly withheld in criminal prosecutions until the discovery process begins.
Another is that in fact the gov't did screw up and doesn't want to admit it. There were missed warnings which would be part of an investigation and would be embarrassing for NSA, DOD, and CIA at least.
There is the question of why USAF jets weren't scrambled once the planes went off course.
(And THAT raises a question foe those making the allegation they should have been. Should they have? Is this still policy? That was a Cold War tactic and the Cold War is 15 years dead.)
Assuming military jets should have scrambled, a USAF general or maybe Rumsfield himself may have decided that that wasn't needed since they knew those planes were US commercial flights originating from US domestic airports. And they had no idea what was coming. They probably thought these were just some more hijackings and they would make things more dangerous for the passengers and crew if USAF jets showed up.
After Pearl Harbor, there was resistance on the part of the administration to have an investigation. They knew they had screwed up. Finally, public and Congressional pressure forced one. The result was a whitwash: It was all the fault of General Short and Admiral Kimmel, the commanders in Hawaii. (The usual military response is to lay blame at the lowest cedible level. Witness My Lai.) It was not until decades later, when Ultra material started being released, that it became apparent just how much Washington really did know about an impending attack and withheld from field commanders.
Now the above is speculative. But it is no more speculative than the conspiracy theory being proposed.
(Re Hawaii: You are aware, aren't you, that you are in the same corner as a guy who believes the conspiracy theory about Pearl Harbor: that your liberal hero FDR provoked it, knew it was coming, ordered information withheld, and welcomed it?) |
