Why there are conspiracy theories at all

[eridani]

19. My take is a weak version of LIHOP

I think that they knew something was going to happen, but didn't have knowledge of operational details, nor did they try very hard to get that information. You could say the same about Pearl Harbor. Certainly our defense establishment knew that Japan was going to do something or another about being cut of from most of its oil supply.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030908-480226,00.html

Without charging any skullduggery (Posner told TIME they "may in fact be coincidences&quot , the author notes that these deaths occurred after CIA officials passed along Zubaydah's accusations to Riyadh and Islamabad. Washington, reports Posner, was shocked when Zubaydah claimed that “9/11 changed nothing” about the clandestine marriage of terrorism and Saudi and Pakistani interests, “because both Prince Ahmed and Mir knew that an attack was scheduled for American soil on that day.” They couldn't stop it or warn the U.S. in advance, Zubaydah said, because they didn't know what or where the attack would be. And they couldn't turn on bin Laden afterward because he could expose their prior knowledge. Both capitals swiftly assured Washington that “they had thoroughly investigated the claims and they were false and malicious.” The Bush Administration, writes Posner, decided that “creating an international incident and straining relations with those regional allies when they were critical to the war in Afghanistan and the buildup for possible war with Iraq, was out of the question.”

BTW, Posner made his bones as an author debunking Kennedy assassination theories.