I've been mulling over getting involved in this thread. Not really wanting to get into it with a certain poster I'll add my two cents and hope this does not go where I'm pretty sure this thread is headed.
The terms "conspiracy theory" and "conspiracy theorist" have achieved negative status in the zeitgeist (much like the term "liberal"). This is really interesting, because the term really is not a negative one. It just implies that the potential for a conspiracy (the act of conspiring together by two or more people) has been noticed and that a theory (the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one and another) has been proposed to explain the events. These "conspiracy theories" are not restricted to one side of the political spectrum either. There are plenty of kooky "conspiracy theories" that the right love to cling to as well (UN Oil for Food program, Iraq's WMDs, the link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, etc.) so I think those wishing to cast stones in the direction that question the events of 9/11 should be careful. There are many experts in their individual fileds that question the events surrounding 9/11, and have become vocal because of the terrible job the 9/11 Commission did in investigating the events. Some of the messages being delivered are indeed way over the top, but so is believing that 19 foreign nationals could commandeer four planes fly them around the most populated states in America, striking at some of the most secure airspace, and doing this without reaction of the government/military at the time. Believing that the series of coincidences that "took place" on 9/11 is possible is even just as suspect as believing that something like this "could" be dreamed up by the Bush administration. Let's not forget that a "theory" is nothing more than "a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation". As the evidence mounts, one way or another, do we finally find out if the theory becomes fact or fiction. The jury is still out IMO.
Oh, and it appears that almost 1 in 4 Americans thinks the jury is still out too.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/200605.../prweb388743_4
I would like to point out that a conspiracy like this is indeed very possible. Some will argue that it would be impossible for the government to sit on this, that at some point someone would let it slip. While there is some truth to that, proven by the NSA Wire-tapping/Dometic Spying story, there is substantial proof that a program could indeed remain secret if the government requires it to be secret. Compartmentalization and restriction allows for secrecy at the highest levels. Through the use of document reclassification (the Bush administration has reclassified and restricted more documents than all other administrations combined) the government can shift the sands of truth through the bureaucracy for generations. For those who do not think it possible for the government to keep a secret consider the following projects that the public knew nothing about until the government wanted the information released.
* Manhattan Project - one of the most expensive ventures in history, and the public didn't know about it until the bomb was dropped.
* Tuskeegee airmen experiments - exposure of black soldiers to syphillis for the purposes of understanding the disease better. 200 men die while the government refuses them treatment.
* Cancer experiments - the Rockerfeller Institute for Medical Investigations infects healthy patients with cancer cells. Dr. Cornelius Rhodes, the man responsible for overseeing the program, goes on to establish several biological warfare labs for the U.S. Military and work for the U.S. Atomic Commission.
* Pellegra - millions die from the disease (predominantly poor blacks) and the government refuses to act because of who the disease was ravaging.
* Bio weapons testing - U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia. Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents.
* Agent testing on the public - CIA initiates Project MKULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior modification. Six of the subprojects involved testing the agents on unwitting human beings. Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii.
* Weapons platforms - the United States military has been extremely efficient at maintaining the secrecy levels surrounding many weapons platforms (stealth, SR-71, etc.) and continues to be. It should also be noted the United States military has never retired a platform without having a replacement already in service. The public does not know of many of these platforms until the old one is ready for decomissioning.
The government can remain very quiet on things that work in their better interest, especially the military. Compartmentalization allows for this to happen. The Bush administartion has been possibly the most secretive of administrations which makes it probable for information not leaking. When you consider their civilian administration of the military, and the execution of their plans by those within the inner circle (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, etc.) an unintentioanl leak seems unlikely. These are experienced individuals who have learned their lessons well, and they will compartmentalize to keep secrets. They have done so in the past, they will continue to do so in the future.