The failure to assign blame

[Magda Hassan]

I had been thinking of posting about this, and I brought it up briefly on another thread. Why were no government officials (civilian or military, at any level) reprimanded, blamed, demoted, or fired after 9/11 or the JFK assassination? I do remember that one FAA or NORAD official quietly resigned at some point, and of course FBI Agent James Hosty was punished by Hoover for blabbing to the Dallas police about Oswald. But otherwise, nothing. Even the Secret Service agents out drinking the night before the assassination were left alone. The CIA and FBI people who monitored Oswald, the failure of air defense on 9/11, the numerous missed warnings by FBI and CIA...

The WC did direct some criticism at the Secret Service and FBI as institutions, but no individuals were blamed. The 9/11 Commission went even further in blaming systemic failures and institutional miscommunication, but no actual people were at fault.

I think that it was primarily a way of keeping everyone quiet. To throw anyone under the bus - a lowly air traffic controller, SS agent, NORAD official, FBI clerk, State Dept official or whoever - would risk causing those people to complain to the media, point fingers at others, blame superiors, talk about the drills they thought they were participating in, testify before Congress. All of this might lead to real investigations. The media might have no choice but to pay attention and actually do its job. And the whole thing unravels. But if no one is punished, people who know or suspect something will just keep quiet to preserve their jobs and the institutions they work for.

Another piece of this would be the almost instantaneous meme that this was not a crime but an attack on the Homeland and should be treated as such. This smells like a well thought out PR strategy.

Indeed it does. They are selling some thing. An idea or a concept. Not describing a real event.