It is possible, Ron, that some of the existing conspiracy theories have been covertly invented BY the government as deliberate misinformation simply to distract people...as you say...and to help discredit all other conspiracy theories merely by association. ;-) Man, I wouldn't past it past some clever Black Ops people to lay a few false trails just to muddy the waters.

I still think Dick Cheney and some other high-ups in the administration were probably in on it, however. I think Giuliani probably was too. and Rumsfeld. I think Bush himself was at least partially in the dark as to what was going on...if not wholly so. In any case, what happened allowed those guys, Bush included, to set in motion exactly the international events they had been planning on for quite a number of years. It was so fortuitous for the planners of the PNAC that I find it hard to believe that they didn't have a hand in making it happen.

This is my opinion. I wouldn't claim to have proof. I'm in no position to have proof, and I know no way of determining if or when the media and government are telling me the truth about anything.

I am aware how completely powerless I am to determine if or when they are telling me the truth or not. Maybe a lot of other people are not aware of their powerlessness in that respect, and they cover their vulnerability over with a sense of certainty. I wonder? I fully expect to die and never find out for sure if they were telling the truth or not, just like I'll never find out for sure the whole truth about the Kennedy assassination either. Or about most things like that.

I accept the fact that I'm not going to ever know the whole truth, although (like anyone) I very much want to. I don't like it much, but I face it and I accept it. How many people do? How many people's absolute certainty about this or that...their loud and strong opinions...are an instinctive psychological defence reaction to the fact that in truth they don't know what's going on and they are never going to. Not knowing is scary. It's easier just to be in denial all the time and imagine that you DO know what's going on, because you heard it on the News and the guys that read the News wouldn't repeat a lie, would they?

Oh yes, they would. They could. And they frequently do (whether they know it or not). They read what they're told to read.