I think it's a perfect comparison. Because the impulses and the rationales behind the behavior of those involved in both cases were exactly the same. And in the case of the Tuskegee experiment, the suffering of individual human beings was allowed to continue for decades and was witnessed by those perpetrating the crime. It doesn't get much more cold-hearted than that, to watch the suffering of another human being for years and years, knowing full well that it was possible to help alleviate his suffering, and knowing full well that that person was tricked into submitting to this horrendous treatment and would not have submitted to it had he been told the truth. And knowing full well that his wife and children could possibly suffer the same fate as a result of their silence and complicity. That's about as cold-hearted and savage as it is possible for a human being to get.

Fewer people were harmed, but their suffering lasted a long, long time. If people can be cold-hearted, or misguided enough to participate in and remain silent about something like this (including a Surgeon General of the United States - and if he knew about it, more than likely, others at even higher levels of government knew and remained silent about it as well), it's equally possible that people could do the same in the case of an incident like 9/11.

And the Tuskogee experiment is hardly the only example of this sort of thing. There are numerous examples of crimes being committed by our government against civilians that have been covered up and that have required the complicity and silence of numerous people over the years. The CIA's mind control experiments of the 1950s and 1960s is but one example.

The fact is (and this is utterly provable) that faced with sufficient 'justification', or inducement, human beings can and do stoop to the lowest possible kinds of behavior towards their fellow human beings, even your fellow Americans, and members of your government, Ebbie. But I know it's much easier to believe that only people who are very different from us enlightened people in the West could possibly do something like this.

Interesting that you say your knowledge of "human nature" prevents the possibility that people from this country could be responsible. I guess that means you don't think of those you believe are guilty as human beings? Or maybe you don't see the people who committed genocide in Rwanda as human beings? Or the Nazis, or the Communists, or any of the other multitude of people who have committed crimes against humanity? Only people in the US are human beings, and therefore governed by your idea of "human nature"?

And what about the people who lynched Black people in the US south, or the people who owned and/or traded in slaves? How about the people who committed genocide on the indigenous people of what is now the US? Were they not human beings, Ebbie?