How many hi-jacking incidents have there been in the United States of America? (World-wide there have been 897 between the years 1967 to 1996)
On how many occasions have NORAD interceptors been scrambled to intervene on those hi-jackings?
Were the subordinates, you refer to, told to find evidence linking the events of 11th September to Iraq and Saddam Hussein? Or were they asked to investigate the possibility of Iraqi involvement? I know during the very early stages of the diplomatic effort to get a new UN Security Council Resolution on Iraq, Colin Powell clearly stated that there were no links with Iraq - AlQaeda. And that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks of September 11th.
Dreaded, do you know what the design field life is of the various bits and pieces that make up the infrastructure of an oil-field? - It's normally about 25 years. So if you are a major service company with a large interest in oil-field construction, seems to me that it would be a fairly logical step to identify areas where things might need replacing, inspecting, recertifying or removing. Although I somehow think that that explanation might just be a little too mundane for you to put any credence in it.