"Cui Bono?"
by Sylvia Sikeston**

"Cui bono?"

No, that's not the late Sonny's neer-do-well younger brother.

In the lore of detective work, the Latin question, "Cui bono?", is the first one you ask at the beginning of a criminal investigation:

"Who benefits?"

Playing detective, let’s ask, "Who benefits from September 11?"

Certainly the villain du jour, Osama bin Laden benefits and thus belongs on any list of suspects. But does he benefit the most? Does he deserve the Number 1 position on the U.S. government’s list?

I don’t think so.

What’s that? Do I hear upset voices in the rear asking what right a mere Internet scribbler has to try to second-guess the U.S. government?

Let’s get that question out of the way first.

Item 1:
For decades, through the cold war and afterward, we, the United States, have spent uncountable billions of dollars annually on "intelligence," on the gathering of information around the world concerning the activities of nations and groups that may be a threat to U.S. security.

By all accounts, and by the government’s own admission, nobody in America had the least hint that September 11 would unfold as the tragedy that it did.

Item 2:
During those same decades, we spent other billions on contingency planning. Think-tanks inside and outside the government were supposed to imagine all possible scenarios, from the most mundane to the most horrific and thus enable the government to prepare, to defend us, and to respond adequately.

Again, by the government’s own admission, none of those highly paid thinkers came up with the scenario that played out on September 11.

Given those costly failings, this modest Internet scribbler has no qualms at all about offering suggestions concerning the post-September 11 investigation.

Back, then, to the question: Who benefits most from September 11, far more than Osama bin Laden?

No answer? Let me put the question another way. Who in the entire world probably hates both Bushes, Sr. and Jr., more than anyone else?

Who suffered not only a military defeat at the hands of a Bush but a global humiliation as well. With the continuing sanctions against his country, the defeat and the humiliation continue to this day.

We know from his many statements that bin Laden hates the West and especially America. But surely his hatred is nothing compared to that of Saddam Hussein.

Because of his in-your-face video taunts, bin Laden is the easy suspect. But to this amateur detective, Saddam securely occupies the Number 1 spot on the list of suspects.

Think about it. Not only does he have the very personal motive of hatred of Bush & Bush. Saddam also has direct, easy access to the wealth of an oil-rich nation. Anything he can imagine in the way of revenge, he has the financial wherewithal to carry out at a very high level of sophistication.