One of John McCain’s principal advisors, Charles Black, said that McCain would benefit from another terrorist attack. Does the fact that the Bush administration benefited from the 9/11 attack suggest this as a useful tactic? Does the “cui bono” principle have any relevance here, suggesting possible causal connections that most of us are too cowardly to consider? In discussing this statement, the members of the mainstream media I saw on television addressed only the strategic problems of Black’s words. That people have an incentive to bring about those conditions that benefit their interests is a topic these supposed journalistic wizards would never dare to explore.

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