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LIHOP vs. MIHOP: The Two Frameworks for US Government Involvement in 9/11

The two principal analytical frameworks for understanding the degree of US government complicity in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

FieldDetails
TypeAnalytical Framework / Meta-Theory
First Articulated ByThe acronyms LIHOP and MIHOP were coined by early 9/11 researcher Nico Haupt; the underlying concepts were articulated by researchers including David Ray Griffin, Michael Ruppert, and Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Active Period2002 -- present
Key ClaimEvidence exists suggesting that elements within the US government either deliberately allowed the 9/11 attacks to proceed despite advance knowledge (LIHOP) or actively planned and orchestrated the attacks using the hijackers as patsies or cover (MIHOP)
Evidence RatingDEBATED

Overview​

Within the 9/11 truth movement and among researchers who challenge the official narrative, two broad frameworks have emerged for understanding the role of the US government:

LIHOP -- Let It Happen On Purpose: The theory that key individuals within the US government and intelligence community had substantial foreknowledge that the attacks were coming and deliberately suppressed warnings, blocked investigations, and weakened defenses to ensure the attacks would succeed. Under LIHOP, the hijackers were genuine al-Qaeda operatives, but they were allowed to operate freely because powerful factions wanted the attacks to happen as a pretext for pre-planned wars and domestic surveillance expansion.

MIHOP -- Made It Happen On Purpose: The theory that elements within the US government and allied intelligence services actively planned, facilitated, and orchestrated the attacks. Under MIHOP, the hijackers may have been intelligence assets, patsies, or a cover story, and the actual destruction of the buildings was achieved through means beyond what the hijackers could accomplish alone (such as controlled demolition). MIHOP encompasses the full spectrum from active facilitation to complete orchestration.

These are not formal organizations or unified theories but rather analytical categories that help organize the wide range of evidence and claims. Most researchers who question the official narrative fall somewhere on the spectrum between LIHOP and MIHOP, and many have moved from LIHOP toward MIHOP as additional evidence has emerged.

Evidence & Documentation​

Evidence Supporting LIHOP​

Deliberate Intelligence Failures​

Multiple documented instances show that intelligence agencies had actionable information about the hijackers and the plot, and that this information was suppressed or ignored at critical junctures:

  • The Phoenix Memo (July 2001): FBI agent Kenneth Williams sent a memorandum to FBI headquarters warning about a pattern of Middle Eastern men enrolled in US flight schools and recommending an investigation. The memo was not acted upon.
  • Coleen Rowley and Zacarias Moussaoui: FBI Special Agent Coleen Rowley in the Minneapolis field office warned headquarters repeatedly about Moussaoui, who had been arrested in August 2001 for immigration violations after suspicious behavior at a flight school. Headquarters actively blocked the Minneapolis office from obtaining a FISA warrant to search Moussaoui's laptop computer, which contained information linking him to the hijackers. Rowley later testified to Congress and was named a Time Magazine Person of the Year.
  • Sibel Edmonds: FBI translator Sibel Edmonds discovered evidence of foreknowledge and infiltration of FBI translation units by foreign intelligence operatives. She was fired and subjected to a rare retroactive classification of her testimony under the State Secrets Privilege, the most expansive gag order in US history.
  • CIA tracking of al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar: The CIA tracked two of the future hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, to a terrorist summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in January 2000, but failed to inform the FBI or place them on a watch list for over 18 months. A CIA officer, Tom Wilshire, actively blocked information sharing with the FBI.
  • Presidential Daily Briefing of August 6, 2001: Titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US," this PDB warned the president that al-Qaeda had cells in the US and that FBI information indicated patterns of suspicious activity consistent with preparations for hijackings. No additional defensive measures were taken.

Ignored Foreign Warnings​

At least 11 countries provided specific warnings to US intelligence about an impending terrorist attack, including Israel, Egypt, Germany, France, Russia, Jordan, Morocco, the UK, and others. These warnings were not acted upon in any coordinated or effective manner.

NORAD Stand-Down and Military Exercise Confusion​

On the morning of September 11, NORAD was conducting multiple military exercises, including Vigilant Guardian and Vigilant Warrior, which simulated hijacking scenarios. These exercises caused documented confusion in the air defense response. Standard intercept procedures that had been successfully executed 67 times in the year prior to 9/11 failed completely on September 11. The modification of intercept protocols in June 2001 by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, requiring his personal authorization for shoot-down orders, is cited as evidence of deliberate degradation of air defenses.

Suppressed Investigations​

Multiple pre-9/11 investigations into the hijackers and al-Qaeda were actively suppressed:

  • The FBI's investigation into the Bin Laden family was curtailed (reported by BBC's Greg Palast)
  • The "Able Danger" military intelligence program identified Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers over a year before 9/11, but was shut down and its data destroyed
  • FBI field agent Robert Wright wept at a press conference in 2002, stating he had been ordered to stop investigating terrorist financing and that the FBI was "protecting terrorists"

Evidence Supporting MIHOP​

Controlled Demolition Evidence​

The Controlled Demolition Theory is the cornerstone of the MIHOP framework. If the WTC buildings were brought down by pre-planted explosives, this necessarily implies active orchestration by parties with access to the buildings -- not merely allowing hijackers to fly planes into them. Key evidence includes freefall acceleration of WTC 7, thermitic material in the dust, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks study.

PNAC's "New Pearl Harbor"​

The Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a neoconservative think tank whose members included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush, and others, published "Rebuilding America's Defenses" in September 2000. The document stated that the transformation of American military forces "is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor." Many of PNAC's signatories occupied senior positions in the Bush administration on 9/11.

The Anthrax Attacks​

The anthrax letters mailed in September and October 2001, initially blamed on al-Qaeda and Iraq, were later traced to a US military bioweapons lab (Fort Detrick). The letters targeted Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Senator Patrick Leahy -- two key opponents of the USA PATRIOT Act. The FBI's investigation (Amerithrax) was plagued by problems, and the case was closed after the primary suspect, Bruce Ivins, died of an apparent suicide in 2008.

War Profiteering and Policy Implementation​

Within hours of the attacks, policy proposals that had been prepared in advance were being implemented: the invasion of Afghanistan (war plans drawn up before 9/11), the USA PATRIOT Act (drafted before 9/11), and the push for war with Iraq (which had no connection to 9/11). The speed with which these complex policies were enacted suggests pre-positioning.

Norman Mineta's Testimony​

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta testified to the 9/11 Commission that while in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) with Vice President Cheney, a young aide repeatedly informed Cheney of the approaching aircraft (Flight 77 heading toward the Pentagon): "The plane is 50 miles out... the plane is 30 miles out... the plane is 10 miles out." The aide asked, "Do the orders still stand?" and Cheney responded, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" Mineta's testimony was not included in the 9/11 Commission Report. Whether "the orders" referred to a shoot-down order or a stand-down order remains a critical point of debate.

Insider Trading​

The massive volume of put options placed on American and United Airlines stock in the days before 9/11, routed through Deutsche Bank/Alex Brown -- formerly headed by CIA Executive Director Buzzy Krongard -- suggests foreknowledge at the highest levels of the intelligence-finance nexus.

How the Debate Has Evolved​

The LIHOP/MIHOP debate has shifted significantly since 2001:

2001-2004: Most early researchers and mainstream skeptics leaned toward LIHOP, viewing the evidence primarily as indicating intelligence failures that were too systematic and too convenient to be accidental. The incompetence explanation was widely accepted.

2004-2006: The publication of David Ray Griffin's The New Pearl Harbor and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, Steven Jones's thermite research, and the formation of AE911Truth shifted many researchers toward MIHOP, particularly regarding the WTC collapses.

2006-2010: The release of the NIST WTC 7 report (2008), the Harrit nano-thermite paper (2009), and growing analysis of the NORAD timeline and Pentagon anomalies further strengthened MIHOP arguments.

2010-present: The UAF study on WTC 7 (2020), continued FOIA releases, and the declassification of the 28 pages (2016) have added additional evidence. Many researchers who initially adopted LIHOP positions have moved toward MIHOP, while acknowledging that different aspects of the event may involve different levels of complicity.

Key Figures​

LIHOP Proponents​

  • Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed -- Author of The War on Freedom (2002) and The War on Truth (2005), documenting systematic intelligence failures
  • Peter Dale Scott -- Professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, author of The Road to 9/11 (2007), coined the concept of "deep politics" as applied to 9/11
  • Bob Graham -- Former Senator and Joint Inquiry co-chair who concluded that elements within the Saudi government supported the hijackers with the knowledge of US intelligence
  • Paul Thompson -- Creator of the Complete 9/11 Timeline, documenting the pattern of warnings and failures

MIHOP Proponents​

  • David Ray Griffin -- Theologian and author who evolved from documenting failures to arguing for active orchestration
  • Richard Gage -- Architect who argues the controlled demolition evidence necessarily implies MIHOP
  • Michael Ruppert -- Author of Crossing the Rubicon (2004), argued Cheney managed the attacks through war game exercises
  • Webster Tarpley -- Author of 9/11 Synthetic Terror (2005), argued the attacks were a false flag operation
  • Niels Harrit -- Chemist whose thermite findings imply pre-planted explosives

Both/Evolving​

  • Sibel Edmonds -- Her evidence spans both frameworks; she has documented both deliberate intelligence suppression (LIHOP) and active infiltration (potentially MIHOP)
  • Coleen Rowley -- Her evidence most directly supports LIHOP through documented obstruction of the Moussaoui investigation

Criticisms & Counter-Arguments​

  • Official position (NOIHOP -- No One Involved, It Happened On its Own): The 9/11 Commission concluded that the attacks resulted from a combination of intelligence failures, bureaucratic incompetence, and institutional barriers to information sharing -- not deliberate action.
  • Incompetence vs. conspiracy: Critics argue that LIHOP overestimates the competence of government and that genuine bureaucratic dysfunction explains the failures.
  • Unfalsifiability: Critics argue that both LIHOP and MIHOP are unfalsifiable -- any evidence of innocence can be reinterpreted as evidence of cover-up.
  • Scale objection to MIHOP: An operation of the scale implied by MIHOP would require hundreds or thousands of participants, making secrecy implausible.
  • LIHOP as "limited hangout": Some MIHOP proponents argue that LIHOP serves as a "limited hangout" -- a partial disclosure that protects the full truth by acknowledging some failures while denying active involvement.
  • The 9/11 Commission's own assessment: Commission members Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton later acknowledged they were "set up to fail" and that the CIA obstructed their investigation, lending some support to the cover-up dimension.

See Also​

Other Coverage Worth Reading​

  • David Ray Griffin: Theologian and philosopher systematically dismantled the 9/11 Commission Report in ten meticulously sourced books.
  • Pentagon Attack Anomalies: An inexperienced pilot allegedly performed a maneuver professional aviators say is nearly impossible in a 757.
  • Israeli Foreknowledge / Mossad: Five Israelis were arrested filming and celebrating as the Twin Towers burned -- then quietly deported.
  • Susan Lindauer: CIA asset who warned of the 9/11 attacks months in advance was jailed and charged under the Patriot Act.

Sources​

This information was compiled by Claude AI research.