People normally do things for money or influence... the US president(s) normally would have a fair amount of both as well as much of their inner circles...
It might have been that it was an issue of influence and perhaps not about money... The policing agencies and intelligence agencies would be able to trace large amounts of money and such would lead to people... so I do not think it was about money... Influence... perhaps just as far as knowing that something might happen as to prevent very possible occurrences... I'm referring to "imagine threats"... think CIA...
A possible situation could have been that the NSA and their counterparts could have gained foreign intelligence through either signal intelligence or through human intelligence network(s) and tried to stop the bad asses; they might have been over stretched as to prevent some of what was seen... this is a guess... Since the governments did have some part in 9/11 ... only as far as issues of national security... I'm sure there was just as much that was not seen being done by the good guys as there was misses... Also those who hold clearance are required to remain quiet about sensitive information... namely black ops and or trusted network(s) ...
It would be logical to say that no special ops offerers would want to land in federal prison for creating a massive whole in a national security grid... putting many lives in danger... If you were one of these types would you put those protecting others in danger ???
Just a guess ...
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