Andrew W. Marshall is the neoconservative director of the Office of Net Assessment, a think tank inside the Pentagon. He was appointed by Richard Nixon, but shepherded into the Pentagon by Henry Kissinger, and re-appointed by every president since. Marshall started his career with the RAND Corporation, before joining the Pentagon in 1973.

A list of Andrew Marshall's acolytes, so-called Jedi Knights, reads like a list of suspects for the attacks of 9/11. The list includes Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Armitage, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dov Zakheim. Another acolyte is James G. Roche, who served as Secretary of the Air Force from January 2001 to January 2005; before that, Roche was an executive at Northrup Grumman in the Electronic Sensors & Systems Sector.

In a speech at Andrews Air Force Base on September 13, 2003, Roche remarked: "I also want to point out that one of my most important mentors is here tonight. He is my mentor, Bill Bodie's mentor, General Lance Lord's mentor, and he is Brigadier General Rich Hassan's mentor -- Andrew Marshall, one of the finest men in the Department of Defense. Andy was the head of the Office of Net Assessment when Admiral Farragut was around and was appointed to the job by General George Washington just before he relinquished command of the Continental Army."

General Lance Lord, USAF Space Command commander, was a participant in a mass casualty exercise at the Pentagon in August 2001. He recalled, “[It was] purely a coincidence, the scenario for that exercise included a plane hitting the building.”

I know that one can play six degrees of separation with virtually anyone in the upper echelon of the military command, but Andrew Marshall represents exactly the kind of guy who could orchestrate 9/11. He's a member of the old guard (been around 50 years), which means he knows everyone who matters, even mentored some of them, and it means he has little to lose (he's over 80 years old).

His proteges inhabit the highest offices of the defense industry, including the Air Force. He had been pushing for the RMA for a decade. Politically, he has been defined as neoconservative. His job requires that he be in touch with the latest in military technology from around the world.

I don't see much discussion of him in the 9/11 literature, except, significantly, a two-page (383-384) discussion in Tarpley's Synthetic Terror. Tarpley rightly points out that Marshall's lengthy career makes him a point of connection between the original Operation Northwoods gang and the contemporary 9/11 plotters (at least chronologically).

I would like to see/know more about Marshall and his possible connections to 9/11. I realize such materials are unlikely to surface, but if anyone has more ideas, or more connections to illuminate, please post them.