Fox Business host Andrew Napolitano has publicly endorsed the conspiracy theory that the government is lying about the September 11 attacks. In November, he said, “It couldn't possibly have been done the way the government told us.”

On the Friday edition of his show Freedom Watch, Napolitano offered a variation of this rhetoric to cast doubt on the “government account” of the lead-up to the attacks. He asked, “Will future generations ever know the full truth about the events that led to 9-11, or will they accept the government account of what happened, an account that the CIA's own bin Laden unit chief Michael Scheuer calls, quote, 'a whitewash from top to bottom'?”

Napolitano supported this conspiracy-mongering with two long-debunked claims about counterterrorism efforts during the Clinton administration.

First, Napolitano echoed the right-wing myth that President Clinton didn't take action against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda:

NAPOLITANO: But the signs of trouble were apparent after the bombings of the American embassies in Africa and the initial bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the Clinton administration should have done something. Michael Scheuer claims that bin Laden was identified as the mastermind of those attacks and was targeted multiple times and could have been captured and tried for these assaults, but President Clinton himself said no.

One variant of this claim is that Clinton turned down an offer by the Sudanese government to hand over bin Laden to the United States. The 9-11 Commission found no “reliable evidence to support” that claim.

Another variant is that Clinton simply didn't act. History itself debunks this claim. In retaliation for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, Clinton launched cruise missile strikes on Sudan and Afghanistan in August of that year. The latter was aimed in part at bin Laden himself.

Second, Napolitano claimed that the Able Danger project had identified 9-11 hijacker Mohamed Atta well before the attacks:

NAPOLITANO: Last year, retired Army Col. Anthony Shaffer, a career intelligence officer, wrote a book entitled Operation Dark Heart, in which he shows that during his time serving on the secret Able Danger project, he and his colleagues identified Mohamed Atta, the key 9-11 hijacker involved in the planes that struck the towers, a year before he struck, and they found him in America.

Although Col. Schaffer brought this to the attention of the 9-11 Commission and was told he would testify, he was eventually turned away and none of this intelligence was given to the American people. It was literally the politicians covering for each other because they failed to protect us.

The notion that claims about Able Danger identifying Atta have somehow gone unexamined is false. As we wrote when Shaffer's book was released last year:

Naturally, such an allegation was thoroughly checked out. In addition to the 9-11 Commission chairman's statement that the Commission report did not contain these assertions because they were not “credible,” separate investigations were conducted by the Defense Department Inspector General and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The DOD IG report found that, “The anti-terrorist program, Able Danger, did not identify Mohammed Atta of any of the other 9/11 terrorists before the 9/11 attack” and that members of the program were “not prohibited from sharing intelligence information with law enforcement authorities or other agencies that could have acted” on that information. Similarly, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found that “both the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence staff review and the DOD Inspector General review revealed no evidence to support the underlying Able Danger allegations.”

Transcript of the Napolitano clip:

NAPOLITANO: Does the government work for us, or do we work for the government? Is the loss of life on 9-11 a justification for the loss of freedom that the Bill of Rights have guaranteed?

Tonight, life, liberty, and truth.

Sunday is the tenth anniversary of 9-11. One decade later, Americans are still struggling to understand exactly what happened. What will we remember and what will future generations come to believe about 9-11? Will it be the loss of life on that day, or will it be the even greater loss of life in the global conflicts that directly ensued?

Will it be the short-term security precautions, such as the orders to shoot down any planes carrying innocent civilians, or will it be the lingering destruction of our rights to privacy from unlawful government surveillance, the institutionalization of government torture, and the government-generated semi-nudity and near-sexual assaults at our airports?

Will future generations ever know the full truth about the events that led to 9-11, or will they accept the government account of what happened, an account that the CIA's own bin Laden unit chief Michael Scheuer calls, quote, “a whitewash from top to bottom.”

In the years preceding 9-11, Osama bin Laden was a young freedom fighter who promised American officials he'd help them to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan. Following the defeat of the Soviets and the fall of the Berlin Wall, capitalism was triumphant and communism was gone.

But in 1991, when the United States invaded Iraq for the first time, we established military bases in a land revered by Islam. Furious at the American government for desecrating their lands, bin Laden and his maniacal associates began plans that would lead to the clash of civilizations that culminated in the tragic events of 9-11.

But the signs of trouble were apparent after the bombings of the American embassies in Africa and the initial bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the Clinton administration should have done something. Michael Scheuer claims that bin Laden was identified as the mastermind of those attacks and was targeted multiple times and could have been captured and tried for these assaults, but President Clinton himself said no.

Last year, retired Army Col. Anthony Shaffer, a career intelligence officer, wrote a book entitled Operation Dark Heart, in which he shows that during his time serving on the secret Able Danger project, he and his colleagues identified Mohamed Atta, the key 9-11 hijacker involved in the planes that struck the towers, a year before he struck, and they found him in America.

Although Col. Schaffer brought this to the attention of the 9-11 Commission and was told he would testify, he was eventually turned away and none of this intelligence was given to the American people. It was literally the politicians covering for each other because they failed to protect us.

Question: How many government agents and bureaucrats have been fired for being asleep at the switch on 9-11? Answer: none. How many persons have been prosecuted for failing to do their duty in the years preceding 9-11? Answer: none. How many persons have been tried for committing the attacks on 9-11? Answer: none.

Why is the government afraid of the truth?