The Bush Administration cribs all of its conspiracy ideas from “The X-Files”

At a Paley Festival event promoting the upcoming “X-Files” movie (which – as spoiler as the “X-Files” guys are going to get – is not going to address the show’s never-resolved mythology), since there wasn’t much to talk about regarding what happens in the new film, talk turned instead to the pilot of the short-lived spinoff series “The Lone Gunmen,” in which someone inside the government, in an effort to boost sagging post-Cold War arms sales, plots to fly a 727 into the World Trade Center.

The show aired in March 2001, six months before the events of September 11.

“It was freaky, and one of the weirdest things is no one really asked us about it," series creator Chris Carter said at the panel. "It had been imagined before, by many others."

"Condoleezza Rice is saying its an unimaginable crime – hello, my pilot!" "Lone Gunmen" actor Dean Haglund added.

"It made me angry," (series executive producer Frank) Spotnitz continued. "It was not unimaginable. My first thought was ... 'Oh my god, I hope they weren't copycatting the Lone Gunmen,’ which they weren't. My next thought was: 'Why weren't we prepared for this?'"

Two reasons I’m guessing why no one ever asked Carter about this: 1) Everyone was too traumatized and had more important things on their mind to remember a little-watched and quickly cancelled TV show; and 2) even if someone had wanted to ask them, Fox would’ve turned down interview requests flat – they had a worse problem on their hands with the impending premiere of “24,” which also featured terrorists blowing up a plane in the pilot.

Nonetheless, with its portrayal of a sinister shadowy government, “The X-Files” today certainly seems to serve as a blueprint for the Bush Administration. But I think they cribbed their playbook from the episode “Humbug,” in which members of the Jim Rose Circus portrays a closely-knit group of circus freaks who conspire to cover up the crimes of one of their own.