Preventing 9/11

Nilda, knowing me to be "interested" in the history surrounding 9/11, got me "The Commission," a book written by a NY Times journalist about the 9/11 Commission, as a Valentine's Day gift. Yes, how romantic. It's a thorough and well written and, from what I've seen so far, focuses on the FBI and the Bush administration's efforts to hide or suppress failings from the Commission.

One item that stood out was the events leading up to the attack, and how the FBI had a hard time forgiving itself for its failings. For example:

• Zacarias Moussaui was arrested in Missouri in August 2001 near a flight school after alarming instructors by asking to learn how to take off and land a 747, even though he had no basic knowledge of flying. One agent said, weeks before the attack, that it seemed like a terrorist might "fly a plane into the World Trade Center."
• FBI HQ ignored the pleas of Minnesota agents for a court warrant to inspect his laptop, which could have revealed the plot. Upon learning of this, a senior aide to the Director vomited in the bathroom.
• In July 2001, an FBI agent from Phoenix sought to open up a nationwide investigation as to why so many young Arab men with connections to radical Muslim groups were seeking commercial flight training. His counterterrorism supervisors in Washington failed to read his memo.
• A veteran FBI informant in San Diego knew two young Saudi men who had been boarders in his house, both of whom would be hijackers in the jet that crashed into the Pentagon. No one at the FBI asked the informant to probe into their backgrounds.
• The FBI received a new Director just days before 9/11, Robert Mueller. The prior Director, Louis Freeh, was notorious for wanting only good news and for "killing the messenger."
• The famous President's daily briefing on August 6, 2001, titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US," which was also ignored.