Connecting the Dots
Stories continue to fill the newspapers and TV newscasts on what was known before September 11th and how, if someone had access to all this information, the terrorists attack could have been prevented. There was the Arizona memo and the attempts to get warrants to examine the 20th hijackers computer.
The reality is that most of this is 20-20 hindsight. It is rather easy to identify information available before September 11th from more than 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 pieces of information if you are trying to find anything that might be associated with a series of plane hijackings - so easy once you know what it is you are looking for. To find and connect disparate pieces of information before the fact is near impossible.
Yes, there are changes that should be made with agencies like the CIA and FBI to attempt to thwart further terrorists acts in the US, but unless one of these agencies can infiltrate each and every terrorist cell in the US and abroad, the probability of stopping an attack is very limited - limited to arresting individuals with visa violations and preventing them for taking part in an attack, but not in completely stopping them.
06/08/02 ( 422 )
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