"In September 1998, the Intelligence Community obtained information that Usama Bin Ladin's next operation could possibly involve flying an aircraft loaded with explosives into a U.S. airport and detonating it; this information was provided to senior U.S. Government officials in late 1998;
"In the fall of 1998, the Intelligence Community received information concerning a Bin Ladin plot involving aircraft in the New York and Washington, DC areas."
Both the staff and full report go into much more detail on terror threats from 1982 forward. These four brief quotations show that there was extensive prior knowledge of a planned terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and targets in Washington in 1998. The reported findings are unambiguous.
As far as the successful war argument goes, where is the justification? The attacks should have been prevented because, by the assumptions of the main narrative, there was voluminous evidence from multiple intelligence sources that airplanes were going to be "slammed into buildings." That information was not acted upon by the leaders of this country. In fact, judging by the volume of warnings, ignoring this information required significant effort.
Instead of huge commitments, expenses, and structures for the War on Terror, the logical and most effective response would have been threefold: (1) recognize the wealth of information produced by intelligence agencies describing future events; (2) strictly enforce expanded collaboration between agencies and (3) commence impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
The successful war argument covers up the logical remedies for future attacks drawn from the available evidence. It seeks to justify countless deaths as a result of two wars, a collapsed economy, and more than twenty million people out of work. Most importantly, this argument provides protection for those in charge, those who so miserably failed to carry out their duty to protect the nation.
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