Hi PsyOp, thanks for your reply
1&2:
Moussaoui had been arested by Minnesota FBI Agents on August,15th and they immediately requested a search warrant for his laptop but the request was denied.
A few days later France intelligence gives the FBI bureau Minnesota a large file about Moussaouis connection to radical islamists, but again FBI HQ refuses search warrant for the laptop. On August,21th the Minnesota FBI e-mails FBI HQ saying it's “imperative” that the Secret Service be warned of the danger a plot involving Moussaoui might pose to the President's safety. Nothing happens again.
A Day later John O Neill quits FBI in Frustration.
3. You may read this: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml
And he was not the only one who had been warned before 9/11 to fly commercial lines. On September,3rd the islam critic author Salman Rushdie is banned by US authorities from taking internal US flights. He says the FAA told his publisher the reason was because it had “intelligence of something about to happen.
BTW: The Story about the flight of the bin laden relatives is true.
4:
– The Italian government shared "general" information of possible attacks in March 2001 based on bugs in apartments in Milan.
– An Iranian in custody in New York City told local police last May of a plot to attack the World Trade Center.
– German intelligence alerted the Central Intelligence Agency, Britain's MI-6 intelligence service, Israel's Mossad in June 2001 that Middle Eastern terrorists were training for hijackings and targeting American and Israeli interests.
- On June,13th Egyptian president Mubarak warns the US of an attack with airplanes
- Jordan intelligence makes a communications intercept deemed so important that King Abdullah's men relay it to Washington through the CIA station in Amman. To make doubly sure the message gets through it is passed through an Arab intermediary to a German intelligence agent. The message states that a major attack, code named "The Big Wedding", is planned inside the US and that aircraft will be used.
- In August Russian President Putin warns the US that suicide pilots are training for attacks on US targets.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,53065,00.html
So why were told that 9/11 was a big surprise and why it took 1 hour!!! to scramble F16?
With regard to the laptop, there are three possible answers.
1. FBI HQ did not want the filed office rooting around in the computer for fear that sensitive information might be leaked to the press and alert Moussaouis confederates to a breach of their security (effective counter-terrorism dictates that the terrorists believe they have not been compromised).
2. Clinton holdovers at FBI HQ could not make up their mind as to whether Moussaouis should be treated as a terrorist, a criminal, or potential democrat presidential candidate. Sometimes stupid decisions are a result of stupidity, not conspiracy.
3. Disinformation. The terrorists know that the FBI has Moussaouis laptop. Make them think no one has looked at it. Remember Desert Storm? Stormin' Norman played the press like a violin and got them to report all kinds of disniformation to Saddam and his generals. You don't think the FBI can do it, too?
One of my favorite Quotes is from Winston Churchill regarding the allied breaking of the Enigma code. "In war, the truth must be protected by a bodyguard of lies." He allowed a british city to be bombed to protect that secret.
As for all the warnings, you have to remember that prior to 9/11 all terrorist threats to aircraft were thought to be hijackings for hostages and demands. In spite of "imminent" warnings, this was a well know type of threat. Unless you have information as to place, time, and suspect, there is little you can do except keep a careful watch for the tools of the trade--guns and bombs. Box cutters were not on the list of preferred terrorist tools at that time.
No one thought that the hijackers would use box-cutters to take control of the planes and turn them into kamakazi bombers (fictional novels notwithstanding).
Warning governmetn officials not to fly commercial when there are heightened hijack threats is not unusual. It is very common when flying oversease (military personnel are often warned not to fly in uniform, to pack their dog tags and ID in their check baggage, and to get a civilian passport). Hijackers have shown a propensity towards executing military/US govt personnel they find on the planes they hijacked in the past.
Another problem is that, thanks to holywood, people think this country's intelligence agencies are more powerful and capable than they are. And all the intelligence gathering tools in the world are useless if you don't have good people to go through it. Computers only report, they can't interperate. Like the FBI under Clinton, the CIA was politicized. It has also suffered from years of abuse and budget cuts and artificial restrictions imposed by democrat administrations, and witch-hunts.
The bottom line is that it is easier to believe in conspiracies, than to believe that we aren't all-powerful. People screw up, lie about it, blame others. It happens in government just like it does in the home.
9/11 was a surprise because we expected an old-fashioned style hi-jacking. And it took an hour to scramble the F-16 because it probably took the guys responsible for scrambling 45 minutes to grasp what was really happening and pick up the phone.
The terrorists hit us with a move we had never seen before, had no reason to expect, and caught us with our pants down. We knew their tactics, they knew we knew, so they changed them in a dramatic way.