What role does Goldman Sachs play in the US economy? WSJ in 2004 explained:
“The detainee [Mohammed] said that in the early-mid 1990s, he and [convicted 1993 World Trade Center bomber] Ramzi Yusuf would think about what drives the U.S. economy, when brainstorming about potential targets. The detainee listed Hollywood, automobiles and wheat as major contributors to the U.S. economy,” the interrogation summary said.
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While the Hollywood plot might seem far-fetched today, intelligence analysts point out that when U.S. agents uncovered plans to attack tall buildings with planes, they dismissed them as being the fantasy of a warped mind.
More menacing is another scheme that Mr. Mohammed referred to as the “Anthrax Project,” which studied ways to deliver the lethal germ in the U.S.
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Some intelligence experts believe it is important for the U.S. to study past al Qaida schemes but warn against relying too heavily on the information to help stop attacks.”It is not necessarily true that past terrorist behavior is a predictor of future events,” says Chris Cox, a California Republican who is chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. “The element of surprise is as important to terrorists as it is to conventional war planners.” [ 12-07-04 0401GMT ]
The former Deputy Director of the FBI Lab helping to chart the lab’s initial course, was Randall Murch. Who does he think was responsible? He is at Virginia Tech. In 2001, Dr. Randall Murch also served as director of the Advanced Systems and Concepts Office, at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Department of Defense.
For DOD’s DTRA, he was responsible for leading advanced studies on complex challenges dealing with weapons of mass destruction. He likely is expert on such issues as the FBI’s attempt in Amerithrax to divine how fast mutation occurs so as to judge the probativeness of the inverted plasmid, and its study of the elements of an anthrax spore. But he also likely is knowledgeable about issues of biosecurity.
For example, in 2001, what did the DOD and FBI do to ensure that someone taught by and working closely with Bin Laden’s sheik, the sheik who was the express subject of Bin Laden’s declaration of war against the US and the express subject of the claim of responsibility for the 1998 embassy bombings, was not working with a high security clearance for the US military on these matters. What was done to ensure that such a person was not given access to the DARPA-funded Center for Biodefense facilities along with the ATCC facilities. Dr. Alibek and Dr. Bailey consulted with Battelle. Dr. Bailey worked for DIA. The Amerithrax deputy director worked for DTRA in 2001. While I don’t presume to know “who did it” or understand the science, I know that there are difficult questions that still needed to be answered.