[Alberta's Child]

No one had ever conceived—let alone practiced—for the events that unfolded on that September morning 15 years ago.

The first part of this statement is simply untrue.

Operation Bojinka

Note the part about crashing one of the aircraft into CIA headquarters in Virginia.

[ExNewsExSpook]

I was not referring to the terrorists, but rather, the response of the FAA, the Air Force and other organizations responsible for the air defense of the U.S. We were quite aware of Al Qaeda’s plans to hijack multiple jets over the Pacific, but that did not translate into tighter passenger screening, more air marshals on jets, or greater resources for the CONUS air defense mission.

Ground security on 9-11 was a joke; there were only a handful of air marshals on airliners on any given day, and the Air Force kept roughly a dozen fighters on air defense alert, and most of them were unarmed. That was the reality on 9-11, despite our knowledge of Al Qaeda’s obsessive interest in aviation-based attacks.