[pgkdan]

They trained thousands. There has to be a broad spectrum of ability and specialization.

I think you are exactly right. And this wasn't really the stumble fumble job some are making it out to be. R.Reid is probably just an incompetent idiot, but others may have been more competent. Lockerbie? TWA Flight 800, American Flight 587? Who knows if this hasn't been done before...what about the Aeroflot crash from Israel...the Ukrainians were adamant for the first few days that they did not shoot down the plane.

[aristeides]

Reid may have been an incompetent idiot, but that's not all he was. He was an incompetent idiot who was 6' 4" -- and who thus presumably had large feet -- and who had a British passport. Thus he had useful qualities as far as al Qaeda was concerned, and they made use of them. No wonder, as was reported in one of today's stories, bin Laden went to the trouble of meeting Reid when he was in an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.

I hadn't seen this thread until today. I saw a report in the German newsmagazine Focus today about the phone calls between Reid and Moussaoui being intercepted, so I did a search before posting the Focus story. I see this thread was already up here.