I think that they knew that this or something like it was about to break.
America begins to connect the dots.
Anybody with a brain knew that the terrorists were going to hit the U.S. The question was how, where or when, which was pretty nigh impossible to know by connecting the dots.
Why? Because all the arabic and dialect languages interceptions were translated for us by the Pakistani intelligence people who had divided loyalties. And the only Americans who speak these languages are university scholars who were flaming liberals and anti-American and pro-Palestinians.
My husband and I accurately predicted in 1992 that the terrorists would bomb the WTC and Washington, D.C., and possibly Los Angeles within the coming decade. For Heaven's sake, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. But figuring out how and when was an entirely different matter.