How could CIA/NSA/FBI miss the 9/11 attack?

[Foolmewunz]

CIA had a Bin Laden unit called Alec Station, NSA monitored the Yemen hub and FBI ran the Cole investigation.

How was it even possible NOT to find out about the 9/11 attacks and prevent it from happening? Especially when the whole intelligence community "knew" OBL was responsible only a couple of hours after the attack.

It is also interesting that Michael F. Scheuer left Alec Station in 1999 but came back right after the attacks as a supervisor.

Ooooh, so close! But you have to steep it in the conspiracy crap.

Dealing only with the aspects you're mentioning... the forewarnings and the various agencies involved, I have to say that there are many of the "supporters of the OCT" as we're referred to, who actually would like to see a very detailed investigation into just those questions. DHS is not the answer. It was apparently created to play to the home audience, but hasn't done much of anything to improve the sharing of information and the circle-the-wagons attitude in these agencies.

It should be pointed out, though, that the benefit of hindsight is that the one missing element in all those raging clues and tidbits of evidence was the attacks themselves. It's very easy, with the 9/11 attacks in the center of your diagram, to show that everything was pointing to the 9/11 attacks. But that circle in the middle was a big question mark. All those clues and tidbits of evidence pointed towards SOMETHING... but what exactly it was and when/where it was going to happen were a great big question mark.

That's why history is so much easier to study (if not to figure out) than political science. In the one, you have the results and the documents, evidence, commentary of the time. In the other, you're missing the results. It's a little harder to project cause/effect when you've got geopolitical and human dynamics in play.

 

[MaGZ]

Israeli intelligence was asked to monitor the hijackers here in the US. The Mossad followed the hijackers using the cover of Israeli Art Students. The Mossad learned of the planned 9/11 attacks but reported back there was no danger from the Atta gang.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Twoofers act like 9/11 was the only intelligence report about a potential attack on the US that the intelligence community ever recieved, not one amoungst thousands of which 99.999% never happened.

It's as if I threw a deck of cards at your face and criticize you for not knowing that the 3 of Hearts was gonna hit you in the nose.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Israeli intelligence was asked to monitor the hijackers here in the US. The Mossad followed the hijackers using the cover of Israeli Art Students. The Mossad learned of the planned 9/11 attacks but reported back there was no danger from the Atta gang.

I should know better, but.....

And your source for this little expose?

 

[twinstead]

I should know better, but.....

And your source for this little expose?

source? oh, he may not be smarter than 99.78% of everybody on earth like clayton, but i'll bet he's smarter thaqn 99.72%, and intellects of that level don't need sources; sources are for the common rube like us. i believe him no questions asked!

 

[Mark F]

How did the CIA not know in advance about 9/11? Remember, these are the same guys who failed to see the opening of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union coming.

 

[Wolrab]

The CIA and FBI didn't miss the attacks. They saw them on TV with the rest of us.

 

[Myriad]

Look at it this way: there are some people, even eleven years after the fact and with massive amounts of historical information available to them, who are still missing the 9/11 attack. That is, they're missing the actual attack that did happen, because they're too busy looking for imaginary attacks that didn't happen, such as demolition charges in the towers in NYC, missiles fired at the Pentagon, and shady military cabals treacherously standing down the U.S. air defenses. We call those people Truthers.

Given that "millions" of Truthers still miss the actual attack today despite it being fully documented and thoroughly studied and understood, think about how much more likely it is for a few dozen intelligence analysts to miss the attack before it happened, when only a few sketchy and unreliable clues were available.

Respectfully,
Myriad

 

[The Big Dog]

Israeli intelligence was asked to monitor the hijackers here in the US. The Mossad followed the hijackers using the cover of Israeli Art Students. The Mossad learned of the planned 9/11 attacks but reported back there was no danger from the Atta gang.

So the Atta Gang did it then? Cool!

Lets shut down the 911 Sub forum, MaGZ has had major breakthrough!

 

[carlitos]

At the end of December 1999, the CIA, FBI and State Department discovered from communications it intercepted on the phone line of the Yemeni safe house, that there would be an important al-Qaeda meeting in Malaysia in January and that Almihdhar and an associate named Nawaf would attend. [Newsweek, 6/2/02, Congressional Intelligence Committee, 9/20/02, Congressional Intelligence Committee, 10/17/02]

If you are going to copy / paste stuff here, it is considered polite to include a link to your source and to put the quoted material in a quote box. Welcome to the forums!

 

[Baah]

If you are going to copy / paste stuff here, it is considered polite to include a link to your source and to put the quoted material in a quote box. Welcome to the forums!

Yes I will, just did not understand those features on the iphone app...

 

[Baah]

Israeli intelligence was asked to monitor the hijackers here in the US. The Mossad followed the hijackers using the cover of Israeli Art Students. The Mossad learned of the planned 9/11 attacks but reported back there was no danger from the Atta gang.

Or "...reported back to CIA that everything went according to the plan for the Atta gang."

I have no sorce for this, just my own imagination!

 

[Baah]

How did the CIA not know in advance about 9/11? Remember, these are the same guys who failed to see the opening of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union coming.

What makes you believe they failed to see that? Assuming they knew about it, what would you expext them to do? The collapse of Soviet Union must have been pretty high up on the CIA agenda, right?

 

[Axxman300]

What makes you believe they failed to see that? Assuming they knew about it, what would you expext them to do? The collapse of Soviet Union must have been pretty high up on the CIA agenda, right?

They've admitted they missed the fall of the Soviet Union dozens of times both under oath in front of Congress, and in the dozen or so books written by former CIA case officers detailing how they blew it.

Most of this is confirmed by the KGB (who had moles in the CIA at the time).

Unlike 9/11 Troof, this part of US intelligence history is solidly documented.

 

[Sam.I.Am]

How did the CIA not know in advance about 9/11? Remember, these are the same guys who failed to see the opening of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union coming.

Actually the financial collapse of the USSR was seen coming by at least about a year beforehand. I read a report in late 1988 (classified at the time) that had come to that conclusion in the (unclassified) cover sheet. What was unknown was what the consequences of that collapse would be. The classified portions were the parts that discussed several possible and likely outcomes and the possible (broad) responses by the US to them.

Reagans (and Bush Sr.'s) intentional strategy was to literally try and force the USSR to spend themselves into collapse, this is not a secret and never was. Why do you think that his goal was a 600 ship navy? The only logical response to that that the USSR had was to also build more ships to counter a growing US fleet which is a very expensive thing to do. Meanwhile they were having a hard time just feeding their own people.

If you look back you will see that the US almost immediately halted plans to build any more ships and also started decommissioning entire classes of older ships soon after the collapse.

The Berlin wall coming down caught everyone off guard, including the USSR. It wasn't really a thing long in the planning before it happened. IIRC there was less than a one day period in between the official decision by East Germany to open and the actual opening of the crossing points. Just a week prior to that announcement the East Germans had been cracking down hard on border crossing into other eastern block countries.

 

[aggle-rithm]

CIA had a Bin Laden unit called Alec Station, NSA monitored the Yemen hub and FBI ran the Cole investigation.

How was it even possible NOT to find out about the 9/11 attacks and prevent it from happening? Especially when the whole intelligence community "knew" OBL was responsible only a couple of hours after the attack.

It is also interesting that Michael F. Scheuer left Alec Station in 1999 but came back right after the attacks as a supervisor.

Oh...My...GOD.

How is it possible no one has thought of this before?

You've blown the conspiracy WIDE OPEN!!!

Oh...wait. No, you haven't.

This has been discussed many, many times before and there's simply no substance there.

 

[thatsmystory]

Oh...My...GOD.

How is it possible no one has thought of this before?

You've blown the conspiracy WIDE OPEN!!!

Oh...wait. No, you haven't.

This has been discussed many, many times before and there's simply no substance there.

Wow, your twoofer disdain and group think authoritarian dismissal is good enough for me!

We don't know what Alec Station was doing because the details are still secret.

I read all the books. Not one author (including Steve Coll) has gotten a credible explanation for Alec Station withholding. Richard Blee has never been interviewed. He was in charge of Alec Station from mid '99 until 12/01. In the lead up to 9/11 Rod Middleton was in charge of the FBI Bin Laden unit (UBLU). This was the intelligence side unit that received the info about al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar from Alec Station in late August '01. For reasons only known to Middleton he refused to share the information with the FBI agents investigating the USS Cole attack. To date the media has never seen fit to interview Middleton.

I don't have proof of anything. Neither do you. IMO a government acting in good faith would have explained why al Qaeda investigations were obstructed.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Wow, your twoofer disdain and group think authoritarian dismissal is good enough for me!

We don't know what Alec Station was doing because the details are still secret.

I read all the books. Not one author (including Steve Coll) has gotten a credible explanation for Alec Station withholding. Richard Blee has never been interviewed. He was in charge of Alec Station from mid '99 until 12/01. In the lead up to 9/11 Rod Middleton was in charge of the FBI Bin Laden unit (UBLU). This was the intelligence side unit that received the info about al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar from Alec Station in late August '01. For reasons only known to Middleton he refused to share the information with the FBI agents investigating the USS Cole attack. To date the media has never seen fit to interview Middleton.

I don't have proof of anything. Neither do you. IMO a government acting in good faith would have explained why al Qaeda investigations were obstructed bungled.

Oooh, and so close!

I fixed it so that it reads more like a fair enquiry. As I've said before, there are legitimate questions, but then you open with a cheap shot across the bow which has no place in an intelligent discussion, and you close with an unproven loaded word like "obstructed". A little tweaking and you might actually find some common ground (if you care).

 

[beachnut]

Wow, your twoofer disdain and group think authoritarian dismissal is good enough for me!

We don't know what Alec Station was doing because the details are still secret.

I read all the books. Not one author (including Steve Coll) has gotten a credible explanation for Alec Station withholding. Richard Blee has never been interviewed. He was in charge of Alec Station from mid '99 until 12/01. In the lead up to 9/11 Rod Middleton was in charge of the FBI Bin Laden unit (UBLU). This was the intelligence side unit that received the info about al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar from Alec Station in late August '01. For reasons only known to Middleton he refused to share the information with the FBI agents investigating the USS Cole attack. To date the media has never seen fit to interview Middleton.

I don't have proof of anything. Neither do you. IMO a government acting in good faith would have explained why al Qaeda investigations were obstructed.

What does it mean?

It means no one can stop a new method of attack when they have no clue what the attack is going to be. 19 nuts flying on 4 planes, who knew they would murder their way to the cockpits and crash planes. You did? No. You are the same as the CIA, FBI, and the rest of us. Unable to predict the future.

911 truth has offered nonsense for 11 years. Obstructed what? Are you saying it was on purpose?

The reason no one can stop something new, is the same reason you will fail to prevent your next accident. Why did you obstruct the investigation into your next accident before it happened? Why did you fail to stop it?

The 911 operation was simple, not a big money operation. Everyone comes to the US for flight training around the world - would not raise a flag. Hijacking aircraft before 911 were pilot displacement events. Not sure how you would figure out 911, before 911.

What 911 truth has failed to do is explain why 19 nuts in the US would be stopped from flying. How do you prevent an event that is a new action? How do you know what is going to happen before it happens? New tactics, new weapons are always a surprise and work until the other side gets a clue. Guess who figured out 911 first and took action?

I can think of many ways a terrorist attack can happen, but how will we stop it? Are you going to rehash you speculation again? Too bad people like you were no in the CIA to stop 911; Please explain how you could do better, and give your experience working with multiple agencies, and how you were able to do better than all the rest. Come on, what major agency are you leading now, and how did you get your agency to work better with other agencies. What major things have you see coming and you took action to prevent loss? Be prepared? Are you consulting now with the FBI and CIA to help prevent the next big event?

 

[thatsmystory]

Oooh, and so close!

I fixed it so that it reads more like a fair enquiry. As I've said before, there are legitimate questions, but then you open with a cheap shot across the bow which has no place in an intelligent discussion, and you close with an unproven loaded word like "obstructed". A little tweaking and you might actually find some common ground (if you care).

The Cole investigators were prevented from investigating crucial links in the Cole attack. Later they were not permitted to be involved in the search for al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar.

Thus their investigations were obstructed by the CIA and FBI UBLU personnel. Maybe you want the word changed because you rightly realize that such conduct is bizarre and sickening.