last note djfmore on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

It is clear that this was an intelligence failure and/or a WH failure  
djf



Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gordon C. Thomasson, Ph.D." <gthomas1 () stny rr com>
Date: September 12, 2005 9:40:53 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says


Nobody could have imagined ... 9/11 ?

Sorry,
The G-8 summit in Italy of July 2001 was under totally restricted  
airspace (missile batteries, fighter cover, etc.) because of a  
reported al Kaeda intent to fly an airliner into the summit  
meetings.   The Bush people were FULLY informed, trusted the  
Italians' security measures and GWB attended.

Hard disks siezed in raids on al Kaeda in the Philippines in the  
mid-1990s outlined suicide-plane mission plans, and Phil. Intel  
passed these along to the US at least by the late 1990s.

These aren't slandered as "Michael Moore" facts but have solid  
pedigrees and paper trails, and have appeared in many major media as  
well as congressional discussions.  We just forget ... or spin ... as  
needed.
Gordon C. Thomasson, Ph.D.

David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: "Hitchens, Ralph" <Ralph.Hitchens () hq doe gov>
> Date: September 12, 2005 10:18:51 AM EDT
> To: "'dave () farber net'" <dave () farber net>
> Subject: RE: [IP] more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says
>
>
> Dave, for IP if you like.
>
> Mr. Bray was right about one thing, even if Mr. Fairlie denies  
> it.   Only Tom Clancy (in "Debt of Honor," I believe, published in  
> 1994)  forecast the use of a commercial airliner in a suicide  
> terrorist  exploit.  Yes, there have been many airline hijackings  
> in recent  decades but to my knowledge no one in the intelligence  
> community (in  which I worked for most of the last 20 years) or  
> anywhere else put  forward a scenario that resembled Clancy's.
>
> Had anyone done so, our counter-terrorism analysts would have had   
> something to work with.  It's not likely that an airline pilot  
> could  be induced -- even at gunpoint -- to fly into a building, so  
> al-Qaeda  would need its own pilots.  Flying an airliner is not  
> something you  learn at your average flight school; you need to  
> attend one of a  relatively small number of major flight schools  
> that provide training  in large transport-category jets.  Nearly  
> all the students at these  schools work for airlines or large  
> corporate operators, as the cost  of this training is prohibitive.   
> The Phoenix FBI office had the  right idea in its now-famous memo,  
> but it was "too little, too  late."  Had the Clancy scenario been  
> taken seriously a few years  earlier, I have no doubt that the  
> relative handful of unaffiliated  students of Middle Eastern origin  
> could have been identified and  investigated long before 9/11.
>
> Scenario-based forecasting doesn't seem to be widely used in the   
> Intelligence Community, from my experience.  It's a domain that   
> places the highest value on inductive reasoning.
>
> Ralph Hitchens
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
> Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 5:08 PM
> To: Ip Ip
> Subject: [IP] more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says
>
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Tom Fairlie <tfairlie () frontiernet net>
> Date: September 11, 2005 4:40:36 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Cc: h_bray () globe com
> Subject: Re: [IP] more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says
>
>
> >>  The "who could have dreamed up 9/11" canard has been
> so overused that I'm surprised a sharp person like Mr. Bray would   
> even use it--unless it was dishonestly used of course. We have had   
> almost 700 hijackings since 1970, and the people paid to protect  
> the  U.S. have been working on this threat full time. The President  
> even  received specific intelligence warning him of such an attack  
> only a  month before.<<
>
>
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-- "And the [National Constitution] center can remind conservatives  
of an awkward -- to some of them -- fact: the Constitution was  
written to correct the defects of the Articles of Confederation. That  
is, to strengthen the federal government." George Will in "Take  
another good look at Constitution" (15 August 2005)

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