Timothy Birdnow

What we had here was a failure to communicate...

I remember 911 when Bush was reading to those children; he looked stunned, he looked grave, but he didn't look surprised. I suspected we had some intel that this MIGHT happen. No details but just that it could happen. And the way the laws were set up we didn't have any real way to address a potential threat.

We knew Bush was briefed on an unspecified threat by Bin Laden, but it turns out Clinton had been likewise briefed and the CIA knew all along that Bin Laden was going to do something quite terrible.

Of course the twin towers were a prime target; Islamic terrorists had attacked it back during the Clinton era and we just barely foiled the plot then (using a truck bomb).

At any rate this was a failure of the intelligence community and so much of it stemmed from a wall of separation between agencies.

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