9/11 Plot Analysis

Roughly 2,753 people were killed on September 11, 2001, by terrorists who overtook commercial airplanes (Jones). The cause of these thousands of deaths were a series of attacks in New York City by an Islamic terrorist group, Al-Qaeda. However, there are still many questions about what actually happened the morning of September 11, 2001. As there are many different conspiracy theories about what happened that day, 9/11 was an attack which began with Al- Qaeda hi-jacking airplanes, but ended with more questions than answers. Many questions still remain about the authenticity of cell phone calls from inside the planes, why air defense was told to “stand down,” and how three buildings imploded as the result of two buildings being struck by airplanes.

Throughout its more than hundred year history, the Federal Bureau of Investigations has been a very important agency to the United States. As a threat-based and intelligence-driven national security organization, the mission of the FBI is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership to federal, state, and international agencies (“A Brief History of the FBI”). The Bureau’s success has always depended on its agility, its willingness to adapt, and the ongoing dedication of its personnel. But in the years since

The Intelligence Community has had successes and failures, many of which have made history. One of the most prominent failures in U.S history was the attacks on September 11, 2011. Now most people would start to read this essay and think they know everything about what happened that day because it has been so publicized. However, for me it was different. Yes, I was alive when it happened, but I was too young to understand. The September 11th attacks have been of particular interest to me due to the fact that they happened right in my backyard. One of them even occurred in the same state in which I live. For this reason I wanted to know why an event of this magnitude occured in the U.S. The safety of Americans has changed since then leaving many people affected. The collection and analysis of intelligence in our nation changed dramtically after the 9/11 attacks.

Beginning in 2001 Intelligence about the impending nature of an attack was increasing, not only from US Intelligence sources but also from 11 other countries such as Britain, Israel, India, Egypt, Morocco and even a top Taliban commander from Afghanistan (Thompson.) Beginning in August warnings become coming in from everywhere, foreign governments, CIA and FBI sources and so on however, next to none of this information was shared between the many intelligence agencies. In April, NORAD launched a training scenario in which the pentagon was to be incapacitated by a hijacked airliner however the Joint Chiefs of Staff disregarded the scenario as “too unrealistic” (September 11 attacks advance-knowledge debate.) On august 19th the Israeli’s gave US intelligence personnel credible information including, the list of 19 suspected terrorist’s names and the fact that a large aircraft would be the primary weapon involved. The names were not shared by the CIA with other intelligence agencies (Robinson.)

If you had that one piece of the puzzle that would have prevented the bombings of the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon on September 11 2001 would you know it? If you saw someone do something weird or suspicious before the attack on September 11 2001, would you have called the police? If someone had walked into a United States Embassy in a foreign country and said that they know someone was going to use a plane to destroy New York in two days, could this have stopped the attack? Intelligence Analysis puts the raw sources of information together, make predictions based on the data, and finally publish the results.

The mission and values of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is up held with strong Constitutional values. Over the years since the FBI was created in 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. As a progressive during this time period Bonaparte applied his philosophy to forming the FBI with several corps of agents. His thought was that these men should have expertise and not political connections. With the U.S. Constitution based on “federalism” a national government with jurisdiction over matters that cross boundaries, such as interstate and foreign affairs.

In the book, Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11, by Gerald Posner he argues that the act of terrorism that occurred on September 11, 2001 could have and should have been prevented. He presented a powerful case of how stupidity and misdirected priorities made America an easy aim for terrorists. Gerald Posner, the author of the book was a former Wall Street Lawyer, award winning investigative journalist and bestselling author. Posner purposefully wrote this book to demonstrate all the clues that were given out prior to the attack and inform us on previously undisclosed information after a thorough 18-month investigation. Posner’s goal was to discover what the CIA, FBI, and others in the Government were doing behind the scenes for at least a decade leading up to 9/11. The intended audience for this book is anyone who is willing to open their eyes on the true occurrences that happened on 9/11. The title of the piece is related directly to the book and the subject matter of it. America slept on all the clues that they received that there would be a terrorist attack and the book demonstrated how exactly they failed to prevent the acts that occurred on 9/11. Why America Slept is such a staggering book and Posner successfully demonstrates to the audience how 9/11 could have been prevented through his use of examples and facts.

This report aims to provide details of a defining moment in history between 1901 and now. The defining moment in this report is the 9/11 attacks. The purpose of this report is to understand, the specifics of the 9/11, what happened on 9/11 and how it happened, the Primary factors that contributed to the outcome of 9/11 and lastly reasons why the 9/11 attack is considered a defining moment in intelligence history.

The FBI enjoys a reputation as one of the finest law enforcement organizations in the world and its reputation is largely dependent upon the conduct of its personnel, both in their official and personal capacities; therefore the FBI expects its

In the 21st century, the world as we know it suffers from psychotic, demented, treacherous and, sophisticated crimes. This world would be corrupt without a tunnel of light if it was not for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, also known as the FBI, is a corporation that seeks fidelity, bravery and, integrity for the United States of America. The FBI researches shocking and concerning crimes the news reports about politics, war and, safety that we hear on the television about issues that are being reported to the people. These cases of transgression are missions the FBI analyzes, such as hacking information from double spies, locating terrorists, seeking pedophiles, cracking down unknown mobsters,

Assessing our vulnerability to terrorist attack remains difficult in part because the events surrounding the attacks of September 11, 2001, have not been thoroughly explained. In its investigation into them, the 9/11 Commission slid past many important questions, leaving them unanswered, and did not adequately challenge the Bush administration when it refused to cooperate or obfuscated its own actions.

The terrorist attack that occurred on September 11, 2001 (9/11) is arguably the greatest tragedy the United States has ever faced. This attack was widespread, coordinated and devastating in nature. Many people claim that the government failed to protect us from this event and that it should have been prevented. Over the Course of this paper, we will examine that claim. We will examine how the Intelligence community failed to prevent the 9/11 terror attack. This paper will also examine how the Intelligence community could have used its assets more effectively. The two biggest factors in this attack were the lack of information sharing and lack of action taken on received intelligence. After discussing how those two factors facilitated the 9/11

Van Bergen (2002) website states “Many people do not know the US Patriot Act was already written and ready to go long before the September 11th” (p. 1). Critics of the Bush Administration claim the government had information that could have helped prevent the attacks of September 11th. Sharing information and investigations between the agencies, FBI and CIA, was allowed to break the obstacles that once separated investigations that involving criminal and intelligence ones. Information obtained by the United States Justice Department showed the CIA had previous

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is an agency that engages in the enforcement of laws at the federal level and is under the department of Justice. (Schlesinger, 2012) There are many challenges that the USA faces in terms of criminal activity that requires a singular approach that cannot be provided by the state departments of police whose jurisdictions are limited to the states they operate in. In this case, there is need for a policing agency that investigates transnational crime including espionage, drug trafficking and terrorism. This is where the agenda of the FBI derives. (Weiner, 2012)

Long ago a President of the United States addressed the public with a warning about White Collar crime of the future. He quantified that there were people in charge of professional industries that were extremely shrewd. The warning came next which consisted of being aware that the men in these authoritative positions would have the ability to make decisions that were immoral and thoughtless. With this warning, there were some words of advice that the President would suggest, that could combat the issues people could possibly face because of White Collar crime. The suggestion was that people should remain aware that there is an issue afoot. Also, that he would appoint people that would make sure that these crimes would not go unnoticed. It is thought that the FBI was created as a direct result of the President’s fear that men with positions of power and the right amount of money would become corrupt. White Collar crime has been a top priority to the FBI since the first time it was recognized. More recently, terrorism has taken over the precedence of the importance at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This does not mean that the original tasks like investigating White Collar crime are going unnoticed, but the FBI does have a lot on their list of things to do