The Testimony Of Cofer Black

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.)

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.

It cannot be denied that terrorism remains a serious problem but there is a strong argument that the United States government oversold the actual and potential risk and that the power and authority granted to

Using the concepts of security, terrorism and risk learnt in this unit, critically evaluate the record of global counter-terrorism measures since the 9/11 attacks.

September 11, 2001 forever impacted America and gave a new challenge to our government that went far beyond any challenges that a natural disaster had presented in decades. The terrorist attacks were definitely a wake up call to being more prepared for natural disasters and reevaluating our intelligence agency jobs and communication levels. In chapter 2, one of the key points that Kettl discuss is connecting the dots. We can see that in the midst of 9/11, America focused on the nation’s intelligence services for answers. As the American people we wanted to know, who were the hijackers, where was security and most importantly, and who do we hold accountable? Furthermore, that the intelligence agencies failed to piece together information that already had about terrorism speculations. In chapter 1, Kettl talks about the warnings and signs that the government has before catastrophes (such as September 11, Hurricane

The attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 were the direct result of the failure of US agencies, ranging from the White House to airport security, to recognize vulnerabilities present in the various symptoms. The reason why these vulnerabilities were not acknowledged and repaired is that these various agencies were trapped in a cognitive dissonance cycle of thinking. After the Cold War, terrorism was seen as a regional problem (9/11 Commission, 92). The majority of terrorist groups were either groups sponsored by governments or militants trying to create governments (i.e. Palestine Liberation Organization). As a result, the tactics used for fighting terrorism were centralized mostly in the Middle East and were restricted to

The 9/11 terror attacks is one of the historical and fatal events that changed the United States of America forever, especially in relation to terrorists and terrorism. While these concepts were on the minds of very few people in America's population before the attacks, the 9/11 incident made terrorism to become one of the major concerns for the whole nation. This is despite of the fact that they were carried out in New York City, Washington, and parts of Pennsylvania. Since it was a major concern, the terror attacks dominated all kinds of media and contributed to increased security measures for average Americans. Moreover, terrorism currently provides a major threat to global security that any time in American and global history (Dyson, 2001, p.3). As a result, it has become a fundamental aspect for law enforcement agencies and their initiatives, particularly with the rapid technological advancements.

The September 11th terrorist hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon caught the United States largely by surprise. Once the dust had settled, and the shock and horror of such an unprecedented event had waned, the American public began to ask questions. Names such as Osama bin Laden, countries such as Afghanistan, and organizations such as Al-Qaeda were brought into the public's consciousness for the first time. Through newspapers, talkback radio and television programs the nation asked ‘why do they hate us so much?' Others, such as those in the government and public service, asked ‘what could we have done to have prevented this?' It is

“Prior to September 11th intelligence agencies and law enforcement failed to communicate with each other about terrorist hijackers… This lack of communications had its roots deep in the culture of government… Fortunately, in the Patriot Act, congress began to tear down the walls that cut off communication between intelligence and law enforcement officials” (Gerdes 36)

On September 11th, the President proclaimed that the security of the airline business needs to be augmented. He invoked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of Transportation, Central Intelligence Agency, and other federal organizations to oversee this operation. Surprisingly, this speech was given thirty years prior to 9/11 by President Nixon. His speech was given in response to advice pertaining to airport security, and then 9/11 caught the country off guard. The incident with the World Trade Center and the Pentagon instilled fear, shock, and most of all, terror into the citizens of the United States of America (DeGrave, Michael J.).

Prior to September 11, 2001, the government intelligence agencies truly failed. Both the FBI and CIA are to blame because they failed to share the “information that appears relevant to the events of 9/11” (Theoharis and Immerman). Neither agency thought that the information about terrorists that may be in the U.S. is important to act upon or tell the other organization. This led to nothing happening to try

Upon analyzing 9/11 it was clear to focus on the limitations that the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Central Intelligence Agency had faced. Security breaches and poor intelligence sharing were just some of the critical failures that were encountered. Moreover, the main focus is pointed towards the miscommunication between these two agencies. Evidently, the execution and tactical strategies went unnoticed despite the apparent red flags that presented themselves, in addition to the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Central Intelligence Agency failure to pursue threats and establish a baseline of security resulted in the disaster of 9/11. In conjunction to these mistakes, the restriction of shared information

land but on our U.S. military overseas as well; although the terrorist attack on September 11, 2011 was the most significant event ever in history of terrorism (Clarke). According to Against All Enemies written by Richard A. Clarke, a primary and reliable source, before the major event had occurred, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and FBI were heavily involved in fighting foreign attacks operated by Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden in which they did not know at the time were the culprits for all the terrorist violence (Clarke). The main reason why this extraordinary attack happened was because of miscommunication between CIA and FBI; the CIA knew beforehand that Al Qaeda was involved way before, but decided not to inform anyone, not even the FBI (Clarke). If the FBI learned of this earlier, the agency could have prevented the attack by targeting the mastermind of Al Qaeda Osama Bin Laden early on. Because of 9/11, the FBI pursues changes strategically, informatively, and financially. They sought advice from the National Commission of Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States (Commission), and the Commission gave several valuable recommendations to how the FBI should change their approaches to terrorism (FBI Responds…). The agency took in suggestions and applied them to today; members will specialize in one of the four program areas – Intelligence, Counterterrorism/Counterintelligence, Cyber, or Criminal; recruiting, hiring, and retaining of Intelligence Analysts, including having experience and expertise, foreign language, and technology; formation of team to handle national security intelligence operations; and emphasis on detailed reporting from FBI to Congress (FBI Responds…). All of these changes will greatly affect the way FBI combats terrorism. Compared to the past, FBI now does more than just preventing violations of laws, but protects the U.S. through internal improvement and focuses on many factors that

Richard A. Clarke throughout his thirty-year career in national security, ten years being in the White House, was highly informed and able to give a broad perspective on how the United States fought the war on terrorism at home and over seas. Clarke and every other federal government officials \ (except the President) took an oath in which they promised to defend the constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” which at the end of his career in Washington gave Clarke the title for his book in which he focused on the counterterrorism efforts of several administrations and how they have failed or succeeded.

In the book that I have read, Preventing Surprise Attacks Intelligence Reform In The Wake Of 9/11, author Richard A. Posner tells of the behind the scene looks on 9/11 and all other terrorism attacks that went on around 9/11. Richard A. Posner, in the first full length study of the post 9/11 movement for the intelligence reform argues that the 9/11 Commission’s was unorganized and completely insufficient. With being a former graduate of Harvard Law School, he was assistant to Commissioner Philip Elman of the Federal Trade Commission. Judge Posner has written a number of books, including Economic Analysis of Law (9th ed., 2014); The Economics of Justice (1981); Law and Literature (3rd ed. 2009); The Problems of Jurisprudence (1990); Cardozo: