9eleven
                                                                                      Introduction
Could the attacks of 9/11/01 have been prevented?

Many families of those who died in the attacks say that the attacks
could have and should have been prevented.

The attacks could have been prevented if the FBI had located
Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, two of the hijackers who
were  on its terrorism watch list. (The CIA says that it had first
warned the FBI of the two men in January of 2000. The FBI
says it wasn't warned about Alhazmi and Almihdhar until August
23, 2001, when it began looking for them.)

Alhazmi and Almihdhar, along with the other hijackers, had purchased
airline tickets using their own names two weeks prior to the attacks.
The FBI could have learned that Alhazmi and Almihdhar were on
the passenger list for American Airlines flight 77, which would depart
Dulles for Los Angeles about 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, September 11, and
the FBI could have met the hijackers when they arrived for their
flight. Similarly, the names of other hijackers on CIA lists had also
been on passenger lists for the other three flights that would be
hijacked that day. Credit cards used to purchase the airline tickets
could also have been used to locate the watch listed men before
September 11th.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has said that there was
no specific information about a threat upon which the government could
have acted. She has said that the government cannot shut down all air
travel based on unspecific warnings, as that could cause serious and
unnecessary economic harm to the country. Yet, we see that two
people, who had been identified as terrorists, planned on flying on
September 11. The same morning three other flights, two out of Boston
and one out of Newark, also contained names on their passenger lists
about whom there had been similar warnings. That information had been
available for two weeks. It would not been necessary to have shut down
all air travel, just the travel of nineteen passengers.

Could that have been done? Could the FAA or FBI have prevented the
hijackers from flying on September 11th? Of course they could. Author
Salman Rushdie, through his publisher was notified on September 3, 2001
that he would not be allowed to fly on airlines within the United States or
Canada. If the FAA, acting on warnings from other governmental agencies,
could prevent Rushdie from flying, it could also have prevented Mohamed
Atta, Marwan Alshehhi, Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, and Ziad Jarrah
from flying.
 
                          Links

                      Alhazmi and Almihdhar on watch list:
                      ABCNEWS.com : CIA Did Not Share Terror Leads With FBI
                      http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/cia020603.html
 
                      Alhazmi and Almihdhar on watch list:
                      http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/06/02/fbi.cia.terrorism/                                                         
                      CNN.com - Senator has tough questions for FBI - June 3, 2002
                       CNN.com - Lawmakers promise 'fact-driven' 9/11 probe - June 4, 2002

                      Der Spiegel reporting on Atta (it was through this
                      investigation that Alhazmi and Almihdhar were put on
                      the watch list. Alshehhi and Atta were included.
                      http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,216421,00.html
                      CIA-Pannen: Mossad-Agenten waren Atta auf der Spur - Politik - SPIEGEL ONLINE
                      The above German article in English
                      http://www.cooperativeresearch.net/timeline/2002/derspiegel100102.html
                       Mossad Agents Were On Atta's Tail
                      Rushdie ban was published in the Times:
                      http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_409236.html
                     Ananova - Rushdie 'given US air ban week before terrorist attacks'
 

                    Exercises had been conducted twice within the preceding eleven
                    months in anticipation of terrorist attacks like that of September 11th.
                    A third was scheduled for September 11th at 9:00 a.m.
                      MASCAL exercise Oct. 24-26, 2000
                      http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/Contingency_Planning.html