Terror Prevention: What a Difference a Day in September Made

If you have the perspective of informed hindsight – if you knew what the intelligence was in the months before 9/11 – then the information about the latest mega-plot to attack Western targets, and the peremptory response being mounted to it, are a study in moral contrasts.

The moral contrast lies in what we were willing to do before 9/11 and what we are willing to do today.

9/11: The Data Entry Angle

We all have our 9/11 stories.  Where were you on 9/11?  I was at Andrews Air Force Base, just outside DC in Maryland, attending a conference.  I represented US Central Command’s Intelligence Directorate, with a small team there to discuss the gigantic, outsized issue of “joint C4I,” or the thorough IT-ification of the military, as organized through the prism of what was then called the Global Command and Control System, or GCCS (“geeks”).  As we milled about in the conference facility’s lounge during our first morning break, someone called out “Shhh!!  Shhh!!!  Hush up!  A plane just ran into the World Trade Center!”  We gathered around the TV, speculating on what could have happened.

An hour later we were watching in horror as endless footage ran of the second plane plowing into the tower.