From a project manager:

"
I find it beyond preposterous that anyone can seriously assert that
nobody -- NOBODY -- except Tom Clancy forecast the use of a
commercial airliner as a suicide attack vehicle.

By itself, the 8/6/2001 PDB "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US"
should have provided enough connectible dots to forecast such a
scenario: (1) intention to conduct terrorist attacks in the US, (2)
intention to use operatives who are based in the US, (3) intention to
hijack US aircraft, (4) preparations for other kinds of attacks such
as surveillance of Federal buildings in NYC, (5) plans to attack
using explosives, and even (6) references to the World Trade Center
and Washington DC.

Then there were reports of al Qaeda followers seeking flight training
in various locations. Why would al Qaeda be doing that? One would
need little imagination to figure that out, given their previous
suicide attacks using explosive-laden boats.

What else was needed, a frigging flight plan!?

I am sick to death of hearing apologists go on and on about how
nobody could have anticipated the tragic disasters that have befallen
our current government, from 9/11 to Iraq to NOLA. Such statements
ring with the same deafening cognitive dissonance as "nobody
anticipated the levees would be breached". I am inclined not to
attribute such massive failures to lack of information, coordination,
imagination, or capability, but instead I attribute them to refusal
to listen, misplaced focus of attention, agenda-driven priorities,
and a policy of rewarding blindly loyal dilettantes over competent,
experienced experts.

I'm not involved in government or life-critical matters, I am just a
lowly technology project manager. But I can say that in my line of
work, where failures may only result in some lost revenues or or a
tarnished corporate reputation, I would expect to be FIRED ON THE
SPOT for such gross incompetence as has been repeatedly displayed by
Bush's administration and appointees.

And it is there that I must be lacking in imagination, because I
cannot imagine why the highest office in our country and so-called
leader of the free world should be held to a lower standard of
integrity and competence than I am."


A