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East Africa Bombings, NYC, and 9/11 Attacks
Terrorist attacks and wars are devastating because they cause the loss of lives and
property, sometimes in extreme quantities. In the history of the U.S., several wars
and attacks have left behind devastating aftermaths. For instance, the attacks at
Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks. Despite the attacks, was there something that
could have been done to avoid the disasters? Past findings have stated that the
main reason the attacks were not prevented or acted upon in time was intelligence
failures. In the 9/11 attacks and the attack at Pearl Harbor, there was a lack of
specific tactical-level intelligence and warning and poor receptivity of intelligence by
decision-makers.
During the attack at Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government had sufficient
intelligent warnings that were lost in the noise of the international environment about
the Second World War. A joint congressional committee conducted a study that
showed that the intelligence failure at Pearl Harbor was due to the military's
supervisory, administrative, and organizational deficiencies at the time (Dahl, 2013).
The leaders in Washington DC had intelligence that had not been shared with
military commanders in Hawaii, such as the information from breaking Japanese
diplomatic codes. Thus the lack of tactical level intelligence caused a mismatch that
allowed the attack to happen undefended.
The receptivity and analysis of intelligence warnings by the decision makers
allowed the attack at Pearl Harbor to happen. According to Dahl (2013), American
leaders with access to code-breaking intelligence on the Japanese knew that
Japan’s plan was to go to war but failed to believe it was possible. Before the
attacks, there were three reports, the Bloch memo, the Martin-Bellinger report, and
the study of the air situation in Hawaii that indicated scenarios of a possible
Japanese attack and how it would happen. Analysis of indicators showed the
possibility of a Japanese invasion, but the decision-makers did not receive and
interpret the warnings as vital and dismissed some essential components. Thus the
failure of the decision-makers to act on warnings and indicators was an intelligence
failure on their part.
The September 11 attack remains one of the worst terrorist attacks on U.S.
soil. Even though the attack happened as a surprise, prior warnings indicated a
possible attack by Al Qaeda (Town, 2020). The U.S. intelligence community had
information on the growing threat of terrorism, including Bin Laden and Al Qaeda
activities, but failed to gather tactical-level intelligence. The information analysts did
not focus on specific information because there was too much information on attack
possibilities. The intelligence community placed tactical intelligence as a second-
place priority which turned out to be an intelligence mistake. Intelligence reports had
severally shown the possible use of airplanes for attacks by terrorists, but the
intelligence community failed to identify the specific potential targets except for the
Whitehouse thus leading to the successful attack.
In the report by the 9/11 commission, the attack was blamed mainly on the
lack of imagination by national security and intelligence experts to connect the dots
and make sense of the intelligence information that was available at the time (Dahl,
2013). The analysis of intelligence information has a significant influence on
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decision-making. Thus if the decision makers lack the capacity to analyze and
interpret warnings adequately, wrong decisions are made. In the events preceding
the 9/11 attacks, there were sufficient warnings, confessions, and even arrests to
indicate the growing threat of aerial terrorism, but the leaders failed to make the right
decisions and act to prevent the attacks.
During the Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks, there was sufficient intelligence
to the U.S. about the possibility of attacks. However, the national security and
intelligence organs failed in making specific tactical level intelligence and receptivity
and analysis of intelligence. Since there was much intelligence, the intelligence
community did not focus on tactical intelligence. Leaders responsible for making
decisions dismissed some vital indicators and perceived warnings as imagination,
resulting in disasters.
References
Dahl, E. J. (2013). Intelligence and Surprise attack: Failure and Success from Pearl
Harbor to 9/11 and Beyond. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
Town, C. (2020). Intelligence and Surprise Attack Applying Lessons of the Pearl
Harbor and 9/11 failures to the modern information Sharing. American Military
University, 1-28.
