Hi Frosina,
I believe you are doing well. I enjoyed your thread for this week, and I agree that the events
leading to 9/11, were because of intelligence failures and it is one of the worse intelligence
failures in the history of the United States. The 9/11 attack in 2001 changed the United States in
terms of its emergency and intelligence management. The United States experienced moments of
agony and immense courage at the same time from its first responders and victims as they
grasped for their lives and to save lives. It is a day that will never be forgotten because American
national security was shaken to the core. For the intelligence community, it was a
transformational event that tested their capabilities and drove them to do better in the subsequent
years. Events that led to the attack were part of a coordinated plot and many national security
experts immediately identified Al Qaeda as the terrorist organization responsible for the attack.
Before the attack, the intelligence community had significant intelligence on Al Qaeda over the
past decade that gave them insight into the group's capabilities and intentions however not much
was done to prevent the attack ((Power et al., 2021)). I strongly agree that “the attacks on
September 11 could have been mitigated or completely stopped if the FBI and CIA had
communicated and added pertinent individuals to the national terrorist watchlist”. The final
reports of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States detail the failures
of the intelligence agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a failure of the agencies to “connect the dots” to prevent the
terrorist attacks despite all the intelligence that was available to them for over a decade. The
report strongly favored reforming the intelligence community in a way that enhances national
security, encourages openness, and protects civil liberties (American Civil Liberties Union,
2022).
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 that “two are better than one because they have a good
return for their labor: If either of them falls, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how
can one keep warm alone? I choose this verse because I believe coordination is very important
especially when matters of national security are at stake. If the intelligence community had
worked together, it would have been easier for them to “connect the dot” instead of each agency
keeping information for themselves.
References
American Civil Liberties Union. (2022). ACLU Analysis of the 9-11 Commission’s
Recommendations for. ACLU. https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-analysis-9-11-commissions-
recommendations-intelligence-reform
Bibles, Z. (2011). NIV Study Bible. Zondervan.
Power, S., Walton, C., & Miner, M. (2021, September 23). Report - 9/11: Intelligence and
National Security Twenty Years Later. Belfer Center.
