Missed Opportunities ...Lawrence Wright tells, for the first time, the story of the F.B.I. agent who had the best chance of foiling the 9/11 plot. Here, with Amy Davidson, Wright talks about how turf wars with the C.I.A. got in the way. Wright’s book “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11” will be published by Knopf in August.
posted by Postroad on Aug 2, 2006 - 13 comments

CIA Gives Up on Bin Laden Search says a post full of links on Sploid, it was revealed yesterday (when no one was paying attention) that the CIA disbanded its Bin Laden unit one year ago. The post also links to news that the FBI has "no hard evidence" connecting Bin Laden to the 9/11 attacks.
posted by cell divide on Jul 5, 2006 - 54 comments

The terrorists in New Jersey have been captured. They're, uhm, like 15 years old. A fine example of how anti-terror laws like the Patriot Act can be subject to mission creep. (The "terrorists" at the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice in Pittsburgh seem to be still at large.)
posted by digaman on Apr 7, 2006 - 59 comments

A missed clue. Niaz Khan walked into an F.B.I. office and told them that he had been provided money and training by al-Qaida with the aim of hijacking a plane in the United States. [more inside]
posted by rdr on Jun 4, 2004 - 22 comments

DID YOU EVER WONDER HOW THE FBI KNEW ALL THESE NAMES FIVE MINUTES AFTER THE ATTACK ON AMERICA? I know its just another anonymous site about 9-11 but it does highlight some interesting facts and prompts some questions about what the US government knew prior to the attack.
posted by JonnyX on Oct 10, 2002 - 26 comments

The man who knew was John O'Neill, former FBI counterterrorism expert who spent six years connecting the dots to bin Laden and the World Trade Center/Pentagon attacks last year. Last night Frontline broadcast an excellent documentary on the tragic ironies of his life, detailing the actions of the fatuous bureaucrats who stymied his investigations, and his own death in the World Trade Center. This one-man Office of Homeland Security shows that it's not about money or departments or posturing or color-coded alerts -- it's about a commitment to truth and a willingess to act.
posted by skimble on Oct 4, 2002 - 16 comments

President Bush was told that Osama bin Laden might be plotting to hijack U.S. passenger planes well before September 11th. The warning was never made public. AP reported earlier this month that FBI headquarters did not act on a memo last July from its Arizona office warning there were a large number of Arabs seeking pilot, security and airport operations training. Said a spokeman for Sen. Bob Graham, Senate Intelligence Committee chair: "It represents a failure to connect the dots."
posted by tranquileye on May 15, 2002 - 36 comments

While shutting down a money-wiring service in Seattle, U.S. Customs officials also took the time to destroy the entire inventory -- $300,000 worth -- of the Somali grocery store attached to it. That'll show 'em!
posted by argybarg on Nov 10, 2001 - 26 comments

"Innocent Muslim doctor tells of arrest, two-week ordeal " San Antonio News-Express interview of Dr. Al Badr Al-Hazmi, the Saudi radiologist arrested--in error--by the FBI on 9/12. What happens after the G-men take you away.
posted by Carol Anne on Oct 1, 2001 - 36 comments

9/11 Conspirators Stole Identities of Murdered Students: "HAD FBI agents bothered to ask college lecturers in South Wales about the terrorist bomber they supposedly taught over a decade ago, then security chiefs would have realised how Osama bin Laden had carefully created a generation of impostors . . . his agents stole the identities and life histories of at least a dozen Western-educated young men who were all murdered in 1990, according to a former head of the CIA."
posted by ryanshepard on Sep 22, 2001 - 15 comments

last week, 6 days prior to the attacks, an FBI raid shut down numerous arabic websites. what did they suspect? many were offended by the action, do they feel the same way still?
posted by quonsar on Sep 14, 2001 - 2 comments

The FBI press release identifing the hijackers.
posted by username on Sep 14, 2001 - 6 comments

Report: Five Suspects Identified in NYC Attack Seems FBI, etc. is working double time (as expected). There are some more updates streaming.
posted by owillis on Sep 12, 2001 - 12 comments