by Joseph Carlson
Not only was our president changing, but the people within the cabinet were being moved around as well. Many people in the new cabinet and security council felt that things were moving at a glacial pace, and the old song and dance returned again that no one was listening to one another or taking each other serious.
One of the options on the table was to use a Predator drone that actually had warheads on it. The problem: It was ready and the new administration was working out whether it had the legal authority to use it or not.
While this was going on there were four people that Al Qaeda had chosen to be pilots. The came to America and tried to befriend people at local mosques and other extreme Muslims. The thing is they either hated being in America, couldn't speak English very well, or their flight training was going terrible.
That's not to say some didn't practice. One of the hijackers studied and although they were a poor student they were able to pass their exams and get a pilots license. Many of the other hijackers either went home to their middle-eastern countries or because they couldn't make it as pilots helped out in other ways with the 9/11 plot.
Pakistan was also very little help. Many of the people from the NSC who went to see dignitaries in Pakistan remarked on how similar their response was now compared to how it had been in the Clinton era White House.
Our new administration and the terrorist seemed to be two halves of the same coin.
The 9/11 Commission Report is available in bookstores and digitally.
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