Reply #45: I recommend Richard Clarke's book, Against All Enemies.

[yardwork]

He's highly credible.

If the Bush administration had followed up on the warnings, the FAA would have been informed of the threat of highjackers. People armed only with boxcutters - as the 9/11 highjackers were - could have been easily subdued onboard IF people had known that they were likely to crash the planes.

Until 9/11, the conventional wisdom for dealing with highjackers was to stay calm and let them fly the plane whereever they wanted to go. Usually, the passengers and crew were fine, and often the highjackers themselves were captured when they landed.

The Bush administration knew that OBL had different plans. It was criminally negligent of them to hide this information and refuse to follow up on it.