Could 9/11 have been prevented?

[Robb]

Poll question: Could 9/11 have been prevented?

Really overbroad question, so feel free to explain yourself.

[Abe Linkman]

1. No more than the wars/invasions done & those planned

That's like asking if the murders of OJ's wife and Ron Goldman could have been prevented.

[bowens43]

2. Did OJ's wife

receive over 30 warnings from intelligence agencies, some very specific that she was going to be attacked? Did OJs wife have a security briefing a few weeks before the murder in which she was given details as to how the attack would occur and who the attackers would be?

BUsh had no fewer then 30 warnings, several of which mentioned Al Qaeda and the possibility of using hijacked planes in an attack.

Bush had these things. He knew. Either he didn't believe it or he chose not to stop the attacks.

To compare the murder of OJs wife to the 911 attacks is silly.

[gandalf]

3. A comparison is never silly.

As long as these things are not equated.

[impe]

6. In both cases

the perps got away with it. Unfortunately, in both cases, the glove did fit but the jury and the american people chose to believe in some unknown boogey man jumping out of bushes or planes as the case may be.

[gandalf]

4. Question implies some things,

especially that the attacks were not carried out from inside the US, on behalf of some establishment circles.
As nothing is proven concerning the complex 9/11 issue, this is this still a possibility (I know, this is "evil, foolish ... (please complete this list) conspiracy theory")
Your question seems to exclude this possibility.

edited for clarity.

[Robb]

7. Not exactly

...Unless you think that if forces within the U.S. government were involved, that precludes prevention by someone. :shrug:

[mobuto]

9. By that token

if "nothing is proven concerning the complex 9/11 issue" and if therefore all theories are equally legitimate as you seem to imply, how come you aren't discussing the possibility that 9/11 might have been carried out by two visiting Japanese lab technicians surnamed Takashi?

[reorg]

5. the more pertinent question would be

in whose best interest these attacks were carried out.

Who gained from 9/11? I think the answer is clear for everyone, to some extent.

[mobuto]

8. Of course it could have been prevented

I don't see how anybody can responsibly say "no."

And you don't have to be a kook who believes that George Bush did it or knew about it or let it happen or whatever to say yes.

In fact, the really scary prospect is in fact "no" - that terrorists could infiltrate our society and kill thousands of us and there wasn't a damn thing we could ever have done to stop them.

[Abe Linkman]

10. Relax. There's no need to worry about that.

You said: "no" - that terrorists could infiltrate our society and kill thousands of us and there wasn't a damn thing we could ever have done to stop them.

Just as there's no evidence (except phony, manufactured evidence) of WMD in Iraq, there's no evidence that OBL & his Boys Club are responsible for 9-11. It's far more likely that what happened is a home-grown, home sponsored insider job.

[cowpie]

11. and black helicopters are flying out of my posterior

Of course it could have been prevented. Unfortunately as a nation (not a political party or particular administration) we got too comfy and complacent about these things. We couldn't exactly shut down all aviation for an indefinite amount of time. Clinton had the same type of info, should we add him to our conspiracy list?

[Abe Linkman]

12. Tell us how it could have been prevented.

Plenty of people say that if Bill Clinton had just been honest about his relationship with Mommica from the beginning, 9-11 wouldn't have happened. Is that what YOU had in mind?

[cowpie]

13. Clinton?

No that is not what I had in mind. I think Clinton's error was the same as Bush. They were in complacent administrations when it came to terrorism. I think Hillary made a good point when she said there was no real mandate to go after terrorists. Not until 9/11. If you are going to blame Bush and say he allowed this to happen you would have to assign blame to Clinton as well.