9/11: Was the CIA too naive to see it coming?

Hello folks, you might be aware that modern terrorism is one of the biggest threats for humanity. There are lots of incidents in the history of mankind, that represent the cruelty, the dark, damaged mindsets and self-centered thinking behind the terrorism. Terrorism or what they call it as a "Jihad" is nothing but a selfish act of war which exists because there are some people out there who want to avenge something, to show their hatred towards the Governments, to fulfill their agenda in the name of religion.

About 9/11

As you all know, the 9/11 attacks are one of the most breath-taking terrorist attacks in the history of mankind. People are very well aware of the attacks and their effects on the people of the United States of America and across the world. On September 11, 2001, four planes were hijacked by 19 militants who were associated with Al-Qaeda. Two planes were crashed into the twin towers. One plane hit the Pentagon and the last one got crashed in a field. At the world trade center, 2,673 people died that day, after the two airplanes crashed into the world trade center (Twin Towers). Almost 3000 people died during the attacks. One of the masterminds behind the attacks, Osama Bin Laden is dead now. It's been 18 years since the attack.

The major conspiracy about the attacks is not that how terrorists managed to plan and execute it, but how come CIA and FBI failed to spot and stop such large scale attacks. Today, I am going to shed light on the possible reasons behind it.

Despite discussing how it all started and going into detail, I will be giving you a short overview of the chain of events that eventually lead to the 9/11 attacks.

Events that led the United States of America to 9/11

The concept of Jihad was found or let's say the initialization of Jihadism took place in the early 1980s when the Soviet Union attacked and invaded Afghanistan. The origin of Jihadism is linked to a group of Afghan fighters called "Mujahideen". They started their holy war against the Soviets. Al-Qaeda leaders (to be in the future) Bin Laden and others joined the war. In the late 1990s, the Taliban was formed by the members of former Mujahideen. In 1996, with harsh and violent agenda Al-Qaeda was found. Al-Qaeda was built to take the fight against Islam and the Western world to a global extent. Bin Laden was triggered by a negotiation that took place during WW1 which was intended to rule out middle east countries under British and French control.

In March 1997, a CNN reporter, Peter Arnett held an interview with Bin Laden in which Bin Laden made clear that he had declared war on the United States of America. He was hiding in caves somewhere in Afghanistan. Bin Laden felt humiliated as the US military was present in Saudi Arabia back in 1991 during the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein. In 1991, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the US Government sent their half a million troops to fight against him. Bin Laden considered it as a humiliation of Islam as he believed that in Islamic countries, no one other than Muslims is allowed to stay or live. It was clear that Bin Laden wanted the United States out of the fray while Islamic nations were fighting among themselves.

Why it is a conspiracy?

CIA is the world's one of the biggest spy and intel organization ever since it was created. It is the kind of organization, from which people expect a lot, even back in 2001 also. Especially when the nation is such an active participant in world level politics and military welfare. Another thing is, the United States of America was very well aware of the intentions of Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. In 1997, Bin Laden declared an open war again the United States while staying in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. But still somehow CIA and FBI, both collectively failed to sense the potential behind threats. Being an intelligence community of a superpower country and yet failed to prevent these kinds of attacks is, of course, a huge question mark on the CIA and other law-enforcement agencies.

It is not like that 9/11 was the first attack on the world trade center. In February 1993, a bombing took place outside the world trade center in which 6 people died. It was the first time the United States of America was experiencing the act of Jihadism on its soil. In 1998 also, Jihadist attacks were executed at two US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya which were linked with Al-Qaeda.

Were the law-enforcement agencies were to slow to gather the Information?

CIA and FBI were too slow to find out what was happening and being planned by the Jihadists. CIA was clueless back then. The mastermind of the attacks in 1993, named Ramzi Yousef, wasn't arrested for a while. It was when the investigation led to another several planning and plots planned by the Jihadist. Bin Laden and other Jihadists funded terrorist camps and training centers across the world throughout the 1990s.

Steve Coll, the author of "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of The CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden", said that "I think the country mustered to prevent Al-Qaeda were not proportionate to the scale of threat". This means that either CIA, FBI and other law-enforcement agencies like NSA didn't have a clearer vision in the direction that led them to 9/11 or they didn't try that much. Well, the second scenario is highly unlikely.

Inter-organizational or Bureaucratic Conflicts

In the early 1990s, Bill Clinton elected as the new president of the USA. It was the initial stage of what we know as "Jihadism". In 2001 also, George Bush became the president, to be precise in January 2001. Now as we all know that every Government Institutions, Bureaus, and Agencies have their own opinions and perception about the Ruling Government. In fact, it is very likely to have these bureaus having conflicts with each other in the initial period of the new Government. That was the scenario in the 1990s and the even after that also. Due to conflicts, bureaucratic infighting, lack of support, lack of information-sharing and lack of intelligence-sharing the law-enforcement agencies somehow failed to sense the threat and the hatred that led to the attacks of 9/11.

Did the CIA ignore the facts?

Another factor behind this conspiracy is that the intelligence agencies were arrogant enough to ignore the fact that Arab extremists were able enough to work together. Even they (Arab extremists) had done so while working together in Afghanistan to stop the Soviet Union. One thing to note here is, all 19 militants who hijacked the four planes, were Arab extremists.

These are all high-level factors. The ground-level factors include the loopholes in the CIA hiring process. Not the real loopholes, to be more precise, The (Biased) Hiring Process of CIA. Yes, it may surprise you!!!

In the CIA, hiring is done in such a way that it is significant to a phenomenon in recruiting, "Homophily". This means that people like to hire people who often look and think like themselves. Most of the recruits of the CIA look very similar like male, white, Americans. The intelligence experts Phillipe Silberzahn and Milo Jones have written in their analysis and study of the CIA, "The first consistent attribute of the CIA's identity and culture from 1947 to 2001 is homogeneity of its personnel in terms of race, sex, ethnicity and class background." In short, the CIA lack diversity. Diversity among people!!!

We can't disagree upon the fact that in an intelligence community, diversity among people is not only beneficial for the organization but it helps to build trust and invest in different cultures and classes of a country. Why homogeneity played a vital role in this whole conspiracy is because, if the CIA had people across the different communities, different classes, then it would be easier to build a network of informants.

Conclusion

Whatever happened on 9/11 has changed the history of the USA completely. It is being considered as the biggest achievement for the Jihadist communities. If it had been prevented, then the history would turn in a different way. Whatever happened was wrong and wasn't supposed to happen at all. Whether the CIA knew about it and still couldn't stop it or they didn't have any idea about the whole plot, is still a debatable question and a conspiracy. Again, the truth will come out eventually as it always does. Till then, keep reading and if you like it then share it. Also if you have any suggestions then you can always reach me out.

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