The Looming Tower

Complex, intelligent, and sobering; superb television

أَيْنَمَا تَكُونُواْ يُدْرِككُّمُ الْمَوْتُ وَلَوْ كُنتُمْ فِي بُرُوجٍ مُّشَيَّدَةٍ

[Wherever you are, death will find you, even in the looming tower.]

• Qur'an; Surah 4 Āyah 78

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [redacted] in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" Umar Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of su__spicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

• "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US"; President's Daily Brief (given to George W. Bush on August 6, 2001)

We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th attacks.

• President George W. Bush; Press conference (September 17, 2003)

I welcome these hearings because of the opportunity that they provide to the American people to better understand why the tragedy of 9/11 happened and what we must do to prevent a reoccurrence. I also welcome the hearings because it is finally a forum where I can apologise to the loved ones of the victims of 9/11. To those who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television - your government failed you; those entrusted with protecting you failed you; and I failed you.

• Richard Clarke (National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism, 1998-2003); Opening statement, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (March 24, 2004)

One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.

• President George W. Bush; CBS Evening News (September 6, 2006)

_The most frightening aspect of this new threat was the fact that almost no one took i...