How 9-11 Happened And May Happen Again

By Allen J Duffis
Published: December 22, 2004

     It continues to amaze and to frighten me, that the powers in charge of this country’s security, at this late post 9-11 date, appear to have no credible idea as to how the attack succeeded. And at the present rate, they may not for years. Unfortunately, we as a nation do not have years.

     For you see, in order to understand the element of - how, one must first understand the element of - why. Why did such a daringly complex, bold and time consuming plan, carried out by nineteen amateur but dedicated young Arab terrorists, succeed against all odds? That is the question to be answered before plans for any future security measures can be realistically assessed.

     An empirical examination of all of the available evidence to date, along with a modicum of knowledge of Middle Eastern culture, renders the elusive answer to that crucial question. In short, we in the west have always demonstrated a preferential tendency to finance our goals with large amounts of money. And we have placed human determination on the back burner of requirements for success.

     On the other hand in Middle Eastern cultures, which are varied but of one mind, they place stock in financing their long-term goals with dedication as the primary ingredient. And they reduce the rank of financing to that of a secondary necessity.

     To date, all gathered data on the 9-11 event; would appear to indicate that the entire cost of the three-year project came to a little over $300,000. Ask yourselves, what would have been the outcome of such a plan by the CIA or any other American intelligence organization? By such I mean an operation employing 19 men over a similar period of time, to achieve the same outcome as the 9-11 terrorists? Would I be far off to suggest that, starting with the same initial budget of $300,000, as did the terrorists, the cost of our plan would have rapidly escalated to a minimum of ten million dollars? That’s ten million dollars, folks, over thirty times what it cost the Arab terrorists.

     Therefore, with great and justified concern, we must ask the following crucial question: If the next daring conspiracy to deliver a telling blow to our country is being planned at this very moment, do we have the minds in place within our government and intelligence community,capable of uncovering it? And what if it’s a plan that can, once again, be executed for some comparatively fledgling amount of financing? Do we have the people in leadership who can think at this level? Or will our security once again be at the mercy of the likes of Condoleezza Rice, our esteemed National Security Advisor to the President on 9-11, who incredulously stated the day after the attack, “Who would have expected someone to use an airliner as a missile and to fly it into a building?

     A possible insight to the American outlook on money, diplomacy and security can be found in a 1959 satirical Cold War novel. The work was by the late Leonard Wibberley, and was later made into a successful film by the same name entitled ”The Mouse That Roared.”

     In the novel, the fictional Duchy of Grand Fenwick, badly in need of financial assistance and possessing only a medieval army, attacks the United States with the intention of losing the war and gaining foreign aid. When due to an improbable set of circumstances they happen to win, they are confronted by a State department official who does offer them the desired foreign aid.

     As comically expressed in the film, however, the problem for the American government is that the Grand Duchy only requires a few hundred thousand dollars. Whereas a beleaguered state department official begs them to take at least a million, preferably five million, because as the official say’s “We have problems dealing with anything under a million dollars.”

     Therein lies the dilemma of the American outlook on dealings with foreign governments, and their ‘sons and daughters of insurrection, outrage and terror.’ If you can’t imagine how a deed can be accomplished for less than ten million dollars, you have absolutely no defense against one that is.

     In order to pacify or defeat such an enemy, we must be able to think and visualize as they do, and, most importantly, do so at their level. This means our leaders have to be capable of understanding how they were able to pull off a well-planned, effective attack, for such a paltry dollar amount.

     The type of dedication and cold determination exhibited by these young Arab terrorists in the achievement of their brazen plan, was the same exact dedication we were able to muster when we put an American on the moon. The financing for the Moon Project was the least important element. Getting men and women with the “Right Stuff” was the important factor in that eventual success. And it would be well for us to remember that dedication, from different cultural viewpoints, can be and often is a double edge sword.

     Finally, it should be understood by American leaders, that leaders of the Arab world have learned, over thousands of years of civilization, to always gain the respect of those in their employ, even though, someday, they might suffer their betrayal. For they know that a betrayal of less than 100 percent does little damage. And they achieve such loyalty by trusting their most sacred plans, only, to those who believe in the same goals and aspirations as they, the leaders, may hold, as equals.

     Think about it. How many Arab terrorists have defected to the west? And of those who have, after we wine and dine them and give them incredible sums of money, how often do we find what they‘ve given us is the most useless of data?

     So the crucial question is, can the western Christian dominated intellect ever, truly, understand and delve the complexities of the Islamic mind? And if, for a moment, we appear to be, once again, on the verge of, national self deceit, I beg we stop and think and ask of ourselves: How many suicide bombers could we rally to our cause?

     Now we Americans are lumbered for a second four-year term with a Right Wing president who, unnecessarily, made a left turn into a war he didn’t have to start. And one we as a nation will be forced to spill a lot of young blood, and still have difficulty finishing.

     Incredible as it may seem, George Walker Bush, his administration and his neo-conservative supporters, still don’t get it. My fellow Americans, we as a people and a nation are in deep, deep trouble.