This March 26 Washington Post article by Walter Picus & Dana Milbank includes this very interesting development:

Democratic commission member Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed this week that Rice had asked, in her private meetings with the commission, to revise a statement she made publicly that "I don't think anybody could have predicted that those people could have taken an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center ... that they would try to use an airplane as a missile." Rice told the commission that she had misspoken; the commission has received information that prior to Sept. 11, U.S. intelligence agencies, and Clarke, had talked about terrorists using airplanes as missiles.

Dr. Rice is apparently ready to concede that qualified security experts were well aware of the threat posed by skyjacked jetliners. Her tardy acknowledgement may lead the more inquisitive among us to pose the obvious question:

If the threat was recognized, why weren't we prepared?

S