Hopsicker has done an excellent job pointing out the obvious contradictions between the FBI's account of Atta's activities and whereabouts in its testimony before the 911 Commission, and those apparently reliable accounts which have appeared in the public record.

The answer that seems right to us—at least at this time—is there’s something’s very deliberately being concealed from the American people about the hijackers final days. So...the really big question about Mohamed Atta's final days isn’t what was he doing…

Its why are they lying to us about it?

And that's far from the end of it.

We already know, for example, that in 2001, FBI agents in Phoenix and Minneapolis were rebuffed in their efforts to raise the alarm at HQ about the suspicious numbers and activities of Middle Eastern men taking flying lessons.

More recently, we have learned thatAttorney General Ashcroft brushed-off warnings about possible impending Al Qaeda terrorist attacks within the United States. During this same time frame, Mr. Ashcroft had quit flying commercial aircraft because of security concerns.

Even more damming to official claims that the terrorist attacks came as a complete surprise, FBI translators have briefed 911 Commissioners that they saw FBI documents describing "...an al-Qaida plot to attack America in a suicide mission involving planes."

White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has maintained the administration could not have predicted al-Qaida terrorists "would try to use an airplane as a missile." She is said to have recently revised her statement in private talks with the 9-11 Commission, however. She testifies publicly Thursday.

Watson, for his part, has argued that the FBI has been unfairly blamed for dropping the ball on 9-11. He compared the bureau to a soccer goalie who blocks 99 shots out of a 100 and only gets credit for the miss.

Such explanations don't satisfy families of 9-11 victims -- and they shouldn't, says FBI counterintelligence veteran I.C. Smith, who left the bureau in 1998. He thinks 9-11 could have been stopped.

"They've all said there's nothing we could have done anyway," he said. "Well, that is wrong, wrong, wrong."

Day of Infamy 2001

It seems that the FBI leadership was trying its hardest to ignore, avoid, dismiss or bury warnings - some of them quite specific - about impending terrorist attacks upon the United States of America.

Why?
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