Not long after the attacks on the U.S., Condoleeza Rice testified before Congress, saying that she did not know the “time and place” of the pending attacks by Al-Qaeda / Taliban upon the United States (terra firma).
Report of the Joint [Congressional] Inquiry into the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001:
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CRPT-107srpt351-5.pdf
Pg. 118 of the report, aka pg. 150 of that PDF file:
17. Finding: Despite intelligence reporting from 1998 through the summer of 2001 indicating that Usama Bin Ladin’s terrorist network intended to strike inside the United States, the United States Government did not undertake a comprehensive effort to implement defensive measures in the United States.
[Further down that page:]
“The intelligence that was acquired and shared by the Intelligence Community was not specific as to time and place, but should have been sufficient to prompt action to insure a heightened sense of alert and implementation of additional defensive measures.”
February 6, 2023
Washington Times article by Mike Glenn
U.S. tracked Chinese spy balloon from the start but held off on attack, NORAD commander says
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4129102/posts
EXCERPT:
NORAD, the Pentagon‘s command defending North America, was tracking the Chinese surveillance balloon well before it entered U.S. or Canadian airspace, its commander said Monday, noting that at about 200 feet tall and carrying a payload the size of a jet airliner, it would have been hard for trackers to miss.
But Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD, said that as the suspected spy surveillance craft made its way across Alaska and Canada before crossing back into U.S. territory last week, there wasn’t much the military could do without a presidential order to act, given there was no imminent threat seen to the homeland.
“The domain awareness was there as it approached Alaska. It was my assessment that this balloon did not present a physical or military threat to North America,” Gen. VanHerck told Pentagon reporters on Monday. “I could not take immediate action because it was not demonstrating a hostile act or hostile intent.”