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We are just supposed to accept the deaths of 5000 citizens at the hands of foreigners who hid among us?

The hard truth is -- our government HAS NO CLUE WHO DID THIS. It might be Dr No of Kaos in an oceanic volcano for all they know.

For one, bin Laden has almost come out and claim he is behind it. And this actually wasn't such a big surprise, the WTC had already been hit once, the 19 Marines were killed, the US embassy in Africa as bombed. It's not like everything's been just fine and we had no idea there were Muslim terrorists until Sept 11.

Since you seem kind of naive, this was written by Cal Thomas in Aug 1998, it's quite clear our government had every reason to be aware of certain groups:

Third, the United States should do something about the terrorists among us. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said recently on "Meet the Press'' there are an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 "known terrorists'' in the United States. According to the Spring 1998 issue of the Journal of Counterterrorism and Security International, these groups are headquartered in major cities, including Boston, New York, Washington, Houston, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Raleigh, N.C.

The magazine says the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), with offices in Richardson, Texas, and Chicago, is the principal American front for Hamas, which has as its primary goal the destruction of Israel and the creation in its place of an Islamic Palestinian state. Its annual conferences have been used as vehicles to bring leading Islamic militants into the United States. At one conference in Kansas City, reports the Journal, a featured speaker was the head of the military wing of Hamas. At another conference, young terrorists were taught how to make bombs. Records from the World Trade Center bombing trials show calls made to the IAP by conspirators who were later convicted.

The United Association for Studies and Research (UASR) has offices in Springfield, Va., and Chicago. It is the strategic arm of Hamas in the United States. The founding president of UASR's board was Musa Abu Marzook, the chief of Hamas' political affairs bureau who was arrested in the United States in 1995 and deported to Jordan in 1997. FBI Director Louis Freeh testified before Congress that the Marzook case demonstrated that Hamas recruited members and raised funds in the United States. The current head of UASR, Ahmed bin Yousef, is a leading Hamas ideologue who has called for the annihilation of Israel.

There are similar stories coming from other cities where Hamas and related radical organizations maintain offices. Question: Shouldn't we be deporting such people, or not letting them into the country in the first place? We do great injury to our precious civil liberties when we admit and tolerate dangerous fanatics who would undermine them, not by free speech but by force. That is sedition. A real war against terrorism needs to start on the home front.