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That they know how to make strap on bombs is indisputable. That they know how to make strap on bombs that they can smuggle into the cabins of airplanes is not proven. In fact, in order to accomplish their mission, something that looks like a bomb to an intimidated plane crew would work as well as the real thing. There have been other cases of airplanes hijacked by objects that looked like bombs but turned out not to be bombs.

Obviously, it would be easier and more certain for the terrorists plans to bring something onto the plane that looked like a bomb, but was not a bomb, thus would not be detected by screeners.

Or is this over your head?

That they know how to make strap on bombs that they can smuggle into the cabins of airplanes is not proven.

The shoe bomber and an improvised explosive that killed a passenger over the Pacific are proof.

Obviously, it would be easier and more certain for the terrorists plans to bring something onto the plane that looked like a bomb, but was not a bomb, thus would not be detected by screeners.

A real strap-on bomb and a fake strap-on bomb look the same to an airport screener. They were only doing a visual and metal search. Screeners had no way to detect explosives on passengers on 9-11. Therefore it was not any easier or more certain to smuggle a fake bomb as you suggest.

Both real and fake bombs entail the same risk of detection getting onto a plane. One gives you a huge advantage of completing a suicide mission (i.e. at least killing all the passengers and crew) and other does not. So why risk the mission to bring something on a plane that can only be used to scare people?

Since all the terrorist flights were incinerated, there may never be direct evidence of bombs on these flights. We do have these FACTS:

The passengers reported seeing the bomb on a terrorist.

The strap-on bomb is a MO often used by Islamist terrorists.

Significant debris was found miles from the main crash site.

The new information from the FBI. One of the terrorists told another terrorist (in Arabic) to "crash the plane".