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Posted on 10/11/2001 7:08:20 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen

Based on a mass of evidence now uncovered there seems to be little doubt, at least in the world of rational people, that Osama Bin Laden was the mastermind behind the September 11th attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. It may be more difficult for this rational world to see that, in strategic and tactical terms, the operation was a failure.

It is true that the events of that day were tragic and catastrophic. Two landmark structures in New York City destroyed, another in Washington, D.C. severely damaged, thousands of lives destroyed, widows and orphans made in a single moment, yet the planners and directors of this atrocity must have known almost immediately that their great plan had failed.

A thoughtful observer of the events of that day, and a careful reader of the information in even the public press, must conclude that the framers of this plan are bound to be unhappy with the result of their effort. They must also now know that they are highly vulnerable because of the blunders of their operatives.

The greatest blunder was made at the highest level. The planners based their plans and actions on hatred and arrogance, and these emotions are the most destructive of any effort. This is not the view of a moralist; this is a fact of life. Nothing clouds judgement like hatred and nothing breeds a feeling of invincibility like arrogance. Clear judgement and awareness of the things that can go wrong are essential to any mission planning. Acting in hate clouds judgement while believing in invincibility leads to grave errors in execution.

Hatred breeds angry rhetoric and this rhetoric feeds the hatred. No doubt, Bin Laden and his lieutenants ardently believed their own speeches. They believed that selfish, uncaring people populate America, and that it is a country led by incompetent and corrupt politicians. They were certain that the enormity of the attacks would make the public clamor for peace at any cost while their leaders launched broadsides of blind revenge missions, in the process, killing innocents while doing little, if anything, to stop their terrorism. They knew that such massacres would strengthen their position and bring in new recruits. Their discomfort must have been great when the American people rallied around each other and around their leadership. The discomfort must have grown still further when they realized that the American leadership would not follow them into the sewers by launching senseless revenge attacks.

At first, Bin Laden might have seen the loss of the fourth plane in Pennsylvania as bad luck, a mere glitch in an otherwise perfect plan. But it was not long before the revelation came that the plane was brought down by the courageous actions of three of these "selfish, uncaring" American men, no doubt aided by the consent and encouragement of the other passengers. So much for his vision of the American spirit. Even more damaging, was the fact that this brave action provided the first of what are now many valuable pieces of evidence against him and against his organization.

Bin Laden and his minions misjudged their strategic target, America and its people, but it is also clear that they did not even study their tactical targets very well, nor did they learn anything from their earlier failure in attacking the Twin Towers.

Looking at the sketches of the flight paths of the two planes that were flown into the World Trade Center towers reveals an interesting pattern. The first strike was from the North, into the North tower at about four fifths of the way up on the building. The second strike, about 21 minutes later, is from the South, into the South tower at about the three quarter level up from the ground. Based on this pattern of action, it is reasonable to deduce that the planners of the attack intended that the first plane would slice off the top section of the North tower and then would continue on through this tower and crash into the top of the South tower, perhaps slicing off this top as well, but at least severely weakening it. Minutes later, the process was to be repeated at a somewhat lower level, slicing off more of the South tower, then proceeding on to slice off more of the North tower. Thus debris would rain down on the plaza and the streets below almost continuously starting at the instant of the first attack and continuing after the second attack. Under these conditions, there would be no possibility of evacuating anyone from the surrounding area and the casualties would have been enormous, perhaps as high as 100,000 souls. Further, two obscene stumps of the Twin Towers would remain on the New York skyline as monuments to the terrorists.

After his conviction for the first attack on the Twin Towers, one of the terrorists was flown by helicopter to his imprisonment. As the helicopter passed by the Twin Towers, one of the guards chided the terrorist by noting that the towers were still there. The terrorist replied that they would not be if he "had more explosives."

It was not for want of explosives that the Twin Towers survived the first attack and survived for so long in the final one.

Like all skyscrapers, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were built around a central core of steel beams, extending from the sub-sub basements to the roof of the structure. Most skyscrapers then have the outer walls, containing the windows, ornamentations, etc. merely hung on the structure like curtains. In fact, there are called "curtain walls" in the trade.

The Twin Towers were of different construction when it came to these curtain walls. The outer "skin" of the building was considered a curtain wall but this outer wall was made up of 18 inch dimension steel tubes, spaced 39 inches (1 Meter) on centers. Like the central core these tubes extended from bedrock to the roof. Windows and the like were hung between these tubes. Thus the towers had all the light and beauty of a modern skyscraper, but the use of these tubes added flexibility and enormous strength to the structures. This was the undoing of the terrorist plan.

Anything striking these outer walls would be shredded into one meter pieces or less. This was a mercy to the unfortunate passengers who would have died instantly. The shredding of the incoming planes also greatly reduced the velocity of the pieces of the planes thus reducing the power of the shrapnel to do damage to the adjacent building. Some of the steel tubes on the outside walls of the building on the side taking the impact would have been cut as well as the central core but the uncut tubes and the tubes on the other sides of the building retained enough strength to keep the buildings standing for over an hour. This was enough time to effect a substantial evacuation of the damaged buildings and the surrounding buildings. It was only after the fires, fed by the jet fuel from the planes, heated the steel enough to soften it that the buildings came down. When the collapse did occur, it was complete. The Twin Towers disappeared entirely from the New York skyline and the terrorists were even deprived of their grotesque memorial.

In their arrogance, the planners of these evil deeds could not imagine that the American authorities would react so swiftly and decisively in their damage control. They obviously chose the wrong leaders and authorities as their models of American action in a crisis. Is it possible that the terrorist planners never considered that the first and most logical move in this crisis would be to order immediate and total grounding of all aircraft? Had they considered it, they would never have permitted more operatives to be in the air en route to America at the same time as the attacks were underway. And, even if there were some operational need for such a risky action, why would they entrust it to a band of nitwits who would break out a bottle of wine, to celebrate on a grounded jet in Canada, when they heard of the attacks in New York and Washington?

There are other examples to demonstrate the ineptness of the planners of the September 11th tragedy but those above are sufficient to make the case for now. This ineptness will lead to the undoing of Bin Laden and all his henchmen, his supporters and even his admirers.

America took its time, collected intelligence, collated the data, considered the options, put all of the pieces carefully in place, and then struck with surgical precision.

All over the terrorist world, there were people going out of their minds waiting for the first shoe to drop. We dropped it on Sunday. But they should realize that we have only started to kick back.

John G. Gallagher worked in intelligence for 34 years.
Free Congress Foundation

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