Was there insider knowledge of 9/11 before the fact?

[Dr. MB]

Do you think certain people either 1) knew that Al-Qaeda was planning to knock down the Twin Towers around the time of 9/11, or 2) Al-Qaeda was just a scapegoat and Bush (or some other secret power) did it. Or is this just a lie and baseless conspiracy theory?

[Benjamin Frank]

Do you think certain people either 1) knew that Al-Qaeda was planning to knock down the Twin Towers around the time of 9/11, or 2) Al-Qaeda was just a scapegoat and Bush did it. Or is this just a lie and baseless conspiracy theory?

Yes, the plane hijackers knew all about it. (Sane)

[Alcibiades]

The Saudis may have, but the US definitely did not.

[dead0man]

no

I'm not going to say anyone who believes that is "evil", but if you believe it's true just because you don't like Bush or America, you're certainly a horrible human being.  I'd like to know who you are so I can know who not take seriously.

[Sir Mohamed]

Nah.

That said, Intel services didn't performs as well as they should both in terms of gathering information and with internal communication / communication between agencies (FBI and CIA in particular). Whether that would have prevented 9/11 from happening is next to impossible to answer.

[They not like us]

I don't know if there was specific intel about a specific attack at a specific time. I wouldn't be surprised if there was generalized intel about there being a plan to target a major American city with an attack that maybe wasn't treated seriously enough, but it is unlikely that it was "allowed" to happen.

[Ferguson97]

No (sane)

[beesley]

There may have been knowledge about things brewing but there was no knowledge about 9/11 and nothing that meant that they simply allowed it to happen.

[GeneralMacArthur]

For some reason this is a really widespread belief.  My girlfriend listens to this show called Last Podcast on the Left that's usually about serial killers and aliens and stuff, but sometimes they do deep dives on historical events, I listened to the one on the Oklahoma City bombing and it was actually really good.  So I decided to give the 9/11 a try and boy was I disappointed.  They just spent the entire episode talking about how evil mastermind Dick Cheney knew 9/11 was going to happen, but let it happen so he could use it as an excuse to go to war and make big moolah for his buddies in the oil industry and military-industrial complex.

There were definitely tips floating around that al-Qaeda was planning to hijack planes and crash them into buildings.  I don't think anyone knew when this was going to happen.  I don't think anyone knew which individuals were going to do the crashing.  Certainly nobody knew that 9/11 was going to happen and "let it happen."  There were millions of clues for 9/11 as well as hundreds of other potential terrorist attacks.  If you put them all together, maybe you could have figured out enough to prevent 9/11.  But nobody was able to, for reasons that have been thoroughly studied.

As for Saudi Arabia, there were a few individuals who knew it was going to happen, but probably nobody higher than the Saudi equivalent of Dana Rohrabacher.  This wasn't an operation secretly financed and planned by "the Saudi government" and we're not pretending to be allies with the people who did 9/11.

[wimp]

Why would thinking so be evil? Because it would mean we spent the last 20 years murdering and bombing the wrong people?

[courts]

The Saudis may have, but the US definitely did not.

yeah i could see that

[They not like us]

Why would thinking so be evil? Because it would mean we spent the last 20 years murdering and bombing the wrong people?

It presupposes a pretty bonkers conspiracy to get to that conclusion. Like yeah, theoretically if the moon landing were faked and the American government lied about it to assert dominance over the Russians or whatever, that would be wrong, but the starting premise is just bizarre and illogical. Same thing with saying that the American government had advanced knowledge that 9/11 would happen and did nothing to stop it just so they could start a war.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Why would thinking so be evil? Because it would mean we spent the last 20 years murdering and bombing the wrong people?

It's not so much evil as it's really really dumb. The "controlled demolition of the Twin Towers/remote controlled planes crap" really falls apart under scrutiny and is about as feasible as QAnon once you look at all the facts.

Plus such a conspiracy would've required hundreds of collaborators and it's been almost 20 years since then...don't you think at least one would've made a guilty conscience-stricken confession, even if its because they were dying on their deathbed or whatever?

[President Johnson]

Not within US authorities, although they made severe errors. Somewhere I read that delayed transition after the contested 2000 election may have played a role here as well. The Bush Administration also went too lax on Bin Laden after coming in, while Clinton's government more aggressively hunted him.

The notion that 9/11 was an inside job was always bogus and without merit. To plot and execute such an operation would have taken years for preparation and would have involved so many players that keeping it secret would have been impossible. Dubya and his team of course used the attack as an execuse to go to war with Iraq based on lies and had no idea what would happen after taking Saddam down. However, if the only objective of an "inside job 9/11" was to justify the war, other "justifications" would have been easier and less costly to fabricate.

[TDAS04]

Not American.  Something like Saudi or Pakistani?  Maybe.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

I don't know if there was specific intel about a specific attack at a specific time. I wouldn't be surprised if there was generalized intel about there being a plan to target a major American city with an attack that maybe wasn't treated seriously enough, but it is unlikely that it was "allowed" to happen.

On August 6, 2001 - a month before 9/11 - Bush received a PDB (President's Daily Brief) memo that was titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US".


The memo said that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda was planning a terrorist attack on the US. Excerpt:

"We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ---- service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings..."

SOURCE: https://fas.org/irp/cia/product/pdb080601.pdf




Obviously, they didn't know when exactly the attack was going to happen and they didn't "allow" it to happen. But Bush 43 and his administration definitely didn't take the threat seriously enough.

[Donerail]

Atlas poster BushOklahoma knocked down the towers

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Yes, Yes, Yes, Russia and Prez Musharraf were working hand and hand in tracking Bin Laden they both assisted us in capturing and Killing Bin Laden, even though they are our Right Militia Group adversaries in the KGB and Taliban. Bin Laden we don't know when he was killed he could of been killed before the Pakistan event

Any rate Russia had a war with Afghanistan and was tracking Bin Laden and Putin warned Bush W not to go on vacation before 9/11 and he doesn't d anyways

Just, like we warned Putin of cyber attacks

Russia)Bin Laden Terroritorists war in Rambo 1980s

Since Saddam and Bin Laden are no longer a threat Russia ally Iran controls the region

[GeneralMacArthur]

Obviously, they didn't know when exactly the attack was going to happen and they didn't "allow" it to happen. But Bush 43 and his administration definitely didn't take the threat seriously enough.

Not sure what you wanted W to do with that memo though?  The FBI and CIA were supposed to be handling it.

If there was an opportunity to get UBL, it would have been brought to W's attention and he would have had to decide whether to take action, as Clinton did with Operation Infinite Reach.  The point of the memo is to provide Bush with context in the event of such an occurrence.

Otherwise, what, put more resources behind the effort to capture and kill UBL?  That's below W's pay grade.

The memo doesn't say "UBL is right here and you can get him if you want", and Bush didn't read it and go "lol it's no big deal just let him go."  They'd already been trying to kill UBL for years.  Clinton ordered the controversial airstrikes 3 years before 9/11.

[Continential]

Atlas poster BushOklahoma knocked down the towers