Can Atlas prevent 9/11?

[Ferguson97]

All of the Atlas regulars are sent back in time to September 11, 1996 - exactly 5 years before the attacks.

We have all of our current knowledge (so no googling flight times right before we are sent back), and are the ages we are now (so we aren't a bunch of infants and embryos).

Our resources are $20,000 each and a rent-controlled apartment in NYC (we're all in the same building) and authentic identities, including social security cards and licenses.

Can Atlas prevent the 9/11 terrorist attacks?

[Dr. MB]

If we all moved to Florida and voted for Gore then yeah probably

[Hammy]

Before knowing time travel or a reset was involved I was going to say just hurl the earth into the sun before September 10.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

If we all moved to Florida and voted for Gore then yeah probably

Voting is not enough. Gore won FL and they still stole it.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Yes, I'm sure the FAA will take advice from "time travellers" about how planes will crash into these towers at such and such a date and time. They will treat us as calm, civilized people, not as crackpots who got visions.

[VBM]

No, but we can use our knowledge to form cults by using our extremely accurate prediction of 9/11 5 years in advance as proof of our psychic abilities

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Not the same thing but I recently was thinking about how if I was sent back in time to that date what could I do to prevent the death of George Floyd.

I decided the best option would be to go to Cup Foods and offer to pay for his cigarettes myself this eliminating the issue of the counterfeit bill and the police being called.

[All Along The Watchtower]

If we go back and conduct Extreme Vetting at the US consulates and embassy in Saudi Arabia c. 2000-2001, then perhaps.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Has all of science fiction taught you people nothing? Changing the past always has unintended consequences and the butterfly effect is best to be avoided!

[Mr. Morden]

Sure, no problem:

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Yes, I'm sure the FAA will take advice from "time travellers" about how planes will crash into these towers at such and such a date and time. They will treat us as calm, civilized people, not as crackpots who got visions.

Ignoring the butterfly effect which would obviously cause history to completely change, we might impress some people by saying that Bush wins the disputed critical state of Florida by 537 votes.

[Crumpets]

I say yes. If all warnings and tips fail, all we'd have to do is have a bunch of people hijack planes with box cutters and storm cockpits (keeping casualties to a minimum of course) until the FAA takes notice that maybe they have to tighten up security a bit. Al-Qaeda might still be able to pull something off, but it would have to be something pretty different from 9/11.

[VBM]

I say yes. If all warnings and tips fail, all we'd have to do is have a bunch of people hijack planes with box cutters and storm cockpits (keeping casualties to a minimum of course) until the FAA takes notice that maybe they have to tighten up security a bit. Al-Qaeda might still be able to pull something off, but it would have to be something pretty different from 9/11.

I think the most likely way to stop 9/11 from happening, and from stopping Al-awards from pulling off a similarly disastrous event, would be to make many extremely accurate predictions of events between 1996 and 2001 that someone normally wouldn’t be able to predict so accurately, so that way the government and enough of the public may take our predictions of 9/11 seriously

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Googling flight times might not be necessary because one of the flight numbers (United 93) is very famous and I'm pretty confident we have at least a few posters who know each of the others. I think we should be able to work from that well enough to pull it off with, as they used to say about Batman, enough prep time. And five years is more than enough prep time.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Googling flight times might not be necessary because one of the flight numbers (United 93) is very famous and I'm pretty confident we have at least a few posters who know each of the others. I think we should be able to work from that well enough to pull it off with, as they used to say about Batman, enough prep time. And five years is more than enough prep time.

Really? The airline number I remember best is American 11, so that's at least two flights we could stop.

[7,052,770]

You could probably just call in a bomb threat to the airports that morning and get extra security attention and delays.

[Sestak]

Googling flight times might not be necessary because one of the flight numbers (United 93) is very famous and I'm pretty confident we have at least a few posters who know each of the others. I think we should be able to work from that well enough to pull it off with, as they used to say about Batman, enough prep time. And five years is more than enough prep time.

I would certainly hope some people remember the others; not exactly useful if the only one we know is the one that was already successfully stopped!

[Pink Panther]

Although sending us losers to the past would screw up everything, I would buy Amazon and Time Warner pre-merger(and sell them immediately the merger is announced) stocks. But Gore, although was more weary of Al-Queda than Bush, the attacks probably still happen. And Atlas wouldn't know how to stop the attacks by ourselves.

[Middle-aged Europe]

5 years are probably enough to track down one Mohamed Atta, although we would perhaps need to go to Hamburg for that. Us going all Jack Bauer on him and torturing him for the whereabouts of his 19 co-conspirators is probably what will then cause him to become full al-Qaeda therefore creating a stable time loop in which we are personally responsible for the 9/11 attacks in the first place.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I say yes. If all warnings and tips fail, all we'd have to do is have a bunch of people hijack planes with box cutters and storm cockpits (keeping casualties to a minimum of course) until the FAA takes notice that maybe they have to tighten up security a bit. Al-Qaeda might still be able to pull something off, but it would have to be something pretty different from 9/11.

I think the most likely way to stop 9/11 from happening, and from stopping Al-awards from pulling off a similarly disastrous event, would be to make many extremely accurate predictions of events between 1996 and 2001 that someone normally wouldn’t be able to predict so accurately, so that way the government and enough of the public may take our predictions of 9/11 seriously

Read the (excellent) book Replay by Ken Grimwood for a look at what kind of unintended consequences that could bring about. 

[GeorgiaModerate]

You could probably just call in a bomb threat to the airports that morning and get extra security attention and delays.

This is good.  Also a few anonymous letters to the FBI and FAA ahead of time, being as specific and detailed as possible with what you can remember, including advising them to check out Middle Eastern nationals who have been seeking 747 simulator training at aero schools like Embry-Riddle. 

[certified hummus supporter 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

I don't know if Atlas would be willing to go back to 18th century Najd to prevent Abdul Wahhab's parents from meeting each other

[Torie]

I don't really get the question. Presumably one would try to persuade the authorities to secure the cockpits better. The hijackers didn't have actual weapons, so if the cockpits were secured, the attacks would have been foiled. There would not have been the need for scanners and the like. Am I missing something?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

In hindsight it's kind of incredible the obvious solution of reinforcing the cockpit doors wasn't already in place on 9/11. It's not like 9/11 was the first case of aircraft hijacking in the US or that there weren't plenty of security concerns and procedures prior to that.

Even more strange when you consider the US has an entire federal agency, the Federal Air Marshal Service, dedicated to stopping aircraft hijacking even though that agency has never once stopped a single hijacking in its entire existence. And it existed for 40 years before 9/11 as well.

[afleitch]

I think calling in airport bomb threats that morning, presuming that time hadn't been altered before then, makes the most sense. It would tie in with the existing intel about imminent attacks.

If I had to play the long game, what I would do is start correspondence with a journalist. Make it clear I know about the future and make some very basic predictions about events in late 1996 into 1997 that evidently come true. Keep doing that for years if need be. Whatever authority cares will find me.