There is an interesting story of an inept
attempt to assasinate Nixon. The fact that someone wanted to kill Nixon is
neither
surprising nor important.
What is most interesting is the fact that the means of
destruction
used
on September 11 had been tried before, and every Federal agency
responsible for preventing such acts knew it.
It doesn't matter that the attempt was not publicized at the
time.
Due to poor execution, Nixon was never in danger from that
attack, and
he was already on his way to political self-destruction
anyway.
It was, however, well known to the Secret Service, FBI, FAA and
the
military. It could not take much imagination to know that with
better
skill and planning, someone could use a hijacked plane to destroy
any
structure, and that, if the hijacker were in control of a plane
in the
air, it would take fast military action to prevent it.
The excuse that such a crime would be unthinkable or even
unlikely can
no longer be considered
valid for the poor preparedness and confusion that allowed the
September 11 attacks to succeed.
It was obvious that any airplane, especially a commercial
airliner, is
potentially a deadly weapon. Why, then, was it possible to turn
off
the transponder? Why was radar inadequete to track a large plane
gone
off course? Why did the military not have a plan in place to
counter
just such an attack as had already been attempted? Were they
counting
on every future terrorist to be so stupid as to try to hijack the
plane on the ground and shoot the pilot and co-pilot without
knowing
how to fly a plane?
What has been done to correct the technical
vulnerabilities? Passenger screening is better, but
if
that fails, or a private plane were used, are we prepared to
detect
and prevent another attack?