WWII could have been prevented, coulda woulda shoulda hindsight is 20/20, great info. I think every body knew some thing was going to happen, the enemy was emboldened by the sheer level of political correctness do nothing stupidity of late. It is always too late once the deed is done. Just imagine how different things would be if there were just a couple of armed citizens or marshals on those flights, coulda woulda shoulda.

My question isn't whether or not it could have been prevented, but if it really happened at all. Many survivor's accounts sound as if bombs were detonated. Independent investigators say that the towers never would have collapsed like a "deck of cards" even at the high temperature of jet fuel. Of course we'll never know the truth because most of the evidence is gone, including thousands of people.

Cui bono? ;-) ~ Reichstag fire - 1933

The towers collapsed because of the weight and force of the upper floors collapsing and falling onto the floors below. They were never built to withstand that kind of force. I have heard people say there were bombs in the buildings and I am amazed at how that kind of rubbish ever gets circulated.
Jarasan, I was thinking what you commented. It wasn't too hard to know that something was going to happen, but all the reports only indicated something was being planned, not any specifics of when or where. Plus many of the reports were coming from places and people that didn't have much of a track record in intelligence.
Bottom line....hindsight is ALWAYS 20-20, and all intelligence gathering is going to have gaps and unknown information.

RC this is the fallacy of the belief that government is all knowing and all powerful. They are just as fallible as the rest of us. This is why I am so down on the belief or perception that the govt. is the answer to every facet of our lives. The govt. is incapable of accountability on all issues, that is why it's scope of oversight in our lives should be not so broad. The govts. are managed and directed by people, your neighbors, regular people that have guaranteed pensions and benefits paid by the rest of us. Their performance and results are essentially self determined, therefore we can't ever expect to get our money's worth. It is a self perpetuating ugly mess, out of control bureuacracy that somehow needs to be reigned in. There needs to be a sea change in what the common goals of our country are. The govt. needs to get humble and examine its primary responsibilties again and refocus on the areas which it is most effective. The govt. should be a faciltator of honest discourse amongst its citizens and its dealing with the rest of the world.   We should certainly understand that we all have common goals and those ends are what we are all working for, instead of bickering amongst ourselves.

This timeline of events, exemplifies the failure of our tax dollars doing what we would expect them to do to protect our people and keep us from being intimidated by medival mental midgets.

Most of the world is not like the USA, they aren't nicey nicey and they want to bring us down, we have to show we have resolve, are unified, and love our way of life. Freedom, security, and recourse are unknown to many, we take it for granted. I hope we never allow this to change, for the sake of the planet.

Yes, it could have been prevented if Clinton took Bin Laden when he was handed to him on a silver platter. But he ordered his administration to deal with terrorism as a police matter, not a national security matter, so he timidly said they didn't have the grounds on which to accept him.

Seems like the liberals are pushing things right back to that same mindset (treating terrorism as a police problem), as evidenced by their cheering a terrible Supreme Court decision to allow terrorists habeas corpus. And it's not even been 7 years since the terrorists killed over 3,000 innocent people who were just trying to go to work on a sunny Tuesday morning.

The government is just people, like you and me. They all make good decisions and bad decisions every day, just like you and me. They are not some evil overseer looking to kill people. So many people forget that a very large number of the innocent people killed were in fact government workers. Remember the Pentagon?

Cui bono? ;-) ~ Reichstag fire - 1933

Time*treat - Not sure if you are agreeing or being sarcastic. (a) I don't think I need to elaborate about whom it would benefit & (b) The twin towers weren't even finished until 1969/1970. Can't compare the engineering with a building constructed in the late 19th century.

I also think it's funny that whenever someone brings up a controversial subject that questions the extensive coverups and corruption in our government, he/she is called a Liberal.

rcbbuckeye - Here is just a brief section of a report that appeared in a scientific journal called JOM. It was just a technical analysis and not political. In fact, the engineers wrote that the construction was probably deficient. I keep hearing things like "it was the heat from the jet fuel" and "the weight made the towers collapse" etc. But most engineering journals say this is highly unlikely. The people who make comments like yours usually know little about science & engineering. BTW, most of the reports are over my head technically, so I'm not knocking you, only saying people just repeat what they've heard on TV or from friends. Anyway, here's one statement from this report. Again, this was not in a political journal and did not show any bias whatsoever - no conspiracy theory. It is no different than a group of physicians trying to figure out why a healthy person suddenly dropped dead or spontaneously combusted.   The link is
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0112/Eagar/Eagar-0112.html

" It is known that structural steel begins to soften around 425°C and loses about half of its strength at 650°C.4 This is why steel is stress relieved in this temperature range. But even a 50% loss of strength is still insufficient, by itself, to explain the WTC collapse. It was noted above that the wind load controlled the design allowables. The WTC, on this low-wind day, was likely not stressed more than a third of the design allowable, which is roughly one-fifth of the yield strength of the steel. Even with its strength halved, the steel could still support two to three times the stresses imposed by a 650°C fire. "

It could have been prevented with the passengers that were on the aircraft.
There was onboard resistance from passengers on the flight that crashed in Pa as I understand it.
Why would passengers sit and let the few terrorist have their way?
With all those passengers on each aircraft could have overpowered those few terrorist from the beginning.
Take matters into your own hands when things happen.
If I am going down I am going down fighting. Not wait for a miracle.

True, I am not a scientist or engineer. I vividly remember watching the towers collapse, wondering how it could be. After seeing it a few more times, it was clear to me that the top floors crashed down on the floors below. The cause of the total collapse was from the WEIGHT and the force of the upper floors, as each floor collapsed, it became heavier and continued to provide more force and weight the the next floor below. I don't believe the heat alone was the only factor. However, I will say that I used to work in a shipyard, and in the winter I would heat areas of steel that were to be welded, and a Coast Guard inspector would watch me to make sure that I didn't let the steel get red hot because that would change the tensile strength of the steel or weaken it. So the heat in the towers was a factor, but not the cause in my opinion.
I just think it's funny that there's always conspiracy theorists running wild.
Jarasan, as far as I'm concerned, the smaller the government, the better. I'm tired of my money going to things that I'll never see benefit from because of bloated government programs. If anyone wants "universal health care", good luck, because it will break us all, and health care will be worse than it is now. Sorry.... I'll stop ranting now.LOL.

I'm glad this is Rick's blog, since he lets me rant! :-)    rcb, I never had any "conspiracy theory" whatsoever since just the idea makes me too nauseous. I've just read too many reports and analyses by engineering and demolition experts, plus documents recounting that terrible day. I hope it happened just the way we've been told, but I have very strong doubts. I'd have to truly accept that U.S. Intelligence failed so horribly. I'd have to accept that a few people took flying lessons and were able to precisely navigate jumbo jets. I'd have to accept that 2 planes full of frightened passengers just let it happen. (I'm with JAP on this) I'd have to accept that while in 2001 I had to go outside just to get a signal, calls were made from bathrooms while moving at high speeds. I'd have to shrug it off to gross incompetence and believe that our military allowed a Boeing 757 to crash into the Pentagon where the damage was minimal compared to 2 steel towers that crumbled into dust.   

Just lost my power & DSL. It's been pouring all day. So I'll type until it comes back LOL. Yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah. Where's that little light?

Jxp, everyone lets you rant :-) ... I think the reason conspiracy theories have such credibility is something that jarasan & rcb have touched on. Many people cannot accept that so many things could have *accidently* gone wrong at once. 19 guys got past one of the most sophisticated intel networks on earth? If a couple dozen people can do that, why are we paying these tax rates? No one lost their job for that foul-up. Unsecured doors on the planes (recommended since at least the 70s)? Shoddy construction of major landmarks? I won't even get into the after-events that say "Somebody's been bull$#!TTin' me, and they'll still in office." or who bought how much insurance and when. How long have we been over there? Who told us 'Certainly not six months'?

Sounds like some of us have been doing our research. The phrase "conspiracy theory" is a convenient blanket term used to denigrate a legitimate theory that we don't agree with regardless if we have the facts or not. Usually those that use that word have not done the research on the theory to make an informed judgment on it.

Nancy you can talk all day on my blog...we always like what you have to say.

Bill Clinton tried and came closer than anybody to capture or kill Bin laden

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/24/clinton.binladen/index.html

Yes it could have been prevented, just the same as Pearl Harbor (same intelligence scenerio). Also Vietnam didn't start in the Gulf of Tonkin.

The government has altered a lot of intelligence to fit it's agenda. Just think if someone had enough intestinal fortitude to act responsibly, alot of things could've been prevented. The U.S. government feels as though it's untouchable compared to other nations.

We've stuck our nose where it doesn't belong many times and this is finally catching up to us. We have to clean up our backyard before we even attempt to clean up someone else's, PERIOD...!