190. 9/11: Could the Attacks Have Been Prevented? (Ep 4)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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How did the 9/11 plot reach the final planning stage by July 2001?
By July 2001, the plan for 9-11 was nearly complete. All that was missing was a day. How do you set the date for the day the world changes? Well, welcome to the Rest is Classified. I'm Gordon Carrera. And I'm David McClarsky. And David, this is the fourth of our series on 9-11, and we got to the summer of 2001. The pilots have learnt how to fly the muscle. The menu are going to Help take over the aircraft had arrived in the United States. The money, not that much of it, was banked, and these 19 hijackers are effectively hiding in plain sight across America. What remained was to turn all of that into an operation with specific planes, specific weapons, and a specific day. This is the episode where the plot becomes a countdown.
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So David, last time we looked in detail really at the the Saudi muscle. This time should we go back to the the planning of it, and particularly Mohammed Atta, who's the the operational chief for nine eleven on the ground in the United States?
Well We talked about the muscle last time. The muscle can only storm the cockpit or take over the plane. You you need the pilots. And remember that we have four pilots in the US at this point in time. Mohammed Atta, the really the the mastermind, the operational planner inside the US. Shehi, Jara, and Hani Hanjur. They're really the most valuable piece of this plot as seen. From KSM's vantage point. The muscle, as we talked about, are mostly lying low. They're opening bank accounts, they're hanging out at the gym, and they're just trying to kind of stay off the radar. That is in contrast to the pilots who are moving and training in particular at a at a very frenzied pace. And in particular Atta, who is the leader, he has a long checklist of stuff that he needs to tick off.
He needs to log enough simulators Time to feel confident actually flying the plane. However, briefly he's going to pilot it.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–0:25
2
How did the 9/11 plot reach the final planning stage by July 2001?
0:25–5:24
3
What role did the pilots’ training and FAA licensing play in the operation?
5:24–22:34
4
How was the exact attack date communicated and coded among the planners?
22:34–40:35
5
What intelligence warnings existed in 2001 and how did the U.S. government respond?
40:35–53:07