Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Essay Example

which the attack was planned and executed in America by the terror group was unfathomable, having in mind that the United states is a world leader in terms of military capability, as well as intelligence services with the Central Intelligence Agency along the leading spy and intelligence agencies in the world with agents and assets almost in every part of the world. In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and other intelligence and security bodies in the American intelligence communities are highly rated and have the necessary resources at their disposal to avert the occurrence of such attacks.

This paper seeks to evaluate the intelligence failure that may have and analytical loopholes that may have made it easy for the Al Qaeda to plan and execute the attack with so much ease on American soil. Early in the morning of the day of the attack, nineteen hijackers to over the control of four commercial planes, which were later used in the attacks by crashing them into buildings. Two of these planes were Boeing 757, whereas the other two airplanes were Boeing 767. Three planes were headed for Los Angeles, with one headed to San Francisco immediately after they took off from Newark, New Jersey, and Boston, Massachusetts. These large planes were selected for hijacking since they were highly fueled as they had long flights.

One was crashed into the northern area of the North Tower at the World Trade Center, with another crashed into the South Tower. Another plane was flown into the Pentagon with the fourth plane crashed at Shanksvile in Pennsylvania after passengers ought the hijackers and it was suspected that it was to

be crashed at either the White House, or the Capito. These attacks saw the economy in areas affected go down, with infrastructure destroyed alongside other properties, lives lost, ad public panic raised. The damage had already been done as much as security and intelligence agencies moved to take actions and fight against the Al Qaeda.

However, cognitive biases, political factors, and other reasons were to be blamed for creating poor analysis on intelligence services, and seeing an easy attack occur on American soil. Cognitive issues were the epitome of analyst failures during the 9/11 attack. Target fixation is a type of cognitive traps that harbored the analysts from preventing the attack. They may have been too fixated on single hypothesis and only looked at evidence that may have been consistent with held preconceptions ignoring other critical views and information. The familiarity with tactics used by terrorists in the homeland and away should have been an indication that America was a target continent and on the verge of a significant attack.

However, looking at 9/11, the attack falls in the norm of the terror acts in areas such as Nairobi- the element of surprise caused by intelligence breakdown! In essence, there was poor information sharing among law enforcement agencies especially in different FBI offices. On a conceptual level, the United States intelligence and law enforcement agencies were aware that Al Qaeda attacks occur in a simultaneous and coordinated manner. However, they did not move to have assimilated information especially on placing training of foreign fight students with odd behavior into the context. On the day the attacks happened, analysts did not associate the hijackings with multiple attacks by

Al Qaeda as a signature for the terrorists.

Irregularities that had been detected by the Air Defense and Aviation oversight bodies were not consolidated and collated with odd behavior from foreign flight trainees and arriving at the possibility that the hijacked airplane were to be used as weapons. Mirror imaging and inappropriate were cognitive traps that led to analyst failures leading to the attack. They all contributed to the failure to integrate information and link the odd behavior by some foreign pilot trainees to the hijacked planes on the day of the attack. They also failed to link the hijacked planes, which carried a lot of fuel, to the possibility that they were being used as weapons in a coordinated attack as seen in previous attacks by the Al Qaeda.

The most important lessons were on information sharing among intelligence and law enforcement agencies, as well as on security in airlines and airports, especially for commercial and cargo airlines. The reactions in the aftermath of the attack included formation of an anti-terrorism body, as well as an information sharing center, whereby law enforcement and intelligence services would share information as well as access necessary information to detect any imminent threats before they can be executed. Scrutiny at airports has also intensified since the hijackers were able to enter the country easily. This move is to prevent weapons and persons of interest from entering America.

These moves have been fruitful as they have seen many terror attacks prevented before they could occur in the United States. Personal issues in and traps cognitive traps in analyzing evidence and information have been minimized by creating an environment where different analysts and

law enforcement as well as intelligence services can offer something and coordinate efforts to fight terror rather than analyze information by themselves and keep it. Collaboration in counter-terrorism has been seen as the most viable tool to employ in the war against terror.