I recently read this essay on the failure of US counterintelligence to uncover and thwart known members of al-Qaeda in their preparations for 9/11. From what I got, the CIA just wasn't interested in al-Qaeda's plans, not suspecting they were planning attacks against America. Malaysian security forces surveilled an al-Qaeda gathering in Kuala Lumpur on behalf of the CIA in Jan. 2000 where plotters discussed what would become the USS Cole bombing and September 11th attacks. Yet the CIA requested no info on the content of the meeting itself and got only photographs of certain attendees. One of them was hijacker-in-training Khalid al-Mihdhar, whom the CIA knew to have a US visa. They did not convey this to the FBI and thus, once he entered America a week later with another hijacker, Mindhar went uninvestigated. Being in contact with others in the 9/11 cell, his exposure could have foiled the entire plot.
So, had the CIA been alerted somehow to the danger al-Qaeda posed at home, would the plot have been uncovered early?
So, had the CIA been alerted somehow to the danger al-Qaeda posed at home, would the plot have been uncovered early?