Those of us alive today will never forget the horror at the twin towers in New York. It was unimaginable attack that destroyed the lives of thousands of people, but I am not telling you anything that you already don't know. Was there any warning that this attack would come? Some people say that it was well know by the intelligence agencies of the world. While I find this hard to believe I would like to run over some of the reasons why they say this.

At the recent 9/11 hearings Mr. Clarke, a former advisor on terrorism to the Bush administration, stated that there were clear cut warnings about a terrorist attack that was coming and that the White House dropped the ball. The question here is are these politically or financially motivated statements? Who knows what the truth is, but it does make one wonder, doesn't it? Clarke didn't say that the administration knew that the twin towers were to be attacked but rather that the signs that some sort of attack was coming were being ignored.

The French daily Le Figaro confirmed that Osama bin Laden had surgery performed in an American Hospital in Dubai while he was on the most wanted list. It further stated that the CIA met with him while he was there. If this is true it doesn't say much for the so calked US efforts to track him down. This event is stated as happening in July 2001 a couple of months before the 9/11 disaster.

If one goes to http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j053102.html you will see several articles indicating one that states that the Israeli government knew of the impending disaster. The author contends that if the Israelis knew then many other governments knew. I find this a hard nut to crack. The problem I see is that if I buy this than I must also believe that the chances were we knew of the impending attack and just let it happen. If all these other governments knew of this attack and we didn't than we would have been so incompetent as to strain the imagination.

People are asking questions about 9/11. The informed people want to know how a nation that monitors communications world wide could not have known about 9/11 in advance. This is a very good question. The US employs ECHELON, this is the most powerful intelligence gathering system in the world. It is so powerful that it might infringe of the freedom of peoples around the world. The way it seems to work is by capturing volumes of satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic traffic, including communications to and from North America. It is said that it is almost impossible to use any type of electronic communication anywhere in the world without it being captured by Echelon. Project Echelon started shortly after the conclusion of World War II. It consisted of a secret pact between the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and was designed for the sharing of information between these countries. Makes you wonder how we didn't know of this attack or the previous attempts to bomb the World Trade Center.

There are claims that a man, Atif Ahmed, was arrested by Scotland Yard. It is said that he had links to Al Qaeda and was part of the 9/11 conspiracy. This man is nowhere to be found today. Supposedly he was linked to Moussaoui by the New York City Police and FBI. Now here is the scary part, it is also said he was a double agent and working for the British. Phone records were said to have been found linking him to the terrorists. If this man was a double agent did Britain know of a scheduled attack or were they fooled by this terrorist?

Another story circulating on the internet states that several weeks before the attack on the World Trade Center a Taliban emissary came to the US with the news that Osama bin Laden was planning a huge attack on this country. The story goes on to say that the emissary was from the Taliban Foreign Minister who was unhappy with the foreign militants in Afghanistan. It is said that when he referred to Osma bin Laden he stated that "the guests are going to destroy the guest house", meaning that bin Laden was going to be responsible for an American invasion of Afghanistan.

CNN stated that President Bush had been briefed on the fact that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network might try and hijacks a domestic airliner. The report never stated that planes were to be used as weapons.

Osama bin Laden released a tape, which was shown in December 2001 by the Defense Department, which stated that even the people who hijacked the planes didn't know the details of their mission until just before they boarded the planes and Osama only knew the exact timing a few days before. If one believes bin Laden then secrecy was so paramount that no one else outside of a select few would have known about the terrorist act before it happened.

What ever was known or unknown will never be known by us. This will become one of the greatest mysteries of our time. Maybe sometime in the future a history type channel will broadcast the mysteries of 9/11 and speculate on this point, but until then we will wrestle with all the facts, rumors and innuendo.