DCI Tenet’s February 2004 worldwide threat assessment to congress pointed out that Bin Laden considered acquiring WMD a “religious obligation.” Tenet warned that Al Qaeda, continues to pursue its strategic goal of obtaining a nuclear capability. (Jacobson Colon 120)
The disbelief that the United States could ever be attacked by terrorist, caused the idea of being a strong and invincible country. So when the tragedy of 9/11 occurred, they were astonished that someone would dare threaten them. By having such a high ego and thinking they were invincible, what the United States caused was to have a limited imagination. If we would have considered the bombing in 1993 as a threat and responded with the correct measures, we could have stopped Al Qaeda by capturing their leader Osama Bin Laden sooner. In addition, Richard Clarke, leader of the U.S. Counter-terrorism effort, believed we should have made terrorism one of our priorities rather than regular crimes. “Despite the World Trade Center bombing in 1996, not very much was added to our counter-terrorism defenses. Agents continued to work on traditional crimes” (Jacobson Colon