Originally Posted by Barefootsies

Actually champ, you should bone up on your history.

There was a bunch of warning signs, and reports of the 9-11 attack prior. They, being the higher powers that be, simply never worked up the chain of command through the acronym bureaucracy prior.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/

Just as the embassy knew in this case, the U.S. government knew prior to 9-11 and did nothing. So while you can blame the airlines, the government was tipped off and sat with it's thumb up it's proverbial ass.

So it actually comes down to, "what is it that YOU don't get". Even when the government has advanced warning, they do next to nothing with it because the same bloated bureaucracy still exists that the office of Homeland Security was supposed to correct in the first place and didn't.