“Those making the argument have ignored a key aspect of historical record. U.S. intelligence agencies knew the identity of the hijacker in question, Saudi national Khalid al Mihdhar, long before 9/11 and had the ability find him, but they failed to do so. Mihdhar is at the center of the well-known story of the failure of information sharing between the CIA and FBI and other agencies. Indeed, the Obama administration’s invocation of the Mihdhar case echoes a nearly identical argument made by the Bush administration eight years ago when it defended the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program.”
