“A [new] intelligence structure is urgently needed if we are going to avoid another tragedy like September 11.”

Bill Gertz, author of Breakdown: How America’s Intelligence Failures Led to September 11

On September 11, 2001, American history was forever changed when nineteen Middle Eastern hijackers commandeered four commercial airplanes. Two of the planes were flown directly into New York City’s World Trade Center, causing the Twin Towers to collapse and creating massive casualties; a third plane was flown into the Pentagon, leading to significant structural damage and additional injuries and fatalities; the final jet crashed into a Pennsylvania field following a struggle between the passengers and hijackers. All told, more than three thousand people died in a seemingly unimaginable act of terrorism. The attacks were soon linked to terrorist plotter Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

At first the events of September 11 seemed to...