The Path to 9/11 | Vanity Fair
The Path to 9/11 | Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/11/path-to-9-11-200411 Sign In Subscribe The Price of Failure THE PATH TO 9/11: LOST WARNINGS AND FATAL ERRORS By the time the hijackers made their way into the U.S., memos, photographs, and intercepts had sounded alarms inside the C.I.A., White House, F.B.I., and European intelligence services. Could better cooperation have stopped the attacks? Ned Zeman, David Wise, David Rose, and Bryan Burrough show how the hideous “Planes Operation” took shape as the C.I.A.’s bin Laden point man, Mike Scheuer, counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, the F.B.I.’s John MacGaffin, and others fought—yet couldn’t work together—to prevent it. BY NED ZEMAN, DAVID WISE, DAVID ROSE, AND BRYAN BURROUGH ! " # DECEMBER 19, 2008 12:00 AM ith his salt-and-pepper hair, white shirt, and sensible shoes, Mike Scheuer, 44, looked like a rumpled academician, or maybe a consultant for one of the many defense contractors [#image: /photos/54cbf62044a199085e88c698]sprinkled around the W Washington Beltway. In reality, his job was considerably more interesting. Starting in 1996, he was the man the C.I.A. had assigned to hunt down, capture, or kill Osama bin Laden. Of all the agency’s far-flung stations—from Moscow to Prague to Beijing—Scheuer’s was unique. Known among the spooks as a “virtual station,” it was not overseas but near the C.I.A. headquarters, in Langley, Virginia, eight miles west of Washington. 3 ARTICLES LEFT Subscribe Sign In 1 of 53 11/11/18, 17:18 The Path to 9/11 | Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/11/path-to-9-11-200411 The station was the first to target an individual rather than a country.
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