IMAGINE: Reader Harry Helms has this useful observation:

Of course the events of 9/11 were beyond the imagination of anyone in the FBI. Why is this so difficult for you to grasp?

Government jobs—and, in particular, government law enforcement jobs—attract people who DON’T want to think creatively or “out of the box.” Instead, they want to think INSIDE the box. They don’t want to use their imagination; they want a detailed set of procedures and rules to follow. If they haven’t seen it before, they can’t conceive of it. Asking the FBI to “think creatively” about possible terrorist incidents is—pardon my non-PC analogy—-like asking the blind to be architects. They simply lack essential characteristics necessary to adequately perform the task.

It’s interesting to note that other posters have cited examples from television (“The Lone Gunmen”) and fiction (Tom Clancy) of hijacked airliners used as weapons. And that’s why, in all seriousness, the government should be asking creative people to visualize new terrorist scenarios and plots. Screenwriters, novelists, and—yes—terrorists are all imaginative, while the FBI and other government drones aren’t. Creativity is just as big a weapon in this new war as missiles and guns—maybe even more so.

I think this is exactly right. To their credit, I think they’ve done some of this since 9/11.