Well before National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice and President Bush went on record to say (in effect) that no one could have imagined or predicted that terrorists would hijack planes and crash them into buildings; and long before war games planned at the highest levels of our national security and defense apparatus for the day of 9/11/01 involving simulated hijacking of planes (e.g., Vigilant Guardian, Amalgam Virgo) and the simulation of a plane crashing into a building (e.g., the 9/11/01 drill at the National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Virginia); and well before a photo-realistic graphic image of the burning WTC towers would appear on a rap music CD cover; and even before former Director of Central Intelligence, John Deutch, along with former National Security Council member, Philip Zelikow, speculated in the CFR journal, [Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 1998], about the consequences of an amplified version of the 1993 WTC tower bombing that "Like Pearl Harbor" would be an event that would "divide our past and our future into a before and after" --- yes, long before any of these imaginings and manifestations; Tom Clancy's, 1994 novel [Debt of Honor] told of a JAL 747 jumbo jet being crashed intentionally into a ceremony on Capitol Hill, killing most of the top functionaries in U.S. government leading to an "after" (in the Clancy sequel [Executive Orders]) involving the imposition of martial law.

I can't find the total sales figures for [Debt of Honor] or [Executive Orders] but the sequel to [Executive Orders] in the Ryanverse series is reported to have had a blockbusting first printing of two million copies. Therefore, there must be more than a few people including some prominent government and military officials, investment bankers, intelligence officers, secret-society members, and conservative-foundation think-tank employees, who, prior to 9/11, imagined (with Clancy's help) a terrorist act involving the crashing of a jetliner into a building in the United States to kill people leading to radical government change.

A reviewer for the UK Amazon.com website (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Executive-Orders-Tom-Clancy/dp/0006479758) says: "[Executive Orders] is Tom Clancy's follow up to his best selling novel [Debt of Honor] and begins moments after the ending of the previous novel. [Debt of Honor] left the Capitol building destroyed, the President killed, most of Congress killed, and all 9 members of the Supreme Court killed. Most other top officials of the government were also killed in a horrible attack reminiscent of September 11, 2001 (even though the novel was written years before that event). While not intending to be, Tom Clancy was very prophetic in writing about the events that led up to [Executive Orders]."

While the Wikipedia review (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_of_Honor) is careful to admonish: "The ending also has coincidental parallels with the September 11, 2001 attacks, although the disaster is not caused by terrorists." Thanks for that very important clarification - Wikipedia. We'll note that the incident Clancy describes was caused by a single, embittered man, i.e., a "lone-nut." In fact, many meta-events in our history seem to be caused by what now deceased FBI Director J.E. Hoover called a "person in the category of a nut." I haven't read the Clancy books and I'm not trying to sell Clancy books, but I give Clancy credit for helping to prepare us in 1996 for what played out in 2001. Clancy's writings were not "reminiscent" of 9/11, rather, they were prescient. Given Clancy's record of preparing us for our future, should we take his novel [The Sum of All Fears] more seriously?

"Good morning. At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists
are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to bring
destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th
pale by comparison." -- George W. Bush, Feb. 13, 2008