At the Pentagon, before 9/11 a clinic developed an emergency plan that helped the response to the attacks, and a fire five weeks before 9/11 further enhanced preparedness. The alert level was raised shortly before the Pentagon was hit, and people disguised as firefighters were arrested there the day after the attacks.

Regarding the World Trade Center, a structural engineer found evidence of extreme temperatures in the fires and criticized the decision to destroy the steel. In addition, an engineering journal recently published an article questioning whether the WTC was really destroyed by fire and impact damage.

Shortly after the attacks, televangelist Jerry Falwell said part of the blame for 9/11 should be borne by gays, abortionists and civil liberties groups, and was roundly criticized for these remarks. He apologized and said his remarks were taken out of context, although he later misrepresented them somewhat.

Spanish authorities only arrested one member of the al-Qaeda cell that carried out the Madrid train bombings after it was linked to a group that carried out bombings in Morocco, but the Moroccan bombings led to increased surveillance of the Madrid group.

In January 2000, alleged Pentagon hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar were watchlisted in Thailand, but for some reason the CIA failed to ask the NSA what it knew about Alhazmi, which would have revealed a good deal of information.

Miscellaneous entries: Rudy Giuliani earned millions in business after his term as New York mayor ended, Jesse Ventura questioned the "official account" of 9/11, and Flight 93 began its descent hundreds of miles from its presumed target. Finally, the Washington Post exposed a secret covert operations unit, and the president of Indonesia wondered aloud about the military's role in the 2002 Bali bombings.

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