America Has Forfeited Its Greatest Strength

P erhaps the most famous conclusion of the 9/11 Commission Report is that America’s inability to prevent the September 11 attacks resulted from a “failure of imagination.” With respect to the 9/11 Commission, that is not quite right.

Long before September 11, members of the U.S. intelligence community understood the awful scale of Osama bin Laden’s ambitions.

The presidential daily brief on August 6, 2001, included an item titled “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US,” which even referenced al-Qaeda’s desire to hijack an American aircraft.

This was just one of 36 articles in presidential briefings that year that mentioned bin Laden or al-Qaeda.

As an FBI special agent, I participated in investigations of al-Qaeda both before and after 9/11.

Based on my experience, the main reason the U.S. didn’t stop 9/11 was not a failure of imagination but a failure of trust.

America’s intelligence institutions lacked confidence in one another.

In fact, they hid intelligence from their peers.

This particular problem has improved since the attacks, but new, even graver, failures of trust have emerged.

As 9/11 and its aftermath have shown, American security depends on many kinds of faith.

Allies must trust U.S. leadership.

Citizens must have confidence in their government.

Policy makers must believe in America’s deepest norms and values.

Over the past 25 years, the U.S. has frayed each of these bonds of trust.