A group of second-year students at the Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) produces a 68-page plan for sending peacekeepers to Israel in the event that the Israelis and Palestinians agree to a peace plan and the creation of a Palestinian state. Though the cover of the report indicates that the report has been written for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Maj. Chris Garver, a Fort Leavenworth spokesman, says that it was only an academic exercise. An article about the report appears in the Washington Times on September 10, 2001. The report refers to Israel’s armed forces as a “500-pound gorilla in Israel” that is “well armed and trained” and is “known to disregard international law to accomplish mission.” Of the Mossad, the report says: “Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target US forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act.” It describes Palestinian youths as “loose cannons; under no control, sometimes violent.” The SAMS officers write that US goals for the first 30 days of such a mission would be to “create conditions for development of Palestinian State and security of Israel”; ensure “equal distribution of contract value or equivalent aid” that would help legitimize the peacekeeping force and stimulate economic growth; “promote US investment in Palestine”; “encourage reconciliation between entities based on acceptance of new national identities”; and “build lasting relationship based on new legal borders and not religious-territorial claims.” [Washington Times, 9/10/2001]
Shortly Before September 11, 2001: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Shelton Warns, ‘Be on Your Toes’ for a Domestic Terrorist Attack
General Henry Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gives a warning to be prepared for a domestic terrorist attack at any time, because the conditions are right for such an attack to occur. Shelton will later recall issuing the warning in a speech he gives at a conference on global terrorism. He ends the speech with the admonition to “be on your toes,” because, he will recall, “conditions were such that a domestic terrorist attack could occur at any time.” Lieutenant Commander Suzanne Giesemann, an aide to the chairman, will similarly recall that Shelton ends his conference speech with a warning “to prepare for a terrorist attack at any time and any place.” According to Shelton, the conference takes place the week before September 11, but Giesemann will say it takes place several weeks before September 11. Further details of the conference, such as where it is being held and who else is attending it, are unstated. Both Shelton and Giesemann will be reminded of the chairman’s prophetic warning when they are first notified of the attacks in New York on 9/11 (see (8:50 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Giesemann, 2008, pp. 23; Shelton, Levinson, and McConnell, 2010, pp. 431]
September 10, 2001: Intelligence Intercepts Show Al-Qaeda Agents Ordered to Return to Afghanistan by This Date
In a major post-9/11 speech, British Prime Minister Tony Blair will claim that “shortly before September 11, bin Laden told associates that he had a major operation against America under preparation, [and] a range of people were warned to return back to Afghanistan because of action on or around September 11.” His claims will come from a British document of telephone intercepts and interrogations revealing al-Qaeda orders to return to Afghanistan by September 10. [CNN, 10/4/2001; Time, 10/5/2001] Would-be hijacker Ramzi bin al-Shibh will later claim that his message on what day the 9/11 attacks would happen reached bin Laden on September 6, 2001. If that is true, bin Laden would only have had a few days to warn others (see September 6, 2001). [Australian, 9/9/2002]
Shortly Before September 11, 2001-Early Morning September 11, 2001: Two Attendants Are Assigned to Flight 77 after Not Originally Being Scheduled for This Flight
At least two of the four flight attendants who will be on American Airlines Flight 77—the third plane to be hijacked—on 9/11 are not originally scheduled to be on this plane, and are only assigned to it shortly before—or early in the morning of—September 11: 
Michele Heidenberger regularly flies from Washington’s Reagan National Airport to Dallas. But she will tell a colleague she is working Flight 77 on 9/11 as she is building up vacation time so she can go to Italy in October. [Murphy, 2006, pp. 42-43] Renee May is assigned to Flight 77 early in the morning of 9/11. Before she is offered the flight, American Airlines asks another attendant, Lena Brown, to take it, but Brown says she is unable to get to the airport in time. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 8/9/2002; Daily Reflector, 9/11/2002]
One of the pilots—either Charles Burlingame or David Charlebois—is also not originally scheduled to be on Flight 77 on September 11, and only accepts the flight shortly before then (see Shortly Before September 11, 2001). [New York Times, 9/13/2001] Many of the flight attendants who will be on the other three hijacked planes are also only assigned to those flights shortly before 9/11 (see Shortly Before September 11, 2001-Early Morning September 11, 2001, Shortly Before September 11, 2001, and Shortly Before September 11, 2001).
September 10, 2001: Dallas Fifth Grader Forecasts World War III
A fifth grader in Dallas, Texas, casually tells his teacher, “Tomorrow, World War III will begin. It will begin in the United States, and the United States will lose.” The teacher reports the comment to the FBI, but does not know if they act on it at the time. The student skips the next two days of school. The event may be completely coincidental, but the newspaper that reports the story also notes that two charities, Holy Land Foundation and InfoCom, located in an adjacent suburb have been under investigation based on suspected fund-raising activities for Islamic militant organizations. One InfoCom employee had his name in the telephone book of Wadih El-Hage, bin Laden’s personal secretary, and he was seen with El-Hage as recently as 1998 (see September 16, 1998-September 5, 2001). [Houston Chronicle, 9/19/2001] The FBI investigates and decides “no further investigation [is] warranted.” [Houston Chronicle, 10/1/2001]
September 10, 2001: One or Two Flight 77 Hijackers Are Caught on Video at Dulles Airport
One or two of the future hijackers of Flight 77 are recorded on video in a terminal at Washington’s Dulles International Airport—the airport from which Flight 77 will take off on September 11. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 4/19/2002; 9/11 Commission, 10/16/2003 
] The video captures Khalid Almihdhar and “possibly” Salem Alhazmi visiting the airport, according to an FBI chronology. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 11/14/2003 ] They appear to be lost and are paying special attention to the emergency exits in the terminal. [9/11 Commission, 10/16/2003 ] They are captured on video at an unspecified time this evening. Whether any other men are with them is unclear. They are in Terminal B at the airport. Flight 77 will depart from Terminal D. However, Edward Faggen, vice president and general counsel for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Dulles Airport, will later note that the mobile lounges for departures from Terminal B and Terminal D are located next to each other. [9/11 Commission, 9/29/2003 ] A group of five Middle Eastern men is witnessed by two employees at the airport this evening, behaving suspiciously and trying to go through a door that leads to the airport’s secure areas (see (Between 8:00 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.) September 10, 2001). Two of these men will be identified as Flight 77 hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi and Flight 175 hijacker Marwan Alshehhi. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 9/14/2002; Trento and Trento, 2006, pp. 2-6, 43-44]
September 10, 2001: Sovereign Wealth Fund Buys a Huge Amount of Treasury Notes, Which Will Soar in Value after 9/11
A major sovereign wealth fund buys an unusually large amount of two-year Treasury notes, which will significantly increase in value in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, thereby making the buyer millions. The incident will only come to light in spring 2014 when an employee at the bank that deals with the purchase describes it to James Rickards, a bestselling author, economist, and investment adviser. This person, according to Rickards, is “one of the most seasoned government securities traders at one of the biggest Wall Street banks” who specializes in providing services to “the largest customers in the world,” which include “central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and huge pension funds managed by states and major banks.”
Fund Wants to Buy $2 Billion of Treasury Notes – While he is at a customer outing today, the trader receives a frantic phone call from his sales assistant, who is covering the desk while he is away. The sales assistant tells him that a major sovereign wealth fund has called to place an order to buy $2 billion of two-year Treasury notes. “Even by the standards of large bank dealers, an order for two billion dollars of notes in one transaction is almost unheard of,” Rickards will later comment. However, Rickards will note, the sovereign wealth fund that placed the order is “so large that counterparty credit [is] not an issue.” The huge trade is therefore executed and settled at the end of the business day. The customer that makes the purchase will never be heard from again by the trader.
Purchase Is ‘a Clear-Cut Case of Insider Trading’ – After the attacks on September 11, the value of the two-year Treasury notes will soar in a “flight to quality” in the face of geopolitical uncertainty. Consequently, the sovereign wealth fund will make millions of dollars from its purchase. Furthermore, unlike the stock exchange, the US Treasury market will stay open after the attacks and so the sovereign wealth fund will be able to collect its winnings without difficulty. Rickards will describe the transaction as “a clear-cut case of insider trading.” However, in the investigations into possible insider trading before the attacks that follow 9/11, attention will be focused on the stock markets, and the Securities and Exchange Commission will ignore trading in the US Treasury bond market. Consequently, “the sovereign wealth fund with the advance knowledge of the 9/11 attack was able to get away scot-free,” Rickards will write. [Business Insider, 4/18/2017] Sovereign wealth funds are “pools of assets owned and managed directly or indirectly by governments to achieve national objectives,” according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. [Blundell-Wignall, Hu, and Yermo, 1/2008 ] The government that owns the sovereign wealth fund involved in the incident described by Rickards will be unstated.
September 10, 2001: Los Angeles FBI Office Search Assistance Comes Too Late, San Diego FBI Office Not Contacted at All
FBI agent Robert Fuller began looking for Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar on September 4, 2001 (see September 4-5, 2001) . Within one day, he found that Almihdhar had not stayed at the New York City hotel he listed as a destination when he arrived in the US in July 2001. Alhazmi and Almihdhar had traveled to Los Angeles on January 15, 2000. Immigation records indicated that they claimed to be destined for a Sheraton hotel in Los Angeles. On this day, Fuller drafts an investigative lead for the Los Angeles FBI office, asking that office to search Sheraton hotel records concerning any stays by Almihdhar and Alhazmi in early 2000. However, the lead is not transmitted to Los Angeles until the next day, after the 9/11 attacks have begun. The search will also turn up nothing, since neither of them stayed at a Sheraton hotel. [US Congress, 9/18/2002; US Congress, 9/20/2002; US Department of Justice, 11/2004; New York Observer, 11/28/2004] Both men had been living in nearby San Diego for much of the previous two years. The San Diego FBI office is not notified about the need for a search until September 12, and even then, they are only provided with “sketchy” information. [Los Angeles Times, 9/16/2001] The FBI handling agent in San Diego is certain they could have been located quickly had they known where to look. The FBI agent running the San Diego office will claim they could have easily found the two hijackers by looking their names up in the phone book (see September 11, 2001). [US Congress, 7/24/2003 ] There is some evidence from eyewitnesses that a few days before 9/11, Almihdhar and two other hijackers are living in the same San Diego apartment that they had been living in off and on for the past two years, the address that was listed for them in the public phone book (see Early September 2001).
September 10, 2001: Northern Alliance Blames ISI and Al-Qaeda for Assassination of Massoud
The Northern Alliance releases a statement, saying, “Ahmed Shah Massoud was the target of an assassination attempt organized by the Pakistani [intelligence service] ISI and Osama bin Laden.” Massoud was the head leader of the Northern Alliance, the main group fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, until he was assassinated the previous day (see September 9, 2001). [Radio Free Europe, 9/10/2001; Newsday, 9/15/2001; Reuters, 10/4/2001] In June 2002, the New Yorker will report that there has been little to no investigation in Afghanistan into who was responsible for Massoud’s assassination. Even though the Northern Alliance has taken power, one of the figures some suspect of a role in the assassination is Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a warlord with radical Islamist ties but who also has gained power in the new Afghan government. However, Afghan Defense Minister and Northern Alliance leader Mohammad Qasim Fahim will tell the New Yorker that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was at ISI headquarters hours after Massoud was assassinated, possibly celebrating the assassination with ISI officials there (see September 9, 2001). [New Yorker, 6/10/2002] If Fahim had been immediately aware of this intelligence, it could help explain how quickly the Northern Alliance blamed the ISI.
Shortly Before September 11, 2001: Port Authority Command Center in WTC Undergoes Security Upgrades
A command center for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, located in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, is upgraded to make it more secure, and the improvements will reportedly save the lives of people in the command center when the nearby South Tower collapses on September 11. [Newsday, 9/12/2001; Civil Air Patrol News, 1/2002; Newsday, 1/23/2002] The Port Authority’s Security Command Center (SCC) is on the 22nd floor of the North Tower. [9/11 Commission, 5/18/2004 ; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 294] Newsday will report, on the day after 9/11, that officials had “recently” increased security at the WTC “by installing bulletproof windows and fireproof doors in the 22nd-floor computer command center.” [Newsday, 9/12/2001] According to George Tabeek, the Port Authority’s security manager for the WTC, by September 11, the WTC in fact has “bulletproof window glass in most areas.” [FDU Magazine, 6/2008] The installation of the bulletproof windows—and presumably, also, the fireproof doors—in the SCC is made at the request of Douglas Karpiloff, the Port Authority’s director of security and life safety for the WTC. [Newsday, 1/23/2002]
Upgrades Intended to Protect against ‘Aerial Attacks’ – According to Hermina Jones, a security guard at the WTC, the upgrades to the SCC are intended “to secure the towers against aerial attacks.” [Newsday, 9/12/2001] Tabeek will later recall, “We had planned for the possibility of a small airplane—a corporate jet, maybe—crashing into one of the [WTC] buildings by accident,” although it is unclear if this comment is made in reference to the installation of bulletproof windows at the WTC. [FDU Magazine, 6/2008]
Security Improvements Save Lives on September 11 – Some people will credit the upgrades to the SCC with saving their lives on September 11. Tabeek will be in the SCC that day when the first of the Twin Towers—the South Tower—collapses (see 9:59 a.m. September 11, 2001). When that happens, according to Tabeek, the “impact of the explosion peeled off the outer skin of [the North Tower], shattering the thick double-paned windows [of the SCC] in the process.” Tabeek will say, however, that the “inner layer of laminated bulletproof glass put in months earlier… withstood the blast and undoubtedly saved his life and those of the others with him.” Victor Guarnera, the chief technical adviser and manager of security systems for the World Trade Department, who is also in the SCC at that time, will describe what happens when the collapse occurs, saying, “The outer windows [of the SCC] exploded, either from impact [of debris from the South Tower] or differential pressure, but the inner window wall of high-tempered bomb and bullet-resistant glass we had installed a few months before held fast.” Guarnera will comment that the bulletproof windows “were responsible for our survival up to that point.” [Civil Air Patrol News, 1/2002; Newsday, 1/23/2002]
