I think it is far too soon to be drawing conclusions yet, particularly on the basis of retrospective hearsay. Witness statements are notoriously unreliable, and furthermore I quite frankly would not like to live in a country where carrying a couple of rucksacks is grounds to violate my right to privacy. There are numerous reasons why someone could be carrying rucksacks around. I visited NYC recently and was wandering around with a couple of bags trying to find my lodging. Should someone have stopped me, searched my possessions, and interrogated me for that? If something like that alone becomes grounds for reasonable suspicion then I think we are in trouble.

Whenever something like this happens, tragic though it is, the first response of the fearful is to hand over their rights for an illusion of security. The truth is, we could give up those rights but doing that would not ultimately make us safer. There is only so much you can do to protect yourself, and the rest is chance. Perhaps law enforcement could have done more, but the case presented so far does not strike me as being even remotely valid.

I think a few months went by before Al-Qaeda took credit for 9/11.