Where System Failed: Air attack on Pentagon indicates weaknesses
Photo credit: AP | A helicopter flies over the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, as smoke billows from the building. The Pentagon took a direct hit from an aircraft hijacked by terrorists.
9/11/2001
Newsday's Sept. 11 covers
For the terrorist who called himself Khalid Al-Midhar, getting onto the airliner that crashed into the Pentagon was a breeze.
Even though the CIA had alerted other federal agencies 19 days earlier that Al-Midhar posed a threat, even though the FBI was searching for him nationwide, apparently nobody told American Airlines.
So Al-Midhar just did the same things any tourist or business...
