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ticipant and Ramzi Binalshibh's transfer of money to him. The U.S. govern-
ment was not able to capitalize on those mistakes in time to prevent 9/11.

We do not believe it is possible to defeat all terrorist attacks against Ameri-

cans, every time and everywhere.A president should tell the American people:

· No president can promise that a catastrophic attack like that of 9/11

will not happen again. History has shown that even the most vigilant
and expert agencies cannot always prevent determined, suicidal
attackers from reaching a target.

· But the American people are entitled to expect their government to

do its very best. They should expect that officials will have realistic
objectives, clear guidance, and effective organization. They are enti-
tled to see some standards for performance so they can judge, with
the help of their elected representatives, whether the objectives are
being met.

12.2 ATTACK TERRORISTS

AND THEIR ORGANIZATIONS

The U.S. government, joined by other governments around the world, is work-
ing through intelligence, law enforcement, military, financial, and diplomatic
channels to identify, disrupt, capture, or kill individual terrorists.This effort was
going on before 9/11 and it continues on a vastly enlarged scale. But to catch
terrorists, a U.S. or foreign agency needs to be able to find and reach them.

No Sanctuaries
The 9/11 attack was a complex international operation, the product of years
of planning. Bombings like those in Bali in 2003 or Madrid in 2004, while able
to take hundreds of lives, can be mounted locally. Their requirements are far
more modest in size and complexity.They are more difficult to thwart. But the
U.S. government must build the capacities to prevent a 9/11-scale plot from
succeeding, and those capabilities will help greatly to cope with lesser but still
devastating attacks.

A complex international terrorist operation aimed at launching a cata-

strophic attack cannot be mounted by just anyone in any place. Such opera-
tions appear to require

· time, space, and ability to perform competent planning and staff work;
· a command structure able to make necessary decisions and possessing

the authority and contacts to assemble needed people, money, and
materials;

WHAT TO DO? A GLOBAL STRATEGY

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