But that explanation is another way of expressing the real problem: America’s crippling, in part self-inflicted, shortage of agents and moles inside the terrorist organisations themselves.The failure stemmed from rules imposed on the CIA making it harder for it to enlist collaborators with a less than squeaky-clean background. They were compounded by the aversion of the FBI and the NSA to hiring foreign language specialists.Rivalry between the FBI and the CIA did not help – nor did the FBI’s antediluvian computer system. President Bush is trying to strengthen America’s defences against terrorism by forging a single overarching Department of Homeland Security. But his plans are bogged down in infighting.It will take more than a bureaucratic shake-up or an equipment upgrade to extract the tiny nuggets of “tactical” gold from the “strategic” earth. In the meantime, however, a Taliban-style warning today would not be dismissed.
The risk is now of overreaction.Desperate to avoid blame, agencies issue “non-specific” terror alerts at the slightest sign of trouble. In doing so, they achieve the worst of both worlds, making the public simultaneously more anxious, yet less inclined to pay attention with every passing alert that proves unfounded. How the world will remember America:New York: Bagpipers will lead a procession to Ground Zero for a service in which the names of each of 2,823 people who died at the site will be read out and an “eternal flame” lit.Washington: President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney will attend a private ceremony at the Pentagon.Shanksville, Pennsylvania: President Bush will join 30,000 people where Flight 93 crashed.Britain:London: Tony Blair, the Queen and relatives of victims will be at a service at St Paul’s Cathedral. The American Church will hold a service at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster Firefighters will observe a one-minute silence. Evening ceremony at Regent’s Park mosque.Europe:Stock exchanges will observe two minutes’ silence at 8.46am.Rome: Service honouring New York firefighters at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli.Berlin: Chancellor Gerhard Schr? will attend a service at the Berliner Dom Cathedral.Copenhagen: Two-minute silence, city square.Stockholm: Swedish Prime Minister G? Persson will be at a service at the US embassy.Rest of the world:Jerusalem: The Israeli museum will open an exhibition of photos from Ground Zero.Tokyo: A maple tree will be planted outside the US embassy.Canberra: Special service at St Christopher’s Catholic Cathedral..
Mark Newton-Carter has had enough of memorial services. On Wednesday he will turn his back on St Paul’s Cathedral in London and return to his isolated home near Findhorn in Scotland and quietly remember his brother, Christopher, who perished in the World Trade Centre
Mark Newton-Carter has had enough of memorial services. “Before he went to America, 16 years ago, we were like two peas in a pod We didn’t really need anybody else. We went everywhere together, best mates.”In a way, Wednesday – the first anniversary of the attack – will not be all that different for Mr Newton-Carter than any of the other 364 days that will have passed He says he thinks about his brother every day. He still talks to him, asking his advice, wondering what he would make of such and such a situation.”I cannot believe this year has gone so fast I continue to read and watch archive news about it. CNN have archive footage on their website, I go over that and in some funny way it helps keep Chris alive In some ways I’m trying to bring Chris back. When I went to New York I bought a book on the World Trade Centre Every page has pictures of the disaster.
