What should have been done in response to the briefing that Bin Laden planned to attack the US?

[jberryhill]

21. It says there were 70 investigations already going on

Focus on this memo as an isolated piece of the larger picture is beside the point.

You mention a "TSA employee" above. There was no TSA. The federal government did not run airport security at that time.

You mention "order the cockpit doors hardened". That's not how government regulation works. "Okay, we need to order the airlines to do something that is going to cost them a buttload of money, and they'll just do so, despite the absence of a hi-jacking of a commercial airliner in 20 years (with the exception of a small plane in Texas). Because, after all, I have one of 365 daily memos that says they have ""We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ---- service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft...".

Oh, and that 1987 hi-jacking:

January 11, 1987; A Continental Airlines DC-9 was hijacked in flight by Norwood Emanuel, a Muslim hijacker that wanted to crash into the White House on Jan. 11, 1987. The crew diverted a possible disaster 14 years before the 9-11 attack.

Someone actually tried a very similar attack in 1987. No cockpit doors hardened.