>http://www.counterpunch.org/

>Who Saw It Coming?

>By Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair

>

>Tuesday's onslaughts on the World Trade Center and the

Pentagon are being

>likened to Pearl Harbor and the comparison is just.

From the point of

>view of the assailants the attacks were near miracles

of logistical

>calculation, timing, courage in execution and

devastation inflicted upon

>the targets.

>

>The Pearl Harbor base containing America's naval might

was thought to be

>invulnerable, yet in half an hour 2000 were dead, and

the cream of the

>fleet destroyed. This week, within an hour on the

morning of September

>11, security at three different airports was

successfully breached, the

>crews of four large passenger jets efficiently

overpowered, the cockpits

>commandeered, navigation coordinates reset.

>

>In three of the four missions the assailants attained

successes probably

>far beyond the expectations of the planners. As a feat

of suicidal

>aviation the Pentagon kamikaze assault was

particularly audacious, with

>eyewitness accounts describing the Boeing 767 skimming

the Potomac before

>driving right through the low lying Pentagon

perimeter, in a sector

>housing Planning and Logistics.

>

>The two Trade Center Buildings were struck at what

structural engineers

>say were the points of maximum vulnerability. The

strength of the

>buildings derived entirely from the steel perimeter