papertiger, you are absolutely right, but rather than have someone point out (correctly) that the FBI, CIA et al have better things to do than read Tom Clancy novels as a source for red herrings to chase, (the Cobra Event, notwithstanding see:
Richard Preston) please see this
Bojinka plot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bojinka plot was well known to the community prior to Sept 11.
The Bojinka plot (Arabic: بجنكة; Tagalog: Oplan Bojinka) was a planned large-scale terrorist attack by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to blow up twelve airliners[1] and their approximately 4,000 passengers as they flew from Asia to the United States. The term can also refer to a combination of plots by Yousef and Mohammed to take place in January 1995, including a plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II. Murad proposed to crash a plane into the CIA headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia in addition to a plan to bomb multiple airliners, which leads credence that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed evolved this plot into the 9-11 airliner attacks.[2]