Robert Schopmeyer Examines Intelligence Breakdowns and the Lasting Questions Surrounding a Defining National Tragedy

Robert Schopmeyer has devoted years to researching the events surrounding September 11, 2001, through government reports, public hearings, investigative records, and intelligence documentation tied to the attacks and their aftermath.

Across his published books, and drawing on his engineering background and experience as a pilot, Schopmeyer states that the context of his first book, Prior Knowledge of 9/11, determined that the document called ‘Fatwa’ was nothing more or less than a thinly veiled signal that Bin Laden was determined to carry out a massive terrorist attack in the US, killing a large number of civilians and even military personnel. Schopmeyer remarks, “The target had to be completely obvious for it to result in the killing of a large number of Americans. After 30 minutes of trying to figure out what the target was, I threw the magazine down in disgust, thinking I was too stupid to figure it out, and ended up picking up the travel brochure in the seat pocket in front of me.”

The magazine cover, Schopmeyer recalls, was a photograph of the Manhattan advantage point above the Statue of Liberty. “When I saw the towers, I realised that must have been the target. I remembered that the towers were hit by truck bombs in 1993; because of that, security would be looking for truck bombs. That’s when it occurred to me, the only way to destroy the towers was by hijacking commercial planes. The terrorist’s plan would have been meticulous; it would have taken 3 months to bring in the pilots, a year to train every single one individually, 3 months to bring in the non-pilots, and another 1 month to coordinate the plane tickets for the aircraft they were going to use for the attack,” he says.

Schopmeyer recalls, “To figure out when the towers were going to be destroyed, I had to figure out when the terrorists had first started entering the United States to start their training. The ‘Fatwa’ was released on February 23rd, 1998. I was not able to use that date when they entered the United States, because the towers were still standing during my flight on February 11th, 2001. This led to February 2000 being the only timeframe that made sense, which meant they would have been prepared by September 1st, 2001, and that the attack would take place in the first 2 weeks of September.”

“On September 8th, I flew out to Logan Airport to look for the hijackers, and I didn’t see them. I planned to go out the following day, but realised that it was Sunday, and I didn’t think they would be there on Sunday. That same day, Mohammed Atta flew into Logan Airport to figure out how to get the 4-inch knives through the Airline security.” Schopmeyer says. “When the second tower got hit, I called the FBI and told them I would give them all the information on how I had known about the attack. I told 25 people in my company that those buildings would have been destroyed before the middle of September. If that had gone to the FBI before I did, I would have been interrogated for the rest of my life. The FBI agent stated that my information was based on speculation, and I had nothing beyond speculation.”

Schopmeyer’s other book, Countdown to the Attacks on 9/11, details the sequence of events leading up to the attacks on 9/11. The last book, The Secrets of 9/11, details how each person, the CIA, and the FBI headquarters knew that the acts on 9/11 were going to take place, how they got the information, and what exactly they did with that information. The CIA knew from January 5th, 2000, that al-Qaeda and Nawaf Hazmi were attending an important meeting in Kuala Lumpur and knew that Mihdhar had a multiple-entry visa for the United States. FBI Agents at the CIA Bin Laden Unit were aware of this information and attempted to send it to the FBI, but were blocked by the Deputy Chief at the Bin Laden Unit. This information was withheld from the FBI criminal investigators, from January 5th, 2000, to September 13th, 2001, as documented in his books.

On August 22nd, 2001, the CIA and FBI Headquarters were aware that Mihdhar and Hazmi were in the United States to take part in a massive terrorist attack, which they had been warned about 6 months prior. Both the CIA and FBI Headquarters were aware that if this information was withheld from the FBI Cole Bombing Investigators, they would not have had the probable cause required to start and continue a criminal investigation on Mihdhar and Hazmi. When the FBI Cole Bombing Investigators found out that they were in the United States, the FBI Headquarters shut down their investigation on August 28th, 2001, even when the Cole Bombing investigators told the FBI Headquarters agents that if they shut down their investigation, people would die. This information was not given to the FBI Cole Bombing investigators by the FBI Headquarters agents and the CIA until September 13th, two days after 3,000 people were murdered. To date, no one in official records or in mainstream media has ever explained why the FBI Headquarters and the CIA did not give this information to the FBI Cole Bombing investigators until September 13th, 2001, except for the book,The Secrets of 9/11.

According to Schopmeyer, the books were developed from materials that include the 9/11 Commission Report, Department of Justice Inspector General reports, interviews with FBI agents who wanted to stop the attacks on 9/11, public hearings, and records entered into Moussaoui’s trial. “The books include original documents that should have been in the official government reports. I have documentation, the reports, the transcripts, the exhibits, and the page numbers that show where the information comes from,” Schopmeyer says.