NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/consumer_news/10715419.htm?1c

Thousands of pages of heavily blacked out records and memos obtained by the AP from government archives and under the Freedom of Information Act show the task force:

_discussed defending commercial aircraft against being shot down by portable missile systems;

_recommended improved vigilance at potential "soft" targets, such as major holiday events, municipal water supplies, nuclear power plants and electric power facilities;

_supported cracking down on foreigners living in and traveling through the United States, with particular attention to Middle Easterners and Arab-Americans;

_developed plans to protect U.S. diplomats and businessmen working abroad against kidnapping and attack

How did the discussion and planning for this possibility become mute? Check the sources at the bottom of the story. It's as if they had a clear view to the future.

I would think that no one then planned anything because the US had bigger fish to fry (like communism). The US has always been somewhat ambivalient towards the Middle East, when it took no forceful action to resolve the oil crises (such as a rapid reaction force, or forming a buyer cartel). There is probably some obscure little thing right now that will be tommorow's threat, and it'll come out that it was written about thirty years from now.