&gt; lots of people saw Atta being a POI as a sign of a &quot;let it happen&quot; conspiracy, but the much more likely explanation is that he was on a very long list of watched persons.<p>Yep. Its a prime example of why these surveillance powers simply don&#x27;t function the way their proponents claim in public.<p>A large part of the reason there are these conspiracy theories is because their failures seem to be spun so well they might as well have been planned for all intents and purposes. They immediately blame other people and clamor for money and power to further their interests ... and people actually take them seriously which to me is the scary part.<p>France has the most extensive mass surveillance capability of any first world Democracy and the ability to act without the permission of the courts or legislature ... yet it wasn&#x27;t enough.<p>I don&#x27;t see how &quot;more power&quot; is the answer. It seems to be me that suicidal people are going to be successful at taking other people with them no matter what we do. So we take reasonable precautions that don&#x27;t infringe on everyone&#x27;s liberty. Then we make sure people who ignore actionable intelligence have career ending consequences to make them accountable.