...duced from its Cold War high of 26. Some within the Pentagon argued in the 1990s that the alert sites 16 THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT Final1-4.4pp 7/17... ... to be from cruise missiles. Other threats were identified during the late 1990s, including terrorists’ use of aircraft as weapons. Exercises were con... ...ed States were developed with unwavering single- mindedness throughout the 1990s. Bin Ladin saw himself as called “to follow in the footsteps of the M... ...tion and society. These experiments in political Islam faltered during the 1990s: the Iranian revolution lost momentum, prestige, and public support, ... ...ual opportunity but also crippled overall economic productivity. 16 By the 1990s, high birthrates and declining rates of infant mortality had THE FOUN... ...ited for traditional agent recruitment or for exploiting liaison relation- ships with foreign services but were not equipped to seek or use assets ins... ... ations.With nearby basing options limited, an alternative was to fly from ships in the Arabian Sea or from land bases in the Persian Gulf, as was don... ...ter- rorist operation took shape as he noticed many U.S. and other foreign ships plying the waters along the southwest coast of Y emen. 27 Nashiri ret... ..., after the CIA had sent out officers to explore possible closer relation- ships with both the Uzbeks and the Northern Alliance, discussions took plac...