I’ve been warning people for years that the defining moment of the 90s was the Aum Shinrikyo poison gas attack on Tokyo. And the threat that failed in Tokyo succeeded with the World Trade Center.
Consider the similarities between these incidents. Aum made several liquid poison gas bombs, they were nothing more than plastic bags of liquid. The bombs were to be delivered to the economic center of Tokyo, Kasumigaseki, via a coordinated series of attacks via commuter rail lines. Terrorists rode the trains, dropped the gas bombs, then made their cowardly escape as the trains converged on Kasumigaseki. But the attack worked too well, the terrorists chickened out and dropped their payload early, the trains ran into trouble early and did not converge on the heart of Tokyo. But the damage was severe enough, dozens dead and thousands hospitalized. But the potential for such an attack resulting in tens of thousands of deaths was obvious.
So consider this as the precursor to WTC. Aum showed the method, and the madness required to execute doomsday attacks. They both used the transportation infrastructure to execute an attack on the financial center of their country. Both groups of terrorsts had insane political grudges against the government. I read a NYTimes essay, Safire I think (oh my god I’m about to agree with Nixon toadie Wm. Safire) said something about how we must be resigned to living in a world where there are groups opposed to one another’s existence. To them, that we exist and prosper is an offense against their god. This is insanity.