Some Republicans on the Hill wanted to know why Counsellor Karen Hughes was the highest government official anyone saw on television all day, other than Bush's brief, unsettling appearance in Louisiana. They wanted to see Bush stride across the South Lawn and show that this is not a country that can be sent into hiding by cowards. "He better have the speech of his life ready tonight," sighed one Republican strategist. Bush did return a few hours later, did stride across the South Lawn and did deliver a reasonably effective national address from the Oval Office. But it wasn't until the following day that he stepped up the intensity of his rhetoric and declared the attacks "acts of war." 国会山的某些共和党人士想要知道：为什么在总统布什在路易斯安那州那次简短而又令人不安的亮相以后，白宫顾问Karen Hughes成了一天之中电视里出现的最高政府官员。他们希望看到布什大步地走过白宫南边的草坪，告诉所有人，美国不会逃避，政府不是懦夫。“他最好在今天晚上就准备好演说。”一位共和党谋士叹息着说道。布什确实在几个小时之后回到了华盛顿，确实大步地走过了白宫南边的草坪，也确实在椭圆形办公室里发表了一席相当有影响的全国性的演说。然而直到911发生的第二天，他才加强了遣词的力度，正式定性此次攻击为“战争行为”。
Tucked inside the shock and fury was dismay at the performance of others whose job--perhaps impossible--was to prevent this from happening. There were quiet calls for the heads of CIA chief Tenet and FAA boss Jane Garvey for allowing so appalling a breach of security on their watch. And there was an equal determination to find those who were behind it. 夹杂在震惊与暴怒之间的，是对那些本职工作就是防止这一悲剧发生的人其所作所为的失望，虽然防止911的发生似乎是不可能的任务。无声的质询指向中情局长官Tenet以及联邦航空管理局局长简·嘉伟，为什么这样一件骇人听闻的针对全美安全防空系统的破坏性攻击事件竟会在他们的眼皮底下发生？而他们又是凭什么那么信心十足地确信能找到这些事件背后的黑手。
Only God knows what kind of heroic acts took place at 25,000 feet as passengers and crews contended with four teams of highly trained enemy terrorists. But it is clear that the hunt for the culprits began way up in the sky, by the doomed passengers and crews themselves, minutes before the attacks took place. In their final goodbyes, on brief and haunting calls from their cell phones, the victims on board at least two of the four planes whispered the number and even some of the seat assignments of the terrorists. A flight attendant on board American Flight 11 called her airline's flight operations center in Dallas on a special airlink line and reported that passengers were being stabbed.
只有天知道在两万五千英尺的高空中，在乘客与机组人员与四批接受过严密训练的恐怖分子对峙的时候，曾发生过怎样的壮举。但我们知道的是：就在劫机事件发生前的片刻，那些已故的不幸乘客以及机组人员自发的对于犯人的追捕在空中就已经开始。在他们简短而令人难忘的最终话别中，四架飞机中至少有两架飞机的乘客通过手机轻声报出了号码，甚至是恐怖分子的座位号。一位11号航班上的空服人员曾通过一条特殊的航空专线与位于达拉斯的航行指挥中心联系，并报告有乘客被刺伤。
That gave investigators a heads-up that something had gone terribly wrong, but there were plenty of other clues. Even before the smoke had cleared, it was obvious that the culprits knew their way around a Boeing cockpit--and all the security weaknesses in the U.S. civil aviation system. The enemy had chosen the quietest day of the week for the operation, when there would be fewer passengers to subdue; they had boarded westbound transcontinental flights--planes fully loaded with fuel. They were armed with knives and box cutters, had gained access to the cockpits and herded everyone to the back of the plane. Once at the controls, they had turned off at least one of the aircraft's self-identifying beacons, known as transponders, a move that renders the planes somewhat less visible to air traffic controllers. And each aircraft had gone through dramatic but carefully executed course corrections, including a stunning last maneuver by Flight 77. The pilot of that plane came in low from south of the Pentagon, and pulled a 270[degree] turn before slamming into the west wall of the building. 种种这些，给调查者提供了明确的信息：事情非常不对劲，而同时其它的线索也显现出来。就在事态清晰之前，我们就明确的知道：罪犯非常熟悉波音飞机的驾驶舱和操作系统，以及美国民用航空系统的所有安全漏洞。恐怖行为发生的这天，是一周中最安静的一天，因此不用花太多功夫来控制乘客。他们选择的是西线发出横跨美国大陆的航班，因此飞机的油箱里灌满的燃料，足以支持到他们最终的攻击。他们持着刀具和利器，直接闯入了驾驶舱，并将所有的乘客和机组人员赶到了机舱的尾部。一旦获得飞机的掌控权，他们至少关闭了一个航空器自我识别指示灯，即异频雷达收发机。这可以使得被劫持的飞机更难被空中流量控制部门发现。而且恐怖分子对每一架被劫持的飞机都做了一段看上去匪夷所思其实是经过精心计划的航线调整，包括77号航班最后那一个高超的花招。当时那架从五角大楼的南边低空飞来，然后在即将撞入五角大楼西面墙壁之时，猛然拉起一个270度的回转。
