September 11th, 2001- Summer Warnings

I've always read newspapers for as long as I can remember. I like to be informed and I find current events interesting. I remember distinctly reading in the summer of 2001 in the NY Daily News that Al Qaeda was a real threat and that they should be taken seriously. I can't remember the exact words but they were ominous. Al Qaeda was a formidable terrorist group.   The threat worried me.
I recently read the article in the New York Times online titled, "The Deafness Before The Storm," by Kurt Eichenwald and I was struck by the fact that he didn't mention that newspapers at that time were printing that Al Qaeda was threatening action. Naturally, I don't think anyone could have imagined the gravity of the situation or what was coming but they were threatening action.
From the article, "On August 6th, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That mornings presidential daily brief, the top-secret document prepared by American intelligence agencies featured the now famous heading, 'Bin laden determined to strike in U.S. A few weeks later on 9/11 Al Qaeda accomplished that goal."
It is certainly a tragedy that no one connected the dots and the agencies involved were not able to give President Bush more detailed information about the threat, because if he was given more accurate information, I believe he would have acted. I don't think you can blame anyone because hindsight will always be 20/20. Perhaps no one in America, fully understood at that time, the evil, hateful and destructive intentions that lurked in the world and in Al Qaeda.
As a New Yorker,  I lived through the horror of September 11th. I knew families who lost young adult sons. We knew people who waited on their steps for their loved ones to return home that day, but some never did come home.  At the time, I lived in a house in Marine Park, Brooklyn and at the end of the block was a funeral home. Night after night there were wakes for firemen, many of whom lived in the neighborhood. It is something I will never forget. And yet I didn't experience the pain of losing someone close to me. I can't even imagine that pain.
A lot of people lost their faith in God because of 9/11. I've read that one reason atheism has grown so much is because so many people lost their faith, during that time. I saw a television show and people were interviewed who lost loved ones and some had lost their faith. So sad and disturbing. How do you go through something like that without God and prayer? I can't imagine that.
 I did grieve with neighbors and friends who lost loved ones in those days and weeks that followed 9/11. But I don't believe we can blame God for evil in the world or for people who distort the truth or plan evil, horrific deeds. God is good and God suffered that day too.
NJA