Was 9/11 preventable?

That's the question many people have been asking themselves since that fatal day in 2001, and it might be on many more people's minds when they read this excerpt from the 9/11 Commission report just made public by the Bush administration (gee, were they afraid it might be controversial if they had released it right away?):

A 1995 National Intelligence Estimate, a report prepared by intelligence officials, "highlighted the growing domestic threat of terrorist attack, including a risk to civil aviation," the commission found in a blacked-out portion of the report.

And in 1998 and 1999, the commission report said, the F.A.A.'s intelligence unit produced reports about the hijacking threat posed by Al Qaeda, "including the possibility that the terrorist group might try to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark."

[...]

"We assess that the prospect for terrorist hijacking has increased and that U.S. airliners could be targeted in an attempt to obtain the release of indicted or convicted terrorists imprisoned in the United States."

Scary stuff. And yes, that was under Clinton's watch (who did way more than Bush ever even thought of doing,) but he did try warning Bush about bin Laden when he left office.

Alas, to no avail.