Based on the 9/11 Commission hearing of January 27, 2004, which detailed aviation security and the four hijacked flights, the commission revealed: “Nine of the nineteen hijackers were actually selected by the FAA’s [Federal Aviation Administration’s] computer-assisted passenger pre-screening (CAPPS) program, which checks the list of passengers against certain risk factors in order to identify potential terrorists. However, the only action prompted by that selection was additional scrutiny of the hijacker’s checked baggage for explosives–not further screening of their personal possessions or their carry-on bags…even when the FAA’s tool for pre-screening potential terrorists succeeded in identifying nine of the hijackers, it was irrelevant to stopping the attacks, because pre-9/11 security measures were aimed at keeping bombs out of baggage, not at keeping planes from being turned into guided missiles.”
– Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, Without Precedent, Page 138