Failure of imagination

Failure of imagination is a phrase applied to an undesirable yet seemingly predictable circumstance—predictable particularly in hindsight—that occurs unanticipated.^{[citation needed ]} The idea was invoked by the 9/11 Commission and other U.S. government officials as a reason that intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA, failed to prevent the September 11 attacks.^{[not verified in body ]}

"Failure of imagination" has been invoked as a reason that intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA, failed to prevent the September 11 attacks. During the summer of 2003, after the now-declassified report about the September 11 attacks, Senator Bob Graham stated the attack might have easily been predicted and even prevented.^[1] Following these criticisms, President Bush declassified the August 6, 2001 President's Daily Brief, Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US , which indicated that hijackings might be one possible mode of attack.^[2]

After the attacks, representatives of the Bush administration claimed in early 2004 that "nobody could have imagined that ... hijackers would intentionally crash ... hijackers usually want to live."^[3] To the contrary, the apparently intentional crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 by its co-pilot on October 31, 1999,^[4] and a similar intentional crash of PSA Flight 1771 by a disgruntled former airline employee on December 7, 1987,^[5] and especially the case of AFR 8969, offered precedents that indicated otherwise.^{[according to whom? ][original research? ]} Similarly, it was stated that nobody imagined that hijackers would use commercial aircraft as weapons; however, in 1997, The Gore Commission, created by President Clinton in 1996 as a result of the TWA Flight 800 crash, published a report on the shortcomings in aviation security in the United States.^{[original research? ][6]} The report focused mainly on the dangers of placing bombs on aircraft and did not mention suicide hijacking or the use of aircraft as weapons.^[7]

Prior to the 9/11 attacks, a number of foreign nationals were taking pilot training in the U.S. and raised suspicion by being uninterested in learning how to land safely.^{[citation needed ]} The 9/11 Commission found that this failure to "connect the dots" and imagine what was being planned was an important contributing factor to the September 11 attacks, stating "the most important failure [concerning the 9/11 attacks] was one of imagination."^[8]

"Failure of imagination" has also been invoked in regards to the Apollo 1 fire by astronaut Frank Borman in 1967 when he spoke at the Apollo 1 investigation hearings (dramatized in the HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon in 1998).^[9]

It has also been mentioned in reference to design flaws in the RMS Titanic.^{[according to whom? ]}

Donald Rumsfeld, in the documentary The Unknown Known , suggests that the failure of the United States to anticipate the attack on Pearl Harbor was a failure of imagination.^{[citation needed ]}

The phrase has also been used to describe Israel's lack of preparedness for the 2023 surprise attack by Hamas.^[10]

• Argument from ignorance
• Black swan event
• Decision theory
• Epistemology
• Hindsight bias
• Russell's teapot
• Unknown unknown