Jeryl Bier sends along this item, pointing out that the U.S. State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council issued a memo five days before the attacks in Libya and Egypt, declaring that there was no indication of any attacks on the 9/11 anniversary.

Terrorism and Important Dates
Global
9/6/2012
OSAC currently has no credible information to suggest that al-Qa’ida or any other terrorist group is plotting any kind of attack overseas to coincide with the upcoming anniversary of September 11. However, constituents often have concerns around important dates, holidays, and major events, Often times, these concerns are the result of increased media attention to the issue, rather than credible evidence of a terrorist plot.

Assessing, predicting, and preventing the actions of terror groups is undoubtedly difficult, perhaps one of the hardest tasks our government faces. But every erroneous assessment, like this one, ties our stomachs into knots, seeing that a long-established, well-funded, global-scale system can still make the wrong call, with deadly consequences.