Ten years ago this month, America was more concerned about summer vacation than terror attacks. The big movie at the mall was "American Pie II," which had just taken over the box office lead from "Rush Hour II," and Beyonce was thinking about ditching her band for a solo career.
"The big stories in the news were about shark attacks, wildfires and a missing Congressional intern named Chandra. A teenage baseball player became a hero, and then a villain, after he pitched a perfect game at the Little League World Series. There were also inklings that something might be amiss at an energy company called Enron. By the summer of 2001, Americans had become all too familiar with "hanging chads," but few had ever heard of al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.
While the nation drifted through the dog days, however, a group of terrorists was in the final stages of planning a series of attacks that would kill 3,000 people on September 11. Much of the federal government seemed to have been in a summer daze as well, missing the warning signs of what would become the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil. While some in the intelligence community raised red flags, the White House had brushed off warnings of an impending attack and the CIA was failing to share information with the FBI about the terrorists' travels.
"On the following pages, the ABC News Investigative Team's 9/11 timeline details what America was doing and what the hijackers were doing, day-by-day, in August and September 2001. In daily updates, we track the hijackers as they go to flight school. We shadow them as they buy blue blazers - and airline tickets and knives. We also watch as CIA analysts and FBI agents try to sound the alarm about the rising threat, and are ignored. With fresh entries each day from Aug. 11 to Sept. 10, "While America Slept" provides a maddening chronology of the steps and missteps that would change America forever. Click on the link at August 11, 2001 (below and to the right) to start following the trail./p