The assumption by the writer is that these people were already suspects in some kind of nefarious activity, and that they had to use stealth techniques to hide out in this country. I not so sure that this is valid.

First, our INS is incredibly stupid. We have reports that paperwork bungling let, what is it...3 or 4 of those suspected in the hijacking free in June when they were being detained for something-or-another. it could be that the hijackers counted on our incompetence.

Second, just being of Arab descent or Islamic faith still isn't a crime in this country (yet...), and so long as they didn't raise any red flags (like wiring large amounts of cash around, or breaking any laws), there is no reason for anyone to pay attention to them. We were much more worried about Columbians learning to fly planes than Arabs learning to fly planes.

Which brings me to my final point/rant. We all know how difficult it is to fight a war on 2 fronts simultaneously. How could we possibly be distracted by a couple of Arabs moving legally throughout this country when we're fighting a "War on Drugs[tm]"? Our priorities were not set properly with respect to the true threat to our national security, so of course no one was tracking them. But just imagine if these same people had had Hispanic surnames and came from Columbia or Peru.... we'd have been all over them like stink on shit.