“Both sides recognized that Ali Mohamed had one-of-a-kind skills and experiences to support each side’s uniquely self-serving interests. Both sides had independently come to the same conclusion: Ali Mohamed was not the type of individual they could trust to become a card-carrying member of their respective organizations. The tipping point was how the two sides reacted. Al Qaeda leaders were able to overlook Ali Mohamed’s lack of Muslim fanaticism and his erratic connections to the U.S. government because they couldn’t imagine how they could achieve their ultimate terror objectives without the mission-essential knowledge and skills that only he possessed. Ali Mohamed’s U.S. government handlers, on the other hand, just plain could not imagine. The result of the tipping point was 9/11. Ali Mohamed wasn’t directly responsible for the execution of 9/11, but it’s easy to imagine how he could have been directly responsible for preventing it.”