This is a useful reminder that intelligence practices have improved since 2001, but we shouldn’t let that obscure bigger lessons. The Iraq WMD debacle shows how politicised intelligence and absent accountability can produce catastrophic decisions — we need independent oversight, transparency and consequences when agencies fail. And learning from 9/11 means more than “joining the dots” for security services: it means resisting the expansion of mass surveillance, torture, racial profiling and indefinite detention, and investing instead in diplomacy, community resilience, and policies that tackle the root causes of violence. Honouring victims requires justice and a recommitment to civil liberties, not endless securitisation. :(