Just 20 minutes before the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center, the former commander of the USS Cole says he was inside CIA headquarters warning that it could take a catastrophic attack on American soil for the country to recognize the threat posed by Osama bin Laden. Then, his chilling prediction became reality. "Twenty minutes after I said that, the first plane hit the North Tower," retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold recalls. "I was literally leaving the headquarters when the plane hit the South Tower." Less than a year earlier, Lippold was commanding the USS Cole when al Qaeda suicide bombers attacked the destroyer in Yemen, killing 17 American sailors and injuring 37. Twenty-five years later, he says the timing still reinforces a lesson America cannot afford to forget about the devastating cost of terrorism. Read more⬇️