Loch Johnson, a UGA political scientist who studies terrorism, is quoted in a New York Times article saying that eight years passed between the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 and the toppling of the towers in 2001. The quiet was an illusion; the Sept. 11 attacks were being systematically plotted. “Al Qaeda seems to like major events against the U.S. and has demonstrated a capacity for patience in the planning of such events,” Johnson said.