TALK ABOUT HINDSIGHT: This story beggars belief on many different levels - such as the sheer idiocy of the official: If what she's saying is true, she literally wouldn't know a terorrist if one threatened to slit her throat.
On the other hand, it is reassuring on two levels:
1) It shows that Al-Qaeda is not made up of geniuses - trying to recruit a government official you just met into Al Qaeda? Seriously?
2) I'd like to think that many people who would've been similarly oblivious before 9/11 would not be so now, so that any such slip-ups would be noticed & reported before thousands die.
We can hope.