"sophisticated, precise, well-funded"?

[RE]

There's media unanimity on the idea that these attacks required a kind of
wizardry, and this springboards right to talking about Bin Laden, our Great
Satan.  Perhaps he and his organization were involved, but this reminds me
of Nixon invading Cambodia, hoping to decapitate the NVA with a strike at a
nonexistent central headquarters.

At the risk of sounding like Robert Luttwak, what does it really take to do
something like this?  Once someone gets past concern about their own life
and organizing with the like-minded, it seems like it doesn't take much.
After probing the detection devices at different airports, you arm yourself
with weapons that can escape detection, read the airline schedules, and then
you act.  Does it take that much training to fly an airliner once it's taken
off?  (I've seen that pc-based flight sim experience is accepted for some
hours in pilot's certification.)   From a purely "operational" standpoint,
couldn't this be done without much central coordination?
re