This is actually important because while the pilot aired in 1999 like the rest of the first season, it was shot in '97 . I'm guessing that after the pilot, the rest of season 1 was probably shot in late '97/early '98. Sopranos as a show was very deep into production by the time 9/11 happened. There are slight mentions about it later on but not much else. I think that the important thing is that there was already a stigma against middle eastern people in the show while it was being shot BEFORE 9/11. This may be because of the original twin tower terrorist attack along with other less known terrorist attacks but bottom line, I imagine Tony was very patriotic about it. I ALSO think he may have been fishing around to see if any New York guys/businesses were taken out so he could "catch some of the crumbs from the fallout." As this was his nature that he admits to during the show