Off topic -- MAYBE???
Does anyone else still have a problem with some of this?
Airforce Response
At 8:20 am, Flight 11 from Boston ceases its transponder signal, radio contact lost, plane goes dramatically off-course. According to NORAD, it takes Air Traffic Control EIGHTEEN MINUTES to inform them about Flight 11, (8:38) in contrast to routine procedure. (CNN) Compare this to the "Payne Stewart" incident of 1999. (National Transportation Safety Report)
See CNN, Village Voice, USA Today, www.flightexplorer.com (radar reports.) Each of these instances, taken separately, constitutes an emergency according to FAA Order 7110.65M 10-2-5. According to Bob Arnott of MSNBC, "Pilots are supposed to hit each fix with pinpoint accuracy. If a plane deviates by 15 degrees, or two miles from that course, the flight controllers will hit the panic button.... It‚s considered a real emergency, like a police car screeching down a highway at 100 miles an hour." Routine response to such emergencies is to order "fighter-intercepts" into the air, to regain contact with the pilot, (NORAD spokesman, Boston Globe, 9/15/2000).
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NORAD notifies OTIS AFB, (about two hundred miles east of Flight 11's position) just after being told of a second hijacked plane in the same area, (Flight 175) heading west, (away from Otis). Top military spokesmen say cutbacks caused a reduction in the number of bases "on alert," (from 100 to 7) meaning that intercepts had to come from greater distance.(General Richard Myers, Senate confirmation hearing, Newsday, 9/23, St. Augustine Journal) Seven bases on the coastal borders for the entire United States! Again, this is not what occurred during the Payne Stewart crises, where four different bases where called in as the plane flew across the continent.('ABC News,' 25 October 1999) Numerous airforce bases in the eastern U.S. are listed on the internet as maintaining battle-ready fighter squadrons. Syracuse, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, amongst others.(http://www.communitycurrency.org/Part1B.html) According to the American Federation of Scientists, the top speed of the F-15's from Otis is 1800+ miles. Although military spokesmen describe the planes from Otis as flying "like a scalded ape," they actually fly at less than half their top speed.(St. Augustine Journal, 9/16/2001, AP, 9/19/2001) The planes arrive in New York City at approximately 9:20 -after two planes had crashed into the World Trade Centers- a FULL HOUR AFTER THE ORIGINAL LOST CONTACT WITH FLIGHT 11. (Compare that to Payne Stewart incident).
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Flight 77 goes well off-course, (temporarily) at approximately 8:40 am.(USA Today) Approximately 9:00am, transponder signal and radio contact is lost.(8) The plane reverses course, and heads directly back toward Washington, at the same time that a second plane has struck the World Trade Center. At 9:06, the FAA informs all air traffic control centers that Flight 77 has been hijacked; yet NORAD claims it is not until 9:24 that the FAA informs them of the hijacking; TWENTY FIVE MINUTES AFTER CONTACT WITH THE PLANE HAD BEEN LOST -and all this, a further fifteen minutes after a known hijacked airliner had crashed into the WTC. (Newsday, 9/23/2001, CNN, 9/16/2001) NORAD later claims that fighters were dispatched from Langley AFB, 130 miles away; when, in fact, four separate newspaper reports show fighters scrambling from Andrews AFB, (ten miles outside Washington) - yet only AFTER the attack on the Pentagon. (San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/12/2001; NBC Nightly News, (6:30 PM ET) 9/11/2001; Denver Post, 9/11/2001; Sunday Telegraph, (London), 9/14/2001. The reports about Andrews were soon quashed -the military website quickly changed to show that no fighters were stationed there; and the reports about Langley did not surface until Sept. 14, contradicting both, General Myers on the 13th, and Dick Cheney on the 16th (Meet the Press, interview, 9/16/2001.)
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top Pentagon officials claim they were "unaware" that flight 77 was heading towards Washington (Newsday, 9/23/2001); when, in fact, BY LAW, the FAA is obligated to inform the National Military Commnd Center in the Pentagon, as soon as a hijacking is confirmed, that is, at 8:28 (FAA Order 7610.4J 7-1-2; CJCSI 3610.01A, 6/1/2001; CNN, 10/26/1999; emperors-clothes.com. This is confirmed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Richard Myers, who admits before the Senate that the Pentagon's "crisis-action team" was "up" by 8:50 (Senate Confirmation hearings, 9/13/2001); yet the General fails to inform us that HE was NOT EVEN NOTIFIED by the "team" that a crisis was underway for another 50 MINUTES! - until AFTER the attack on the Pentagon.(American Forces Press Service, 10/23/2001) Standing before the Senate Confirmation hearings on Sept. 13th, speaking on the bombings, General Myers says "I don't know" ten times.
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We are further told that the Pentagon was "unaware" that Flight 93 had been hijacked,(Newsday, 9/23/2001) and that there were NO FIGHTERS in the vicinity when the plane went down; when, in fact, the FAA had informed NORAD that Flight 93 had been hijacked at 9:16, FIFTY MINUTES BEFORE. (CNN, 9/16/2001)
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George W. Bush is made aware of the crisis before he leaves his hotel in Sarasota, Florida, just before 9am.(16) According to Vice-President Dick Cheney, "the secret service... FAA... had open lines after the World trade Center was [hit]." (Meet the Press, 9/16/2001) Cheney says he was whisked into the basement of the White House for his own protection; yet George W. Bush was clearly in a more-vulnerable position: out in the open, a very public arena, schedule well-publicized; and he continues to his appointment in a third-grade classroom. When he is updated not once, not twice, but thrice about the crisis, he continues sitting in the classroom for a full thirty minutes.('AP' 9/12/2001, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/12/2001 Pg. A 20; CNN "Breaking News" 9:25, 9/11/2001) Only later do we hear that George. W Bush is the only one who can order any shootdowns.
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After making a brief statement at 9:30, the President takes off from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport at 10:00 a.m. aboard Air Force One with no fighter protection. The plane is diverted away from Washington for nine hours, limping home with an extraordinary fighter protection, under the guise of some supposed "threat" to Airforce One,(William Saffire, New York Times, 9/12/2001, 13; CNN, "Breaking News.") All this is quietly accepted as a cover-story, two weeks later, by a compliant press (Washington Post, 9/27/2001, p. 12). Also see www.mycountryrightorwrong.net.
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Top military officials repeatedly lied about the extent to which they were aware of the crises. George W. Bush and his entourage acted as if they were in no danger -and under no urgency to act. The apparent incompetence of the administration, military, the FBI, has been matched by an exceptionally thrifty and well-coordinated FBI investigation/conviction of the supposed hijackers, the invasion of Afghanistan, the "Patriot Act," and so on.
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The media neglected to raise the most-elementary questions about government/military behavior in the worst case of security breakdown in U.S. history - costing over 3,000 lives. |
