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AIRFORCE RESPONSE
Sept. 11, 2001
A summary, according to mainstream media/military reports.
For
more in-depth analysis, see sources below.
1) At 8:13am, Flight 11 from Boston stops responding (by radio) with
Air Traffic Control.
2) By 8:20am, transponder contact is lost and
the plane begins to go, (or is already) dramatically off-course.
3) Each of these instances, taken separately, constitutes an
emergency according to FAA Order 7110.65M 10-2-5.
4) 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). Between Sept. 2000
and June 2001, fighters were scrambled 67 times.
5) By 8:24, the hijacking of Flight 11 is confirmed, as a controller hears someone say, "''We have some planes.
Just stay quiet and you will be OK. If you try to make any moves, you'll
endanger yourself and the airplane."
6) The Nashua (ATC) controllers say they "didn't know when the
military was contacted, but that it was routine to do so immediately when a hijacking is
under way."
7) Yet NORAD claims that they were not informed for another 14
minutes!! -at 8:38.
8) When NORAD finally responds, they notify OTIS AFB, (about two
hundred miles east of Flight 11's position). This decision is made just
after they are informed, (at 8:43) that a second plane in
the same area has been hijacked, (Flight 175) heading west, (away from
Otis).
9) Top military spokesmen say cutbacks caused a reduction in the
number of bases "on alert," (from 100 to 7 since 1990) meaning that
intercepts had to come from a greater distance, (General Richard Myers, Senate
confirmation hearing).
10) This story is repeated without question by the mainstream media.
11) Seven bases on the coastal borders for the entire United States!
Yet there is a dozen or more Air Force bases in the general vicinity
that have "battle-ready" fighter squadrons, (Syracuse,
Philadelphia, Atlantic City, amongst others). Training missions are
routine. Are they saying there was not a single plane on the tarmac,
fuelled up, or already in the air, from ANY of those bases? Nor is this
what occurred during the Payne Stewart crises, where four
different bases were called in as the plane flew across the continent.
(25 October 1999).
12) Military spokesmen describe the
planes from Otis as flying "like a scalded ape." "Over 500 mph." Yet
according to the American Federation of Scientists, the top speed of the F-15's (from Otis) is 1800+ mph.
Though this top speed is rarely achieved with the full weight of fuel
and weapons, the Otis planes actually fly at less than half their
achievable speed.
13) The fighter-planes arrive in New York City at approximately 9:20
-after the two hijacked planes had crashed into the World Trade Centers-
an HOUR and THIRTEEN MINUTES AFTER THE ORIGINAL LOST CONTACT WITH FLIGHT
11. -----------------------------------------------------------
14) Flight 77 goes well off-course, (temporarily) at
approximately 8:40 am.
15) At approximately 9:00am, transponder signal and radio contact is lost. The plane
reverses course, and heads directly back toward Washington, at the same
time that a second, hijack-confirmed plane has struck the World Trade
Center. At 9:06, the FAA informs all air traffic control centers that
Flight 77 has been hijacked.
16) 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 full forty minutes after a known hijacked airliner
had crashed into the WTC.
17) 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)
-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).
18) 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.)
19) Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top Pentagon officials
claim they were "unaware" that flight 77 was
heading towards Washington; when, in fact, BY LAW, the FAA is obligated to inform the
National Military Commnd Center in the Pentagon, (and the Secretary of
Defense in particular) as soon as a hijacking is confirmed; that is, at
8:24, (FAA Order 7610.4J 7-1-2; CJCSI 3610.01A,
6/1/2001).
20) These regulations are partially confirmed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
General Richard B. Myers, who admits before the Senate on Sept. 13th
that the Pentagon's "crisis-action team" was "up" by 8:50; yet the
General fails to mention that HE was NOT EVEN NOTIFIED by the "team"
that a crisis was underway for another 50 MINUTES! -that is, until AFTER
the attack on the Pentagon. Neither does he explain, (nor is he asked
to) why, if the crisis-action team was "up" at 8:50 am, planes were not
actually scrambled until AFTER THE PENTAGON WAS HIT, (fifty minutes
later). Standing before the Senate on Sept. 13th, the General changes
his story twice, and says "I don't know" ten times. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21) We are further told that the Pentagon was "unaware" that Flight 93 had been hijacked, and
that there were NO FIGHTERS in the vicinity when the plane went down.
Yet the FAA had informed NORAD that Flight 93 had been hijacked at 9:16, FIFTY MINUTES BEFORE the
crash. There is ample evidence, in fact, to suggest that there was a
fighter in the immediate vicinity, and that it shot the hijacked plane
down. For a very thorough analysis, see
www.flight93crash.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22) George W. Bush is aware of the crisis before he
leaves his hotel in Sarasota, Florida, just before 9am. 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 approximately thirty
minutes.('AP' 9/12/2001, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/12/2001 Pg. A 20)
Later we hear that George. W Bush is supposedly the only one who can
order any shootdowns. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23) 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 filed away, two weeks
later, by a compliant press (Washington Post, 9/27/2001, p.
12). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We don't have all the answers.
Here's what we know:
Top military officials repeatedly lied about the extent to which they
were aware of the crises. Their words are not to be believed.
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, has been matched by an exceptionally thrifty and
well-coordinated fraud of an FBI investigation/conviction of the
supposed hijackers, the invasion of Afghanistan, the "Patriot Act," and
so on.
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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
The unanswered questions
remain.
------------------------------------------------------
Primary Sources:
http://www.communitycurrency.org/MainIndexMX.html
http://www.unansweredquestions.org/timeline/timelinepart2.html
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/
[NOTE on source,
http://www.usatoday.com/graphics/news/gra/gattack/index.htm: scroll down
to bottom of page, Attack on America, "how planes reached..." for
graphic "flash" map of flight-paths].
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