Top 15 9/11 smoking guns in order of smoke. For supporting links and notes, see below.
1) General Myers' schedule between the first WTC crash and the Pentagon crash and Senate confirmation hearing "explanation" for this.
2) Bush's schedule between the first WTC crash and the Pentagon crash, and subsequent lies about seeing the first crash on TV and thinking, "What a lousy pilot."
3) The utter lack of any air defense response to the four hijackings that took place over the span of almost 2 full hours, even though intercepting any hijacked planes had been SOP for the last 30 years.
4) Top Pentagon officials canceled travel plans on Sept. 10th.
5) The DOD just happened to be planning an attack to “wipe al Qaida off the face of the earth," which was all wrapped up and ready to be signed two days before 9/11.
6) Rumsfeld's schedule between the first WTC crash and the Pentagon crash.
7) US agents are told to back off Bin Laden almost the day Bush assumes the office of the Presidency.
8. Ashcroft himself was instructed not to fly commercial planes more than a month before the attack.
9) Absolutely no determination of who made at least hundreds of millions of dollars selling short on American and United Airlines (plus other affected stocks and options) just before and on 9/11.
10) Not one of the supposed 9/11 perpetrators has been positively identified from their remains. In fact, no attempt was even made to ID any of these remains, despite Saudi Arabia's world class national health care. All of the hijackers' death certificates read "John Doe." Contrast this with reports that every single other passenger on Flight 93 was positively ID’ed.
11) Out of thousands of arrests and detentions, only a single suspect has been charged in connection with 9/11 or post-9/11 domestic terrorism--and this guy was a walking neon sign broadcasting the coming terrorist attacks long before 9/11.
12) Someone happens to be running around with the US Military's anthrax sending it off in envelopes to democratic leaders--including Senator Patrick Leahy, who is high profile only in that he headed the justice committee that was to oversee the initial Senate approval of the Patriot Act. And, surprise, surprise, the FBI still doesn't have one decent lead here, despite some experts' well researched insistence that the culprit is being protected.
13) Bush personally asked Daschle not to probe into 9/11, and Cheney asked several times not to look too deeply. Then when public pressure from the victims' families forced the Bush Administration to agree to an independent commission, Cheney worked behind the scenes through Rep. Goss to scuttle the investigation.
14) No one had envisioned planes as missiles despite the 1999 Library of Congress Report, the 1999 United States Commission on National Security Report, the Filipino police warning in 1995, the Youssaf trial, Gore's 1997 Report on Terrorism, the Genoa Summit warning, a plane that flew into the White House in 1994, the Pentagon MASCAL simulation of plane crashes in December 2000, etc, etc.
15) No questioning of the Bin Laden family--instead then Bush administration was actively complicit in helping the Bin Ladens avoid any scrutiny or questioning, even to the point of allowing all of them to evacuate the country during the otherwise no-fly period of 9/12 and 9/13 and token, if any, pressure on the Saudi government to cooperate with any 9/11 investigation and/or hand over other Saudi nationals who may have been involved in the effort.
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Prior Knowledge:
1. US agents are told to back off Bin Laden almost the day Bush assumes the office of the Presidency (US agents told: Back off Bin Ladens,
http://old.smh.com.au/news/0111/07/world/world100.html and
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=103&row=1 ).
2. The Bush administration takes office and gives the Taliban $43 million, all the while contemplating attacking them and taking over for a planned pipeline (
http://www.indiareacts.com/archivefeatu ... no=10&ctg= and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/ ... 550366.stm ).
3. At the same time for some as yet unexplained reason, the DOD happened to be planning an attack to “wipe al Qaida off the face of the earth," which was all wrapped up and ready for the pen two days before 9/11 (U.S. planned for attack on al-Qaida,
http://www.msnbc.com/news/753359.asp ).
4. Bush gets an August briefing headed "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US" (Aug. Memo Focused On Attacks in U.S.,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... May17.html ).
5. In the meantime Israel (Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks,
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/ma ... wcia16.xml ), Germany (Echelon Gave Authorities Warning Of Attacks,
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170072.html ), Russia (
http://izvestia.ru/rubr.cgi?id=5542&idr=523%20 ), France (
http://detnews.com/2001/nation/0110/03/a07-309216.htm ), Italy (Italy Tells of Threat at Genoa Summit,
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... enoa.story ), and Egypt (Egypt Leader Says He Warned America,
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/LEB112A.html ) are all sending warnings to Bush of an imminent and major attack that is reported in the newspapers, but didn't seem to be noticed by the Bush administration.
6. Yet the Bush Administration was on high alert. Ashcroft himself was instructed not to fly commercial planes (Ashcroft Flying High,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/ ... 3601.shtml ).
7. On September 7, 2001, the State Department issued a “worldwide caution” which said: "American citizens may be the target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization." (
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... N92245.DTL )
8. Top Pentagon officials canceled travel plans on Sept. 10th (
http://www.msnbc.com/news/629606.asp?0sp=w13b2#BODY ).
9. No one had envisioned planes as missiles despite the 1999 Library of Congress Report (The Sociology And Psychology Of Terrorism,
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Sociology-Psy ... rorism.htm ), the 1999 United States Commission on National Security Report, the Filipino police warning in 1995, the Youssaf trial, Gore's 1997 Report on Terrorism (White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security,
http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/212fin~1.html ), the Genoa Summit warning, a plane that flew into the White House in 1994, and the Pentagon MASCAL simulation of plane crashes in December 2000 (Contingency planning Pentagon MASCAL exercise simulates scenarios in preparing for emergencies,
http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/Contingency_Planning.html ).
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The events of September 11th (see footnotes below).
A) Bush's schedule between the first WTC crash and the Pentagon crash.
B) Rumsfeld's schedule between the first WTC crash and the Pentagon crash.
C) General Myers' schedule between the first WTC crash and the Pentagon crash.
D) The utter lack of any air defense response to the four hijackings that took place over the span of almost 2 full hours.
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Post 9/11:
1. Someone happens to be running around with the US Military's anthrax sending it off in envelopes to democratic leaders. (George Monbiot: Riddle of the spores,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/anthrax/story ... 67,00.html ). And, surprise, surprise, the FBI still doesn't have one decent lead here (
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/Dail ... 20520.html ), despite some experts' well researched insistence that the culprit is being protected (
http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/index.cfm?id=655812002 and
http://www.fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxreport.htm ).
2. Bush personally asked Daschle not to probe into 9/11, and Cheney asked several times not to look too deeply (Bush asks Daschle to limit Sept. 11 probes,
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/01/ ... ror.probe/ ).
3. No questioning of the Bin Laden family--instead then Bush administration was actively complicit in helping them avoid any scrutiny or questioning, even to the point of allowing all of them to evacuate the country during the otherwise no-fly period of 9/12 and 9/13.
4. Token, if any, pressure on the Saudi government to cooperate with any 9/11 investigation and/or hand over other Saudi nationals who may have been involved in the effort.
5. Not one of the supposed 9/11 perpetrators has been positively identified from their remains. In fact, no attempt was even made to ID any of these remains, despite Saudi Arabia's world class national health care. All of the hijackers' death certificates read "John Doe." Contrast this with reports that every single other passenger on Flight 93 was positively ID’ed.
6. Out of thousands of arrests and detentions, only a single suspect has been charged in connection with 9/11 or post-9/11 domestic terrorism--and this guy was a walking neon sign broadcasting the coming terrorist attacks long before 9/11.
7. Absolutely no determination of who made at least hundreds of millions of dollars selling short on American and United Airlines (plus other affected stocks and options) just before and on 9/11.
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Supporting notes for the strange events of 9/11.
A) Bush's schedule between the first WTC crash and the Pentagon crash.
In July 2001, at the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy, US President George W. Bush was himself the suspected target of a terrorist plot to crash a hijacked commercial plane into a building. "Italian officials took the reports seriously enough to prompt extraordinary precautions during the July summit of the Group of 8 nations, including closing the airspace over Genoa and stationing antiaircraft guns at the city’s airport." (Sources: New York Newsday, Sept 19, 2001 and LA Times, Sept. 29, 2001,
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... enoa.story )
Given that Bush himself was a suspected target of a “hijacked plane bomb" terrorist attack in July, how can the Bush administration possibly explain the fact that Bush kept reading about a pet goat in a widely publicized, previously scheduled public appearance in Sarasota, FL only 5 miles from the Sarasota-Brandenton International Airport for nearly 30 minutes AFTER it had become obvious to everyone that the US was dealing with a coordinated attack of suicide-bomber-terrorist-hijackers? From 9/12 AP reports (for example,
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46692,00.html ): "In Florida, Bush was reading to children in a classroom at 9:05 a.m. when his chief of staff, Andrew Card, whispered into his ear. The president briefly turned somber before he resumed reading. He addressed the tragedy about a half-hour later."
Didn't it cross anybody's mind in the entire Bush entourage that the grammar school might be the terrorists' next target and that they just might want to get Bush and ALL OF THE LITTLE KIDS he was reading with out of harm's way? If not, why not?
Remember that just two months before, Bush himself was the suspected target of just such a terrorist plot. Is there no one in the entire Bush administration intelligence/Secret Service with a three digit IQ?
The simplest and clearest explanation for this bizarre reaction to the VERY real potential of toddler mass murder is administration foreknowledge at the highest levels. Bravado doesn't fly as an explanation because Bush would be taking little kids with him in any potential attack. Stunned inaction doesn't fly either because the primary mission of the entire Secret Service is to ensure the President's safety. There are only two choices here: the Bush administration was either CRIMINALLY INCOMPETENT or just plain CRIMINAL.
B) Rumsfeld's schedule between the first WTC crash and the Pentagon crash.
We also have the report of the Joint Chiefs of Staff which says that the first thing the FAA does when there's a hijacking is notify the Secretary of Defense. But according to Assistant Secretary of Defense Victoria Clarke, it was she who first told Rumsfeld about the World Trade Center attack. And after that, what did he do? According to Clarke, he stayed in his office until after the Pentagon was hit. He did not join her in the National Military Command Center.
Now, this is an unbelievable behavioral response. It can't be explained by saying there were no hijackings for many years. This woman comes in and tells Rumsfeld the two biggest buildings in the New York have just been hit by hijacked planes and Rumsfeld says, "I have to make some phone calls.”
What would be the reason for him staying out of the National Military Command Center for 45 minutes or more? What would be the *sane* reason? The only reason that we could think of was that if he wasn't in there, he couldn't be held responsible for the lack of response that he knew was going to take place. So it was important for him *not* to be in there at that time.
9/15 Victoria Clarke WBZ interview (
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001 ... 15wbz.html ):
Well, the terrible moment was actually earlier at about 8:40, 8:45 when we realized a plane and then a second plane had hit the World Trade Center. And immediately the crisis management process started up. A couple of us had gone into the secretary's office, Secretary Rumsfeld's office, to alert him to that, tell him that the crisis management process was starting up. He wanted to make a few phone calls. So a few of us headed across the hallway to an area called the National Military Command Center. He stayed in his office. We were in these rooms maybe 200 feet away where we felt the concussion. We immediately knew it was something bad. We weren't sure what. When it first happened, we didn't know what it was. But again, all the wheels were in motion. Everybody was doing what they were supposed to be doing.
The secretary was in his office, really not that far away from the side of the building that got hit by the plane. He and another person immediately ran down the hallway and went outside and helped some of the people, some of the casualties getting off the stretchers, etc. When he came back in the building about half an hour later, he was the first one that told us he was quite sure it was a plane. Based on the wreckage and based on the thousands and thousands of pieces of metal. He was the one that told us, the staff that was in the room. So he was really the first one who told us that it was most likely a plane.
Rumsfeld on Larry King Live (
http://www.september11news.com/Mysteries3.htm ):
KING: You were right here when the Pentagon...
Rumsfeld: I was.
KING: And someone told me that you had spoken to a congressional delegation...
Rumsfeld: Right here in this room.
KING: ... in this room about terrorism that morning.
Rumsfeld: I had said at -- I had an 8 o'clock breakfast -- that sometime in the next two, four, six, eight, 10, 12 months, there would be an event that would occur in the world that would be sufficiently shocking that it would remind people, again, how important it is to have a strong, healthy Defense Department that contributes -- that underpins peace and stability in our world. And that is what underpins peace and stability. It's the fact -- we can't have healthy economies and active lives unless we live in a peaceful, stable world. And I said that to these people.
And someone walked in and handed a note that said that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. And we adjourned the meeting. And I went in to get my CIA briefing right next door here, and the whole building shook within 15 minutes. And it was a jarring thing.
Rumsfeld Interview with Washington Post (
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/na ... 10902.html ):
Sitting here. I was in the room with a bunch of Congressmen, Senators -- Congressmen I think. I was talking about, they were talking about the problem of the Social Security lockboxes. They were all pro-defense and they were trying to figure out ways to get their colleagues to be more supportive.
I described what had happened since I had chaired the Ballistic Missile Threat Commission with India and Pakistan exploding nuclear weapons, and other countries firing off medium and long range missiles. And said without question in the next six to eight months those same people who were concerned about the Social Security lockbox were going to be wishing they were on the right side of these issues involving national security because our history is just peppered with examples of surprises. And asymmetrical events, that who knows what they'll be or where they'll be or when they'll be. And someone came in and said a plane had gone into the Trade Center.
So that meeting adjourned and they left the building. I sat here, and my CIA briefer was there, and I was -- then the whole building shook...
C) General Myers' schedule between the first WTC crash and the Pentagon crash.
General Myers was acting head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 11th. On September 13th, he's going for a nomination hearing to be made head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This is the most important day of his life because on this day that Myers, an Air Force General with thousands of hours of time flying fighter planes, is acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—it’s the only day in history that the continental United States has ever been attacked from the air.
Myers claims he is at Senator Max Cleland's office at 8:40 EDT. He sees on TV that the first plane has hit the World Trade Center. He claims on Armed Services Radio that at that point he went in and met with Cleland for an hour. Nobody called him and told him that a second plane had hit, that the air corridor had been closed between Washington and Cleveland, that a plane had been hijacked in Ohio and was flying back to the Pentagon. Then he also claims that when he walked out of Cleland's office, he was handed a portable phone and it was the head of NORAD--the North American Aerospace Defense Command--telling him the Pentagon had been hit.
Now these are unbelievable assertions. Doesn't the man have a beeper? Doesn't the man have a cell phone? Doesn't the man have a secretary who knows where he is? General Myers was, after all, acting head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military. Wouldn't anybody inform him that planes were being hijacked and flying into buildings? And you know what Myers said he talked to Max Cleland about? He claims he sat there and they discussed the dangers of terrorism. Now this is like a satire, isn't it?
Here is General Myers' response at his confirmation hearing. Note Senator Max Cleland's out-of-the-blue nonsequitur which gives Myers his alibi.
Senate Armed Services Committee Holds Hearing On Nomination of General Richard Myers to be Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C., SEPTEMBER 13, 2001.
SENATOR LEVIN: Was the Defense Department contacted by the FAA or the FBI or any other agency after the first two hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade Center, prior to the time that the Pentagon was hit?
GENERAL MYERS: Sir, I don't know the answer to that question. I can get that for you, for the record...That order, to the best of my knowledge, was after the Pentagon was struck. ... I was with Senator Cleland when this happened and went back to the Pentagon. And they were evacuating, of course, the Pentagon at the time. And I went into the National Military Command Center because that's essentially my battle station when things are happening.
SENATOR LEVIN: Was the Defense Department contacted by the FAA or the FBI or any other agency after the first two hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade Center, prior to the time that the Pentagon was hit?
GENERAL MYERS: Sir, I don't know the answer to that question. I can get that for you, for the record.
SENATOR LEVIN: Thank you. Did the Defense Department take -- or was the Defense Department asked to take action against any specific aircraft?
GENERAL MYERS: Sir, we were . . .
SENATOR LEVIN: And did you take action against -- for instance, there have been statements that the aircraft that crashed in Pennsylvania was shot down. Those stories continue to exist.
GENERAL MYERS: Mr. Chairman, the armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft. When it became clear what the threat was, we did scramble fighter aircraft, AWACS, radar aircraft and tanker aircraft to begin to establish orbits in case other aircraft showed up in the FAA system that were hijacked. But we never actually had to use force.
SENATOR CLELAND: General, it's a good thing that, as I look back at that morning, that you and I were meeting. It's a good thing we were meeting here and not us meeting in the Pentagon because about the time you and I were having our visit, discussing the need to boost our conventional forces, to look at the question of terrorism and attacks on the United States, at just about that very moment, the Pentagon was being hit.
GENERAL MYERS: Yes, sir.
SENATOR BILL NELSON: ... General Myers, The second World Trade tower was hit shortly after 9:00. And the Pentagon was hit approximately 40 minutes later. That’s approximately. You would know specifically what the timeline was. The crash that occurred in Pennsylvania after the Newark westbound flight was turned around 180 degrees and started heading back to Washington was approximately an hour after the World Trade Center second explosion. You said earlier in your testimony that we had not scrambled any military aircraft until after the Pentagon was hit. And so, my question would be: why?
GENERAL MYERS: I think I had that right, that it was not until then. I'd have to go back and review the exact timelines.
SENATOR BILL NELSON: ... If we knew that there was a general threat on terrorist activity, which we did, and we suddenly have two trade towers in New York being obviously hit by terrorist activity, of commercial airliners taken off course from Boston to Los Angeles, then what happened to the response of the defense establishment once we saw the diversion of the aircraft headed west from Dulles turning around 180 degrees and, likewise, in the aircraft taking off from Newark and, in flight, turning 180 degrees? That's the question. I leave it to you as to how you would like to answer it. But we would like an answer.
GENERAL MYERS: You bet. I spoke, after the second tower was hit, I spoke to the commander of NORAD, General Eberhart. And at that point, I think the decision was at that point to start launching aircraft...
{stickdog's note: OK, so if he talked to Eberhart after the second tower was hit, why did he then meet with Cleland for 35 minutes to talk about "the question of terrorism and attacks on the United States"? I mean, wasn't he aware that America was currently experiencing just such an attack--the very worst such attack in its entire history? How in the world did he manage to while away the 45 minutes with Cleland such that he didn't arrive at the National Military Command Center, his admitted "battle station when things are happening," until the Pentagon was being evacuated (around 9:45 at the earliest)? Didn’t having hijacker terrorists hit the two tallest buildings in the United States with passenger jets qualify as a time "when things are happening"?}
In this case, if my memory serves me -- and I'll have to get back to you for the record -- my memory says that we had launched on the one that eventually crashed in Pennsylvania. I mean, we had gotten somebody close to it, as I recall. I'll have to check that out.
SENATOR BILL NELSON: ... Commenting from CNN on the timeline, 9:03 is the correct time that the United Airlines flight crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center; 9:43 is the time that American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. And 10:10 a.m. is the time that United Airlines flight 93 crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. So that was 40 minutes between the second tower being hit and the Pentagon crash. And it is an hour ands even minutes until the crash occurred in Pennsylvania.
SENATOR LEVIN: The time that we don't have is when the Pentagon was notified, if they were, by the FAA or the FBI or any other agency, relative to any potential threat or any planes having changed direction or anything like that. And that's the same which you will give us because that's . . .
GENERAL MYERS: I can answer that. At the time of the first impact on the World Trade Center {stickdog's note: around 8:40}, we stood up our crisis action team. That was done immediately. So we stood it up. And we started talking to the federal agencies. The time I do not know is when NORAD responded with fighter aircraft. I don't know that time.
SENATOR LEVIN: Or the time that I asked you for, which was whether the FAA or FBI notified you that other planes had turned direction from their path, their scheduled path, and were returning or aiming towards Washington, whether there was any notice from any of them, because that's such an obvious shortfall if there wasn't.
GENERAL MYERS: Right.
SENATOR LEVIN: And in any event, but more important, if you could get us that information.
GENERAL MYERS: It probably happened. As you remember, I was not in the Pentagon at that time, so that part of it is a little hazy. {stickdog's note: This is now two days after 9/11.} After that, we started getting regular notifications through NORAD, FAA to NORAD, on other flights that we were worried about. And we knew about the one that eventually crashed in Pennsylvania. I do not know, again, whether we had fighters scrambled on it. I have to . . .
SENATOR LEVIN: If you could get us those times then. We know you don' t know them.
GENERAL MYERS: But we'll get them.
{stickdog's note: Thank God the Senate quickly confirmed this knowledgeable bastion of combat-ready competence as the head of our entire US military structure!}
D) The utter lack of any air defense response to the four hijackings that took place over the span of almost 2 full hours.
There's a huge Air Force Base 10 miles from the Pentagon, Andrews Air Force Base that has two combat-ready fighter wings. The Air National Guard Fighter Wing describes itself as being maintained in the highest possible state of combat readiness. None of those planes went in the air. But then, a few minutes after the Pentagon was hit, they did go in the air, because we have news reports about that. Why would that happen?
The FAA, according to their account, closed the air corridor between Cleveland and Washington, DC. (1) If they closed this air corridor, which is one of the most extreme actions the FAA has ever taken, why wouldn't they put planes in the air over Washington? Note that this is after the after the first two hits. The second World Trade Center hit was at 9:03 EDT, approximately. So this was at 9:06 EDT, within three minutes.
The U.S. has a very sophisticated air force. On Emperor's Clothes we posted some of the documents which lay out what NORAD, the FAA (
http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-2.htm ), and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are supposed to do when there's a hijacking. (2) The FAA says they knew or strongly suspected there was a hijacking by 8:20 EDT (
http://emperors-clothes.com/9-11backups/nd23.htm ). (3) We believe they knew sooner, but let's take their word. Vice President Cheney said on 'Meet the Press’ on September 16th, that the Secret Service went on emergency open lines with the FAA as soon as the first plane hit the World Trade Center which was at 8:45 EDT. So, if the Secret Service was on open lines to the FAA at 8:45 and if at 9:06 EDT the corridor between Washington and Cleveland was closed, then how could it be that no planes were put in the air over Washington?
The Pentagon was hit at approximately 9:45 EDT, so we're talking about an hour and 40 minutes between the time they knew there was a hijacking and the time the Pentagon was hit. That hijacked plane was flying west from Boston. So they knew it could have been flying to Washington, right? Why didn't they put planes in the air?
Now, no official has answered these questions—which is amazing, because the documentation that we've produced has gotten a tremendous readership. The answers they have given in general to this question, because it has been raised by millions of people, is, “We just weren't ready. We didn't realize this kind of thing was coming."
That was the first answer they gave. And then they changed the answer on the 14th of September and said they had put planes in the air but it was too late. This is very important because they didn't say that during the first three days. They only discovered that they had put planes in the air three days, four days after the event. Now just think about that.
They claimed two planes were put in the air from Otis Air Force Base but weren't in time to catch Flight 11 before it hit the World Trade Center. And they claimed planes were sent out of Langley Air Force Base, which is around 126 miles south of Washington, DC, near Newport News. They claimed that again those planes were too late.
Now, that story is simply absurd. Consider that a plane hit the Pentagon, supposedly, because we're going by their story, at 9:45 EDT. That plane left Dulles Airport. It went west 300 miles to Ohio and turned around. Supposedly the transponder was turned off. Turning off a transponder does not make a plane invisible. It merely means that certain aspects of the tracking become non-functional and some more recent radar can't then see the plane, but basic radar can. There are multiple radar stations that can scan that air corridor, including military stations. There are also military aircraft that have the capacity to go up and see 250 miles with basic radar. So they can see planes with the transponder turned off. I mean, after all, hostile military planes can't be expected to turn on their transponders when they invade your country.
Keep in mind that it was at 9:00 EDT that this happened. This was around 30 minutes after they knew another plane had been hijacked and flown into a building. Planes have not been hijacked in the US for many years and this would be the second possible hijacking. A few minutes later they closed the air corridor from Cleveland to Washington, D.C., so they knew something was happening, right? How could it be possible for Flight 77 to go to Ohio and turn around under those circumstances and fly 50 minutes back to the Pentagon and nothing be done? How could no planes be put in the air over Washington, DC during the entire period that that plane was coming from Ohio back to Washington, DC, given all that they knew and given that they knew enough to close the air corridor? This is like you're standing there and a dog walks by and you notice it has the head of a cat.
You may ask, wouldn't it be reasonable to say that the people in the government were unprepared? Many people have raised this point. The media raised it a good deal. People in the government said it, Rumsfeld said it; they all made this point. However, just consider the spectacle of Bush reading to children about goats after the second WTC crash, when the air corridor to Washington, DC from Cleveland had been shut down and when, Cheney said on Meet the Press, there were direct lines from the Secret Service to the FAA, and the Secret Service was with Bush. And here he is sitting in a publicly known place reading to children--it's just mind-boggling. It pushes credulity way past absurd levels.
You know, ordinary people say, "I was shocked." And the spin-masters are trying to create the impression that the same goes for the people responsible for air safety and air defense, that they're just like us. But they are not. Air traffic control is a carefully organized, military-type operation or else the planes would hit each other. When a plane goes off course, it doesn't have to be hijacked. And if they can't make contact with the pilot and find out what's going on, they have a procedure--which is to send a plane up. They don't have to have evidence of hostile intent to send a plane up.
The FAA reported in Newsday that they knew at 8:20 that Flight 11 had been hijacked out of Boston. Flight11 hit the World Trade Center at about 8:45. Now, what possible reason would anyone have to believe that a plane, which had been hijacked, and then hit the biggest building in the US, did it by mistake? That would be absurd. Plus, we have reports from, for instance, the Daily News in New York: "9:08 AM. Police radio broadcasts, 'This was a terrorist attack. Notify the Pentagon.'" Daily News, New York, September 12th.
There were articles in the New York Times of September 13th and September 15th which stated that the Pentagon knew that that plane was coming from Ohio. The Pentagon was in touch with the FAA immediately about it. Now, under those circumstances why wouldn't they scramble planes into the air from Andrews Air Force Base? Just think about it. The President's plane flies into and departs from Andrews Air Force Base. You mean to tell me they have no fighter escorts there? If the President is in trouble they have to call from Langley Air Force Base to please come help? They have 10,000 people working there and they can't put a single plane in the air? Please.
The Andrews Air Force Website, prior to 911, stated that its job included the protection of Washington, D.C. After 9-11 that information was removed. Now unfortunately for them, there is an archive Website, which we have cited, which maintains images of Websites in previous periods. So we can prove that the information was there, and was removed. (4)
Before 9-11, the D.C. Air National Guard Website had a statement that they maintained planes in the highest possible state of combat readiness. (5) Now if that doesn't mean they're ready to fly, what does it mean? What's the highest possible state of combat readiness? That statement was on the DC Air National Guard Website before 9-11. (5)
On one of those Websites there's a note that says it was changed on September 12th. Literally. Why? Why would they remove the information that the job of these forces was to protect Washington, D.C. unless to hide the fact that they had failed at their job?
Now, how would it be possible for a failure like that to occur out of incompetence? We're not talking about ordinary incompetence. Two planes had hit buildings in New York. They knew those planes had been hijacked. They knew a hijacked plane was coming towards Washington, D.C. They didn't know it for just five minutes. They knew it for almost an hour. It doesn't make sense.
