Friday, March 28, 2008

A Lie Called 911: Why A Federal Grand Jury Must Indict Bush and Cheney

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

It's time to drive a stake through the heart of an evil beast --Bush's official conspiracy theory of 911. We are expected to believe that 19 Arab hijackers brought down the twin towers and damaged the Pentagon by flying hijacked airliners into them. Proof that the story is a lie is, at the same time, probable cause to indict Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and others in this criminal administration for the crimes of mass murder and treason.

Moreover, there is now evidence that 'flight manifests' were 'revised' --after the fact --to shore up the holes in Bush's official conspiracy theory. What is found on pro-government websites may be called "official' but they are not! They are, however, easily proven to be lies.

FBI Director Robert Mueller admitted that the FBI had no evidence to link the 19 'Muslim men' who have apparently disappeared --neither on the autopsy list or the original 'official flight manifests'. In speech to the Common Wealth Club in San Francisco on April 19, 2003, Mueller stated that the purported hijackers 'left no paper trial'. "In our investigation", he said: "we have not uncovered a single piece of paper - either here in the United States or in the treasure trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere - that mentioned any aspect of the Sept. 11 plot."

As many as nine 'hijackers' survived 911. Nevertheless, a pro-'official conspiracy' web site has posted what it calls "official manifest images" in which all alledged hijackers are listed in place on the flights in question. The very name of the page is misleading: 'official manifest images". The list provided in fancy graphics is represented as 'official' but it is most certainly not official.
Astute observers noticed right away that there were no Arabic sounding names on any of the flight manifests of the planes that "crashed" Sept 11. A list of names on a piece of paper is not evidence, but an autopsy by a pathologist is.

I undertook by FOIA request, to obtain that autopsy list of the people on Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon. You are invited to view it below. Guess what? Still no Arabs on the list. In my opinion, the monsters who planned this crime made a mistake by not including Arabic names on the original list to make the ruse seem more believable.

When airline disasters occur, airlines will routinely provide a manifest list for anxious families. You may have noticed that even before Sep 11th, airlines were pretty meticulous about getting an accurate head count before takeoff. It seems very unlikely to me that FIVE Arabs sneaked onto a flight with weapons.

No Arabs On Flight 77, Thomas R. Olmsted, MD, 6-23-3

An 'official flight manifest' differs from what pro-government sites are now calling "official manifest images" in that there were not then nor now Arab names on the list. Rather, Olmsted's passenger list matches precisely what had been originally reported and is still reported by CNN. There is not a single Arab name on the list. The list had obviously not yet been revised by pro-Bush revisionists.

That bears repeating: the original flight manifests did not and do not include the name of a single Arab hijacker.

Here is the 'official list' of Hijacking suspects from the FBI website:
Flight 175: Marwan Al-Shehhi, Fayez Ahmed, Mohald Alshehri, Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Alghamdi
Flight 11: Waleed M Alshehri, Wail Alshehri, Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz Alomari and Satam Al Suqami
Flight 77: Khalid Al-Midhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaq Alhamzi, Salem Alhamzi and Hani Hanjour
Flight 93: Ahmed Alhaznawi, Ahmed Alnami, Ziad Jarrahi and Saeed Alghamdi

Now he is protesting his innocence from Casablanca, Morocco.
Flight 77: Khalid Al-Midhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaq Alhamzi, Salem Alhamzi and Hani Hanjour
Flight 93: Ahmed Alhaznawi, Ahmed Alnami, Ziad Jarrahi and Saeed Alghamdi
[Now he is protesting his innocence from Casablanca, Morocco.]

Alleged hijackers on Flight 77 - Nawaf Al-Hazmi , Khalid Al-Midhar
As an aside, I think it interesting that a hijacking 'suspect' should 'protest his innocence'. If he were guilty, he would be dead, incapable of protest! Being alive, however, is compelling evidence that he is not only innocent, but that Bush's official conspiracy theory is a pack of lies just as were his allegations of WMD in Iraq.

Several mainstream media have reported 'living hijackers'. Pro-government conspiracy theorists cannot explain the fact that numerous 'hijackers', found on the FBI's list of suspects, are still alive and giving interviews. [See: BBC: Hijack 'suspects' alive and well] The BBC story includes quotes from 'dead' hijackers. That would be impossible if you subscribe to the propaganda and mis-information that has been put forward by a marginal, pro-government site called: 911 Myths...reading between the lies. This is the site responsible for a 'fancy graphic' listing 'Arab Suspects' that never showed up on 'official flight manifests' released in response to a formal FOIA request, delivered to Dr. Olmsted [previously cited]. The list, an 'official flight manifest' provided Dr. Olmsted, conforms to the list that was posted and represented as official by CNN. There is not a single Arab name on the list.

CNN has likewise posted a list of suspects based upon an 'official list' of 'hijackers' provided by the FBI. The name Hani Hanjour shows up on the FBI list of suspects, but, inconsistently, he is missing from the 'official flight manifests' that were released to Dr. Olmsted, the same list that is still reported by CNN.

Now official conspiracy theorists have faith that Hani Hanjour piloted Flight 77 into the Pentagon where the lives of all on board were lost! Significantly, Hani Hanjour is not listed on the 'official passenger manifest' of Flight 77. The Washington Post reported that he didn't make the flight because he may not have had a ticket. [ See: Washington Post, 9/16/01]

Not only is Hanjour, critical to the government's official conspiracy theory, not on the list of passengers on Flight 77, he is not on the 'official autopsy' list. If he did not get 'autopsied' there is an excellent chance that he still lives.
"A list of names on a piece of paper is not evidence, but an autopsy by a pathologist, is. I undertook by FOIA request, to obtain that autopsy list and you are invited to view it below. Guess what? Still no Arabs on the list. In my opinion the monsters who planned this crime made a mistake by not including Arabic names on the original list to make the ruse seem more believable."

--Thomas R. Olmsted, M.D, Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77
The best explanation: Hani Hanjour is still alive. If Hanjour is alive, he could not have piloted Flight 77 into the Pentagon, unless government theorists would like to posit that he bailed out seconds before 'his' 757 crashed into the Pentagon. That's ludicrous, of course, but in every instance the Bush theories are ludicrous, transparent lies.

It is not only Hanjour who throws a monkey wrench into the government's theory. It is every other 'Arab' who is said to have helped the hijack plot but whose names do not show up on the official list of passengers. [False identities mislead FBI]; CNN: Original Flight Manifest, Flight 77; [BBC: Hijack 'suspects' alive and well]

A list of names on a piece of paper is not evidence, but an autopsy by a pathologist is! It's also a nail in the coffin that contains Bush's official 911 lie. An official Autopsy List of Flight 77, obtained in Dr. Olmsted's FOIA request, is admissible in court. It should come as no surprise that none of names listed by the FBI as hijacking suspects appears on the list.

Autopsy List Flight 77 (below)

ambrose, paul
betruyen, eneh
booth, mary jane
brown, bernard
burlingame,charles
calley, suzanne
caswell, william
charlebois, david
clark, sarah
cotto, masia
debeuneure, james
dickens, rodney
dillar, deddie
droz, chuck
edwards, barbara

falkenberg,charles
falkenberg, zoe
ferguson, james
flagg, darlene
flagg,wilson
gabriel, richard

grayian, hallstanley
heidenberger, michelle
jack, bryan
jacoby, steven
judge, ann
keller, chandler

kennedy, yvonne
khan, norma
kincaid, karen
lee, dong
lewis, jennifer
lewis, kenneth
may, renee

mencha, cadora
newton, christopher
olson, barbara
ornedo, ruben
penninger, robert
ploger, robert

ploger, zandra
raines, lisa
reuben, todd
sammartino, john
simmons, diane
simmons, george
sopper, mari-rae
speisman, robert
steuerle, norma
taylor, hilda
taylor, leonard
teagues, andra
whittington, leslie
yamnicky, john
yancey, vicki
yangs, huyin
zheng, yuguag

If there were no Arabs on the pathologists list, then there is absolutely no reason to believe that there were 'Arabs' on the flight. Additionally, there is no evidence to indicate that any 'Arab' remains were among those interred. "If it does not fit, you must acquit!" If there are no Arabs on the flight, it is Bush/Cheney whom you must indict!

Certainly, we would not expect to see the names of living hijackers --Hani Hanjour, for example --among those autopsied. Hani Hanjour in particular is crucial to Bush's official conspiracy theory. He is said to have piloted Flight 77. He could not have done so without getting on board, without dying, without showing up on an 'official autopsy list', without being interred somewhere. There is no evidence that he did any of those things.

If, however, Bush's story were true, everyone 'said' to have been on the flight --including Hanjour and the other 'Arabs" --would have died. They most certainly would not have escaped the pathologists list; they most certainly would not be giving interviews, they most certainly would not be 'protesting their innocence'.

Clearly, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al conspired to pull off what the Project for the New American Century had called 'some catastrophic and catalyzing event'.
"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor" (51)

--Project for the New American Century

It requires astounding gullibility, perhaps stupidity, to believe that wars against Afghanistan and Iraq did not follow from the PNAC policy subscribed to by both Bush and Cheney. Both wars have, in fact, benefited primarily Dick Cheney's Halliburton, the oil industry in general, and the panoply of military/industrial complex contractors --black shirted goons, professional murderers, Blackwater! This complex constitutes America's Praetorian Guard, the industrialization of war for the benefit of the very, very few. Mussolini would have called this 'fascism'. And so it is!

On the very day, the very moment that Dick Cheney was supervising an exercise in which terrorists would attack the Pentagon and WTC, a rag tag gang of 'terrorists', we are expected to believe, would do precisely that!
Several different war game exercises were in play on the day of the attack. The limited public information on these exercises shows that they simulated the following events:
  • Hijackings
  • Attacks on buildings using aircraft as missiles
  • Attacks using toxic or infectious substances
These events are all elements of the actual attack, which involved four alleged hijackings, three jetliner crashes into buildings, and the toxic calamity at Ground Zero
in the wake of the World Trade Center's destruction.

--Multiple War Games Were Being Conducted on 9/11/01
In the absence of any 'official' document or 'official flight manifest' or 'autopsy list', there is simply NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that any hijacker was on board Flight 77. If, indeed, they had gotten on board and all was just a mistake, is it really likely that only Arab names would fail to make the lists? Are we also to believe that there no Arabs were autopsied because the pathologist could somehow tell just by looking at the charred remains which were 'turrsts' and which were not? Absurd!

Dick Cheney had the opportunity and the means by which such a crime could be pulled off. He was in command of the US armed forces that day. A small band of some 19 Arabs, by contrast, challenged to fly Cessnas, had no means by which they would or could coordinate the strikes, and, most certainly could not have gotten on board any flight without showing up on 'real' or 'official flight manifests'. The names show up now on lists prepared after the fact for the purpose of shoring up Bush's fatally flawed cover story. Anyone can make a list of any set of names at any time and label them in any way. But that does not make it so!

Dick Cheney was, in fact, supervising exercises that 'gamed' the very crime that should now be investigated by a Federal Grand jury. The logical and commonsense conclusion is that Dick Cheney was making real the NEOCON dream --a catalyzing event comparable to Pearl Harbor. Cheney would benefit personally from such an event. His partners at Halliburton and elsewhere in the Military/Industrial complex would enrich themselves with a war agenda to include wars against Afghanistan and later --upon the pretext that Saddam had WMD and ties to 'al Qaeda' --the war against Iraq.

Even the co-chairs of the 911 Commission have disowned their report. It is time now that Dick Cheney be compelled to testify before a Federal Grand Jury convened to consider charges of mass murder and treason.

And because many bona fide bloggers have experienced what may be called 'script pushers', the following story may be of interest.
Military Report: Secretly 'Recruit or Hire Bloggers'

By Noah Shachtman EmailMarch 31, 2008 | 1:11:05 PMCategories: Info War

Ff_118_milblogs2_f

A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested "clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers."

Since the start of the Iraq war, there's been a raucous debate in military circles over how to handle blogs -- and the service members who want to keep them. One faction sees blogs as security risks, and a collective waste of troops' time. The other (which includes top officers, like Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. William Caldwell) considers blogs to be a valuable source of information, and a way for ordinary troops to shape opinions, both at home and abroad.

This 2006 report for the Joint Special Operations University, "Blogs and Military Information Strategy," offers a third approach -- co-opting bloggers, or even putting them on the payroll. "Hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering," write the report's co-authors, James Kinniburgh and Dororthy Denning.

Lt. Commander Marc Boyd, a U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman, says the report was merely an academic exercise. "The comments are not 'actionable', merely thought provoking," he tells Danger Room. "The views expressed in the article publication are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, policy or position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, USSOCOM [Special Operations Command], or the Joint Special Operations University."

--Military Report: Secretly 'Recruit or Hire Bloggers' | Danger Room from Wired.com
Certainly, script pushing is characterized by GOP/right wing/'Rovian' adhering to a 'script'. Their Achilles heel is, interestingly, obstinacy in the face of facts and reason, especially when the position taken is an 'official one'. It's a dead give away that someone is shiling for a politician or for the Bush administration. I am flattered that they think me a threat! It will only re-double my efforts to get Bush indicted and behind bars awaiting a sentence that he will have richly deserved.

Additional resources


Media Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership, Global Issues, Updated: January 02, 2009

Share

Subscribe



GoogleYahoo!AOLBloglines

Add to Google

Add to Google

Add Cowboy Videos to Google

Add to Google

Download DivX

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you don't mind something a bit longer here, Len. I want to point out something of the context in which the terrorists were operating on 911.

When the terrorists took to the skies on 911 they were apparently not to know that the US military were running hijacking drills. Most people aren't aware that the US was in a heightened state of military preparedness on 911. There were many war games happening and commercial airline hijackings formed part of those games. That's not me saying it, that's Major Kevin Nasypany who helped design the NORAD war games program:

When Boston flight control first contacts NORAD’s Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) to notify it of the hijacking of Flight 11, personnel there initially mistake it for a simulation as part of an exercise. Lieutenant Colonel Dawne Deskins, mission crew chief for the Vigilant Guardian exercise currently taking place, later says that initially she and everybody else at NEADS thought the call was part of Vigilant Guardian.

Although most of the personnel on the NEADS operations floor have no idea what the day’s exercise is supposed to entail, most previous major NORAD exercises included a hijack scenario. The day’s exercise is in fact scheduled to include a simulated hijacking later on. Major Kevin Nasypany, the NEADS mission crew commander, had helped design it. Thinking the reported hijacking is part of this exercise he actually says out loud, "The hijack’s not supposed to be for another hour."
(also 1 2)

Nor was it the first time that commercial airline hijackings had been war gamed by NORAD. In July 2001 war game Amalgam Virgo simulated terrorist cruise missile attacks from outside the US, and planning had been made for a 2002 exercise involving the simulation of two commercial aircraft hijackings (note -- this scenario was planned before 911).

On September 11 the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) -- the US's spy satellite agency -- was also running a drill from 8:30 am onwards for the scenario of a commercial airliner crashing into its headquarters in Washington. The NRO claims that as soon as the real world events began to unfold the drill was called off and 3000 personnel - all but the most essential - were sent home. (also here)

There had even been a military exercise in Oct 2000 simulating an aircraft crashing into the Pentagon (also here). US Air Force medical staff had run a further exercise in May 2001 which simulated a 757 crash into the Pentagon.

On 911, about the time of the Pentagon attack, a US Air Force E-4B was flying over Washington. The E-4B is an airborne command center equipped with advanced communications that can communicate with all US global military forces in any national crisis. It was photographed over the Pentagon and was likely part of the war games. Clearly, this aircraft would have been capable of monitoring Flight 77 along most of its flight path which raises many questions.

In fact, there were as many as 15 military war games and exercises taking place on 911:

* Amalgam Virgo Air defense against rogue state/terror cruise missiles, hijackings
* Vigilant Guardian Air defense against hijacking: “Part of this exercise is pure simulation, but part is real world…"
It involved “fake blips” or “injects” added to radar screens.
* Northern Guardian Air defense
* Vigilant Warrior NORAD exercise
* Northern Vigilance NORAD deploys fighters to Alaska, northern Canada
* Amalgam Warrior Large live-fly air defense and air intercept, tracking surveillance
* Global Guardian Nuclear war fighting, “Armageddon”
* Crown Vigilance Air combat command exercise
* Apollo Guardian Large scale live-fly air defense and air intercept, tracking surveillance
* National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Crashing planes into buildings
* AWACS over Florida, Washington DC
* MASCAL Fort Meyer, Virginia Firemen: “aircraft crash refresher course” for firefighters at the Pentagon.
* TRIPOD II, Manhattan Response to biochemical attack
* Timely Alert II Emergency response to bomb attack[90]

The standard military procedures for contacting wayward commercial airliners in the US should have been applied. If they had been followed all 4 hijacked aircraft would have been intercepted.

There are many issues that spring from the war games. Radar data injects formed part of the war game simulations. On 911, Flight 11 showed up on the radar for 20 mins after it had crashed into the WTC north tower. At one stage NORAD officials believed (almost certainly because of data injects) that they may have been dealing with 20 hijacked aircraft. All of which leads into issues about Ptech (1 2), the FAA software used on 911 (and why Yasin al Qadi, the chief financier of Ptech and an al Qaeda financier should have been controlling FAA software in the first place).

Here's more on the war games (1 2 3 4 5 6 7) and why a real 911 inquiry is needed.

I've included this material because I wanted to make the point that hiding a real terrorist attack within a series of military exercises is perhaps the best way of ensuring success. I can't help but feel that everything about this day was choreographed and that the 911 terrorists were just few of many players. The public is entitled to know everything about 911.

Unknown said...

damien said...

...hiding a real terrorist attack within a series of military exercises is perhaps the best way of ensuring success. I can't help but feel that everything about this day was choreographed and that the 911 terrorists were just few of many players. The public is entitled to know everything about 911.

It's the perfect cover whether the 'real attack' is from terrorists without or terrorists within.

The official theory gained ground for several reasons: 1) On 911, only his beleaguered opposition in Texas knew what a venal yet incompetent, evil crook Junior was. He was given the benefit of the doubt; 2) For various and complex psychological reasons, no one wants to believe his/her own country would conspire or perpetrate on its own an act of mass murder upon US citizens; 3) for related reasons, folk will rally 'round any leader, however incompetent he may be, if he is seen to oppose what is believed to be an external enemy. Thus a 'war on terrorism' succeeded where wars on drugs, crime, porn and rock n' roll fell flat.

When NPR still maintained the "How's Bush Doing" board, I wrote some unpopular pieces about the GOP mentality. Being 'authoritarians', they are, themselves, most susceptible to 'authoritarian' type regimes.

There is probably a gene (I'll call it the GOP gene) that may be found in these types. Such a gene might even have been an adaptive advantage among populations trying to survive in environments or times of great stress.

Clearly, the gene has not outlived its usefulness as it is the GOP itself that is our greater threat.

Ed Encho said...

I haven't dropped by in awhile but I want to say that my hat is off to you guys for continuing your excellent and hard work in esposing this massive fascism enabling fraud for what it truly is.

Keep smoking em out!

EE

Anonymous said...

Len, you just gotta read this one. The gang's all here! -- Booz, Allen, & Hamilton, Mitre Corporation, Raytheon, the Blessed Relief (al Qaeda) charity, Blackstone Group, Dyncorp, Boeing, Warren Buffett, Titan Corp. (Also here)

All of them associated with high level US Intelligence programs.

Mitre Corporation (specializing in real time battle command and unmanned aerial vehicles - remote piloting) headed by investor Warren Buffet. The same Warren Buffett who was at Offhut AFB on 911 along with Bush.

"Ptech was with MITRE Corporation in the basement of the FAA for two years prior to 9/11." -- Indira Singh. (Ptech ran the FAA software that inlcuded data injects as part of the 911 war games).

In October 2000 the Blackstone Group obtained the mortgage of WTC 7, a building which they then turned into a military complex, with offices on the 23rd floor for the CIA and DoD.

Titan Corp was connected to a shadowy Florida company which owned the DC9 "Cocaine One" captured in Mexico in 2006 with 5.5 tons of cocaine. One of their employees Makram Chams facilitated a $70,000 money order transfer for Mohammed Atta.

---------------------------------------------------
In 2001, the Trailblazer program was developed under the order of the NRO, with sub contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and took partly place in the wing of the Pentagon, which was later officially hit by "Flight77".

Booz is a high rank "member" of military and intelligence. They're also Corporate Member of the National Military Intelligence Association.

On August 8, 2001, two days after Bush received a new PDB with a clear warning on Bin Laden; Booz, Allen, & Hamilton employee named James R. Clapper as head of NIMA (the National Imagery and Mapping Agency - the 'eyes of America').

Clapper, leads this project for the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office), which at the same time not only develops new satellite capabilities (A NRO payload launched into space on September 8, 2001), but also worked on a terror drill for Sep11th (9 AM), crashing planes into the headquarters, as later confirmed by NRO Officer John Fulton.

When BoozAllen started to work for the NRO, it was well known, that they also had been a client of Blessed Relief, the charity said to be a front for Osama Bin Laden. However, this seemed to be not a problem for the NRO.

---------------------------------------------------

Jeebus, what can you say? ... I wouldn't trust these assholes to safeguard my jacket much less US national security.

And, yes Len, there are GOP genes, a degenerate throwback to barbaric times.

Unknown said...

damien, great comment and great information. You mention Booz Allen. Indeed, I have had first hand knowledge of 'professional liars', consulting firms that have made manipulation a science, consultants who teach corporations how to get away with it. Goebbels had NOTHING on these guys. I knew them in Houston, world headquarters for this kind of shit. I would mention names --one in particular. Prudence dictates that I wait until I am sure he's dead before I tell all.

Unknown said...

BTW --HELLO ED! Long time no see. Welcome back.

Ed Encho said...

Glad to be back, you are THE MAN. I am constantly in awe at the sheer amount of quality stuff that you and your crew are able to sort through and put out there. Time is running short though, all indications are showing that the quid quo pro deal for 'foreign' assistance in pulling off 9/11 is about to be consumated with the coming attack on Iran.

The ONLY thing that is going to bring these bastards down is letting the public know how 9/11 was a rogue intelligence network operation that allowed for a coup d'etat to be piggybacked on top of the attacks using the COG infrastructure.

Keep blazin' away pardner

EE

Anonymous said...

Len, I've written up an expanded version of my first post about the war games of 911 here that may interest some of your readers. Thanks.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Damien, I am perusing your link and found this:

And while the government has consistently stated that it did not know where the aircraft were before they struck, this short video clip of the Secretary of Transportation's testimony before the 9/11 Commission shows that Cheney monitored flight 77 for many miles as it approached the Pentagon. How could one of the most heavily-defended buildings in the world have been successfully attacked, when the Vice President of the United States, in charge of counter-terrorism on 9/11, watched it approach from many miles away?

Dick Cheney should be compelled to explain himself in front of a Grand Jury!

Anonymous said...

the government has consistently stated that it did not know where the aircraft were before they struck -- total garbage!

(1) They had 3 high tech E-4Bs in the air on 911 as part of war game Global Guardian (including one over Washington apparently prior to the "Flight 77" impact). These planes continously monitor FAA radar and have their own independant radar systems.

(2) We know that the President's Security Service monitored FAA radar in real time [confirmed by Richard Clarke in his book Against All Enemies] and would have almost certainly been aware of the first hijacking, Flight 11, from 8:20am.

(3) Various reporters record Bush being advised of the hijacking of Flight 11 before he left his Sarasota hotel at 8:30am.

(4) The hijacked planes had their transponders turned off by the hijackers. This has created the false impression that the planes were somehow then invisible and lost to radar. This is not true. Only the plane ID tag and height details were lost. The horizontal location and movement of the planes were continuously apparent to FAA authorities. NORAD had it even better. Their advanced radar systems could record the heights of the planes as well. Private company radar records on the Internet show the paths of all the hijacked planes at all times.

The only explanation that makes sense (and for which there is considerable supporting evidence) that might have excused NORAD failure is that NORAD radar showed multiple hijacked aircraft as part of their war games and were unable to distinguish real hijackings from simulated ones. (Fl.11's radar blip showed up on FAA radar till 9:20am even though it crashed into the North tower at 8:48 am).

Army Brigadier General Montague Winfield, in charge of the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon War Room, on the morning of 9/11, and in an open phone bridge communication with FAA, NORAD, White House and other agencies, getting real time information on the planes as they went off course, said on a CNN special anniversary program that the US Air Force did not respond right away because the FAA was tracking four “seemingly unrelated hijackings...”

Brigadier General Winfield’s confusion here is disturbing. Most members of the public would instinctively regard 4 hijacked planes as related hijackings. However, his statement would have some meaning if NORAD was running a series of hijack simulations on 911 that confused the defense forces - and who later needed to cover for that fact.

So, clearly, we don't have all the answers about government awareness of the hijacked flights on 911 -- we don't even have basic answers.

Anonymous said...

Len, I found these interesting -- Cheney, Rumsfeld, more...

Unknown said...

Interesting links, damien. Indeed, the infamous 'stand down' order ONLY makes sense if Cheney fully understood what was happening in a broad context, and, wanted it to happen.

That's probable cause to indict. From your link:

'Dick Cheney went to the PEOC just after 9:00 a.m., which was prior to the second WTC crash![i] Did he know something before the rest of us did? '

I believe that case can be made. Certainly, there are numerous indications that almost everyone in the Bush administration knew what was about to happen. Most famously, Condo's warnings to the mayor of SF and lying later, the infamous "...no one could have foreseen" statement!

A wealth of material, damien! Everyone posting here owes you a big TEXAS SIZE thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your kind words, Len. I don't know how many people read your blog but at least you, me and Ed are informed. If people can't make it through all the links I really do recommend they start with the last one mentioned (more...) which I'm still exploring myself. Their discussion of the lamposts that were knocked down at the Pentagon is damning.

In regard to the PEOC there is another telling giveaway on the day's events: political operatives Mary Matalin, Lewis Libby, Josh Bolten, Karen Hughes and Lynn Cheney were all in the PEOC with Dick Cheney.

Meanwhile...[Richard] Clarke, the foremost terrorism expert in the administration, is not invited by Cheney and Rice to the PEOC, but must set up his own command center in the opposite wing of the White House...Why would Cheney not want the assistance of such expertise?

Those same political operatives claim that there were "communication problems" whenever Clarke tried to speak with them. They basically shut him out of the day's events. Moreover, when Clarke visited the PEOC all the monitors were on tv channels following media developments, evidence that Cheney's real interest was in following the propaganda progress.

The 911 Commission officially (and falsely) claimed that Cheney first entered the PEOC just before 10:00 am.

We'll see, in time, where all this goes.