*** From [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tomasz Iwanowski)
> URL for this article: > http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/szamuely/scrambled.htm > > Join our email list at http://emperors-clothes.com/f.htm. Receive > about one article/day. > > We encourage readers to reprint and repost any Emperor's Clothes > article. Please include the article's Web address and author(s). > > www.tenc.net * [Emperor's Clothes] > > ======================================= > SCRAMBLED MESSAGES > by George Szamuely > [Posted 14 December 2001] > Reprinted from the "New York Press" > ======================================= > > There remains one question to ask about Sept. 11. What happened? We > know the story. Terrorists hijacked four passenger jets. At 8:45 > a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston smashes into the World > Trade Center's north tower. At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 > from Boston smashes into the south tower. At 9:40 a.m., AA Flight 77 > from Dulles hits the Pentagon. At 10:10 a.m., United Flight 93 from > Newark crashes in Shanksville, PA. (1) > > Yet the most amazing feature of the U.S. government's response to > these events was the almost complete absence of it. Jared Israel on > his website www.tenc.net has blazed a trail with fascinating and > meticulous research. (2) > > Initial reports suggested that no aircraft were scrambled to > intercept or shoot down the hijacked jets. Two days later Air Force > Gen. Richard B. Myers, current chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told the > Senate Armed Services Committee: "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... That > order, to the best of my knowledge, was after the Pentagon was > struck." Marine Corps Maj. Mike Snyder, a spokesman for NORAD, echoed > Myers in a Sept. 15 Boston Globe story, which stated: "[T]he command > did not immediately scramble any fighters even though it was alerted > to a hijacking 10 minutes before the first plane...slammed into the > first World Trade Center tower... The spokesman said the fighters > remained on the ground until after the Pentagon was hit..." U.S. > inaction was all the more astonishing because the same story ha! > d Snyder admitting that "fighters routinely intercept aircraft." > > So why were no fighters dispatched to intercept planes on an > extraordinary day like Sept. 11? Within days the story changed and it > turned out that two F-15 fighters had in fact been scrambled from > Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod, MA. Whether this took place > before or after the first tower was struck is not clear. In any case > it was too late to make a difference. When the second tower was hit > the fighters were still 70 miles from Manhattan. We also learned that > two F-16 fighters had been scrambled from Langley Air Force Base to > try to intercept Flight 77, but they also arrived too late. In fact, > they only took off from Langley two minutes before the Boeing 757 > smashed into the Pentagon. > > There are a number of problems with this story. In the first place, > 45 minutes had elapsed from the time the air traffic controllers lost > contact with Flight 77 and its crash into the Pentagon. On Sept. 15 > The New York Times reported: "Flight 77...would have been visible on > the F.A.A.'s radar system as it reversed course in the Midwest...to fly > back to Washington. The radars would have observed it even though its > tracking beacon had been turned off." > > There is an even more troubling question. Why were the fighters > dispatched from Langley, more than 130 miles from the Pentagon, > rather than Andrews Air Force Base-a mere 10 miles away? Early media > reports suggested that there were no available aircraft at Andrews > that day. (3) > > This is bizarre to say the least. First, if there were no fighter > aircraft available that day at Andrews, how did they miraculously > make their appearance over the DC sky after the Pentagon was struck? > Yet this is what NBC reported on Sept. 11, as did other news outlets. > Moreover, Andrews AFB is responsible for air defense around > Washington. The DC Air National Guard is based there, which is > equipped with F-16s. The 113th Wing is based there. According to the > Andrews website: "Training for air combat and operational airlift for > national defense is the 113th's primary mission. However, as part of > its dual mission, the 113th provides capable and ready response > forces for the District of Columbia in the event of a natural > disaster or civil emergency." You can't get more emergency than Sept. > 11! (4) > > Then there is the mystery of United Flight 93. In the Seattle Times > of Sept. 16, Maj. Gen. Paul Weaver, director of the Air National > Guard, is quoted as saying that "[n]o Air National Guard or other > military planes were scrambled to chase the fourth hijacked airliner, > United Airlines Flight 93." No military planes were scrambled! > Remember, this plane came crashing down in Pennsylvania almost an > hour and a half after the first tower was struck. > > Damage control was once again in operation. The Boston Herald of > Sept. 15 had Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz announcing "that > the Air Force was tracking the hijacked plane that crashed in > Pennsylvania on Tuesday after other airliners slammed into the > Pentagon and World Trade Center and had been in a position to bring > it down if necessary." So why was it not brought down? Or at the very > least intercepted? Three key buildings had been attacked. And there > is still no emergency! (5) > > Happily, the war against the Taliban managed to push these questions > out of the papers. For now. (6) > > (c) NY Press, 2001 * Reprinted for Fair Use Only > > *** > > Join our email list at http://emperors-clothes.com/f.htm. Receive > about one article/day. > > URL: http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/szamuely/scrambled.htm > > ************************** > Further Reading: > ************************** > > 1) For map of Flight 77's probable path, and the probable timetable, > go to http://www.emperors-clothes.com/images/maptime.htm > > 2) See, 'Guilty for 9-11: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld,' at > http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-1.htm > > 3)For map showing distance from Pentagon to Andrews, go to > http://www.emperors-clothes.com/indict/andrewsmap.htm > > 4) "9-11 Update Since 'Guilty For 9-11: Bush, Rumsfeld, Myers'" at > http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indictupdate.htm > > 5) See to 'Mr. Cheney's Cover Story' at > http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-2.htm > > 6) See 'Gaping Holes in the 'CIA vs. bin Laden' Story' at > http://emperors-clothes.com/news/probestop-i.htm __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! 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