The Air Force deployed an F-16 fighter jet from Tyndall, Florida to locate the aircraft. Two F-15 fighter jets from Eglin, Air Force Base in northern Florida then took over the watch. The escort duty was then relayed to two F-16s based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I remember watching this story with a friend as it was happening, and she asked me what would happen if the Lear jet was headed for a large city. I told her that our military would NEVER let a jet flying off-course get close to a large city. I said that there was someone at that moment with the authority to give orders to shoot down the jet to stop it from flying into a city before it could cause any damage. Sadly, I was wrong!
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
NORAD Mission and Structure.
Prior to 9/11, it was understood that an order to shoot down a commercial aircraft would have to be issued by the National Command Authority (a phrase used to describe the president and secretary of defense). Exercise planners also assumed that the aircraft would originate from outside the United States, allowing time to identify the target and scramble interceptors. The threat of terrorists hijacking commercial airliners within the United States-and using them as guided missiles-was not recognized by NORAD before 9/11.98
Clarifying the Record
The defense of U.S. airspace on 9/11 was not conducted in accord with preexisting training and protocols. It was improvised by civilians who had never handled a hijacked aircraft that attempted to disappear, and by a military unprepared for the transformation of commercial aircraft into weapons of mass destruction. As it turned out, the NEADS air defenders had nine minutes' notice on the first hijacked plane, no advance notice on the second, no advance notice on the third, and no advance notice on the fourth.
http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch1.htm
Institutionalizing Imagination:
The Case of Aircraft as Weapons
Imagination is not a gift usually associated with bureaucracies. For example, before Pearl Harbor the U.S. government had excellent intelligence that a Japanese attack was coming, especially after peace talks stalemated at the end of November 1941. These were days, one historian notes, of "excruciating uncertainty." The most likely targets were judged to be in Southeast Asia. An attack was coming, "but officials were at a loss to know where the blow would fall or what more might be done to prevent it."11 In retrospect, available intercepts pointed to Japanese examination of Hawaii as a possible target. But, another historian observes, "in the face of a clear warning, alert measures bowed to routine."12
It is therefore crucial to find a way of routinizing, even bureaucratizing, the exercise of imagination. Doing so requires more than finding an expert who can imagine that aircraft could be used as weapons. Indeed, since al Qaeda and other groups had already used suicide vehicles, namely truck bombs, the leap to the use of other vehicles such as boats (the Cole attack) or planes is not far-fetched.
Yet these scenarios were slow to work their way into the thinking of aviation security experts.
http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch11.htm
U.S. officials say they had no warning on the method, timing or location of the attacks, only a sense that something big was on the horizon, probably overseas.
"It's troubling to all of us in America, I suppose, that nobody had a clue as to this forthcoming attack of such devastation," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala
With Love,
CtrlAltDel aka Dave
C4/5 Complete - 28 Years Post
Texas, USA
QuadPirate <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
____________________________________________________
SAC shared the same sats with the CIA, NSA, Navy, DOD, etc.
To maneuver them into a precise spot sometimes takes several orbits and
consumes a portion of the finite fuel used to change positions.
Yes, I am a little better informed than the avg citizen, however the
experts (like those in Russia) could tell you exactly where each one is
at almost any moment.
BTW there is close to 30,000km dif between geo-synchronous orbit and
that of an optical spy sat.
Stuntman
> You, my friend, are way ahead of your government. The information
that you
> provided is not available to our national spy network. I was always
assure by
> the company who supplies our sat service that THEIR tiny network of
> communication sats are geo-synchronis orbited for 24 hrs service, 365
per year. Dish TV
> only charges $50 a month for that service.
> You honestly believe that the most developed country on this planet
with a
> spy network that is 2nd to none, doesn't have a synchronis orbited
spy network
> in place 24 hours a day, 365. I'm watching too many James Bond
Movies. I
> suppose you will now say the Puzzy Galore didn't exist either? What
this country
> coming too......
> W
>
> In a message dated 10/27/04 5:50:45 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> << The Soviets were giving Sadamned timelines when our birds would be
>
> absent overhead. Our spy sats are NOT in geo-synchronis orbit. We had
a
>
> convoy moving up and down that hwy with drones watching overhead, it
is
>
> highly unlikely anybody moved 380 TONS of explosives AFTER we got in.
>
> Stuntman >>
>
>
>
--
It's not the fa! ll that hurts.
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