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9/11 coincidences and oddities page!

(and other note worthy tidbits.)

 

Pre 2001 • 2001 • 9/11 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006

 

Last updated:  03/06/2007

(Use the Wayback Machine for expired links.)

<![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - The most devastating and unprecedented terrorist attack in history happens against the United States of America, the world's mightiest superpower, allegedly committed by 19 radical Arab Muslims who hijacked four commercial airliners -- allegedly armed with only small knives and box cutters -- and crashed them into the WTC, the Pentagon, and an empty field in Pennsylvania.

"On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the U.S. is attacked by terrorists in New York City and Washington, and the world changes forever.
Hijacked jetliners hit the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashes into a field in Pennsylvania." - September11News.com

(See also: March 13, 1962 - America's top military leaders, who were staunchly right-wing, drafted "Operation Northwoods" which were secret plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba; August 4, 1964 - US agency concludes the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was used to escalate the Vietnam war, never happened; September 6-12, 1970 - Four New York-bound airliners are hijacked over western Europe by a militant Palestinian group; February 26, 1993 - The WTC was first bombed by Islamic terrorists and the F.B.I. knew about the plot; March 11, 2004 - A terrorist bomb attack in Madrid, Spain (referred to as 3/11) blows up multiple commuter trains during rush hour exactly 911 days after 9/11)

<![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - The official bin Ladin family's website domain expires.

"On September 11, 2001, the United States experienced the most significant and violent attack by terrorists even on its own soil. The terrible events that ensued have been linked to the mastermind of Osama Binladin, the leader of the group Al-Qaeda.
Although the Binladin family group denounced their fallen son and any political affiliation of Al-Qaeda, on the same day as the terrorist attacks, the Binladin family website and all of their web pages, links, emails and domain name EXPIRED -- on September 11, 2001.
Shocked and curious about the possible connection between Binladin and the war on America, I, Christopher Curry, a technology consultant, began to investigate these events via the net.
I found a number of websites linked to Osama Binladin and began to notice some startling parallels: the largest and most unbelievable was the expiration of a website owned by the Binladin family: www.saudi-binladin-group.com." - Saudi-binLadin-Group.com

Unique Internet Name Once Owned by Bin Laden, Which Expired on 9-11-01, Now Promotes Peace

"shrimpo LLC and Christopher Curry have made news previously when it announced that it had created a unique procedure to take control of the official Bin Laden family website, saudi-binladin-group.com, for which the domain registration expired simultaneously with the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

"The controversy remains whether the September 11th expiry was just a remarkable coincidence or if this truly was a hidden warning," said Christopher Curry, Principal of shrimpo LLC and Internet technology consultant." - Yahoo/PRNewswire (Oct 17)

Date with Destiny?

"A web domain registered to the Saudi Binladin Group (the megabucks corporation uses the alternate spelling of the family name) raises questions about what role, if any, the family has played in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The domain was registered on Sept. 11, 2000, with a preset expiration date of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a technician with VeriSign, an Internet domain registry service formerly known as Network Solutions.
Coincidence?
Or was this website set up to start the countdown on the most devastating attack in U.S. history?

This was no accident, according to a VeriSign technician in Mountainview, Calif.
"This was timed so it would expire on that date," says the technician, who identified herself only by her first name, Antonette, and by her employee number, 001.

The Binladin website was created by a company called Arq Limited, a U.K. web design firm. The administrative, technical and billing contact listed on the whois search is a man named Philip Lumsden.
After several calls to the U.K., I learned that Arq Limited went out of business, replaced by a company called Active 8 Solutions, which shares the same Bath, England, mailing address and a telephone number that is only one digit off from Arq Limitedís old number.
I learned one more interesting thing.
"Mr. Lumsden left a week ago," said a man who answered the phone at Active 8 Solutions. "I am not aware of why he left."

A half-dozen odd calls Tuesday, October 15, to the Saudi Binladin Groupís headquarters in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, turned up little other than assurances that if I called back in 20 minutes or a half-hour, then somebody would be able to give me some information about the website.

The next day, I called again and again was told to call back later. By deadline, neither of the two emails I sent seeking comment were answered.

The trail of the saudi-binladin-group.com website that I began following two weeks ago has taken me to a couple of very strange places ó including a five-year-old mysterious death that may be al-Qaedaís first hit on U.S. soil ó and a very nervous British businessman who thought he was getting the bargain of a lifetime when he purchased the assets of a British web-design firm that created the domain." - Philadelphia City Paper (10/18-25/01)

<![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Standard operating procedures for military scramble approval was for the FAA to contact the National Military Command Center (NMCC) to request air support, then the NMCC would contact NORAD to find out about aircraft availability, then NORAD would seek final approval from Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

"On Sept. 11, the normal scramble-approval procedure was for an FAA official to contact the National Military Command Center (NMCC) and request Pentagon air support. Someone in the NMCC would call Norad's command center and ask about availability of aircraft, then seek approval from the Defense Secretary--Donald H. Rumsfeld--to launch fighters." - Aviation Week (06/03/02)

9/11 Tapes Reveal Ground Personnel Muffled Attacks

"Whatís more, the decades-old procedure for a quick response by the nationís air defense had been changed in June of 2001. Now, instead of NORADís military commanders being able to issue the command to launch fighter jets, approval had to be sought from the civilian Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. This change is extremely significant, because Mr. Rumsfeld claims to have been "out of the loop" nearly the entire morning of 9/11. He isnít on the record as having given any orders that morning. In fact, he didnít even go to the White House situation room; he had to walk to the window of his office in the Pentagon to see that the countryís military headquarters was in flames.
Mr. Rumsfeld claimed at a previous commission hearing that protection against attack inside the homeland was not his responsibility. It was, he said, "a law-enforcement issue."
Why, in that case, did he take onto himself the responsibility of approving NORADís deployment of fighter planes?" - New York Observer (06/21/04) [Reprinted at:  dangerouscitizen.com]

• Side note - "Ironically, FAA officials only a few months earlier had tried to dispense with "primary" radars altogether, opting to rely solely on transponder returns as a way to save money. Norad had emphatically rejected the proposal." - Aviation Week (06/03/02)

(See also:  June 1, 2001 - Dept. of Defense (DOD) initiates new instructions for military assistance relating to aircraft hijackings)

<![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Vice President Dick Cheney was placed in charge of a domestic terrorism study group within the White House, to monitor and develop plans to deal with a catastrophe such as 9/11.

"In Sarasota, Florida, now Major Garrett joins us. Major, what are you being told?
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello. President Bush has notified -- or talked, rather, to Vice President Cheney. He has talked to the FBI director Robert Mueller, and he has also spoken with the governor of New York, Governor Pataki about this catastrophe.
The president, as we just saw a few moments ago, identifying this as an apparent act of terrorism against the United States. Said there will be full investigation. The entire apparatus of the United States government, FBI, national security, CIA, the vice president, who you may remember was placed in charge of a domestic terrorism study group within the White House, to monitor and develop plans to deal with a catastrophe of just this kind." - CNN (09/11/01)

(See also:  March 21, 1989 - Cheney becomes the 17th US Secretary of Defense)

<![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Box cutters weren't allowed pre-9/11 by the airlines industry.

"A manual written by the airline industry years before the Sept. 11 attacks instructed airport screeners to confiscate from passengers boxcutters like those used by the hijackers, documents show.
Though the federal government did not specifically bar the objects before Sept. 11, the airlines were in charge of security and the manual they compiled was the guidebook for determining what items could be brought aboard flights.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said keeping boxcutters off planes was an industry requirement, not a government order. She said the FAA allowed airline passengers to carry blades less than four inches long before Sept. 11. Government rules now prohibit such items.
Other items allowed into airplane cabins, according to the manual, included baseball bats, darts, knitting needles, pocket utility knifes less than four inches long and scissors.
The manual for security screeners was issued by the airlines' trade groups to comply with FAA regulations and was in effect at the time of the terror attacks. The document lists boxcutters and pepper spray as items not allowed past security checkpoints. Screeners were told to call supervisors if they found either item.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said some of the hijackers used boxcutters to take over the planes, and the indictment of alleged hijacking coconspirator Zacarias Moussaoui charged that Mohammed Atta, the leader of the hijackers, had pepper spray.
"We actually had rules and regulations to stop this," said former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo, now a lawyer suing United Airlines and American Airlines on behalf of families of Sept. 11 victims.
Paul Hudson, head of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, an advocacy group, said this latest revelation is another reason for an independent commission to investigate Sept. 11." - CBS (11/12/02)

"MR. KEAN: There's been some confusion as to the issue of box cutters. You testified, I gather, that as of September 11th, the FAA did not prohibit box cutters, before Congress. Yesterday we got testimony from the ATA that in checkpoint operation guides, box cutters were classified as restricted items, which could be kept off an aircraft if identified. What was the status of box cutters within the aviation system as a whole, and certainly in Boston, where those checkpoints were?
MR. MINETA: The FAA regulation referred to blades of four inches or greater as prohibited items. And so a box cutter was really less than four inches. Now, on the other hand, the airline industry had a guideline. And in that guideline, they did prohibit box cutters, as it was in that guideline. But in the FAA regulations, that was not the case." - 9/11 Commission

<![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (5:45 am) - Alleged Flight 11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz Al-Omari, are allegedly videotaped, which the tape displays two timestamps, on a security camera at a Portland, ME airport.

Hijack terrorists caught on security camera

"They looked like any other anxious travellers, rushing through the airport security checks to make sure they caught their early morning flight. But the two men caught on security cameras at Portland airport in Maine at 5.45am on September 11 would be flying an airliner into the north tower of the World Trade Centre just three hours later.

The images released yesterday by the US authorities show Mohamed Atta with a man using the name Abdulaziz al-Omari about to board a USAir flight to Boston, where they and three colleagues seized control of American Airlines flight 11. Atta is thought to have been at the controls when the plane hit the north tower at 8.45am. Investigators also have security camera footage of two of the hijackers from American Airlines flight 77, which hit the Pentagon in Washington.
The Portland footage shows the men passing easily through airport security. Casually dressed in open-necked shirts and carrying small bags, they are shown clearing the metal detectors and baggage X-ray machines unchallenged.
According to US investigators, the Portland images provide clear evidence that Atta, 33, was one of the hijackers. His father had claimed yesterday that his son was alive and had spoken to him since the disaster." - Guardian (12/21/01)

Officials say seized car rented from Boston

"Two suspects in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center drove from Massachusetts before boarding a commuter flight at the Portland International Jetport, Gov. Angus King said during a radio show.

The suspect, Mohamed Atta, 33, was one of two men seen on a surveillance tape boarding a flight in Portland, the Globe said. The pair flew to Boston and boarded another plane that crashed into the World Trade Center.

FBI agents were at the Portland airport and reviewed surveillance tapes taken at a security checkpoint, which captured the two suspects on video, said Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood. Agents also interviewed workers and guests at the Comfort Inn in South Portland." - USA Today (09/13/01)

Photo source:  "Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz Al-Omari passing through security at Portland Airport in Maine on September 11 (source: FBI)" - ABC-AU Four Corners

- See hi res photos:  pic 1, pic 2, pic 3

(See also:  September 25, 2001 - Mohamed Atta's father says it's not Atta on Portland security tape)

<![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Two of Mohamed Atta's luggage, which contained incriminating evidence, were the only luggage of the 81 passengers aboard Flight 11 that didn't make it on the plane.

Airline denied Atta paradise wedding suit; At last minute, American turned away luggage containing cologne, gold Koran

"The clothing found in one of hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta's bags wasn't a pilots' uniform, as first reported, but his paradise wedding suit, says an American Airlines employee who was with authorities when they first opened his luggage.

Alongside the navy suit ñ which was eerily laid out as if Atta were in it, with a sapphire-blue necktie looped under a crisp dress-shirt collar and neatly knotted ñ was a bottle of cologne. At the foot of the bag, which had been locked, was a fancy leather-bound Koran painted gold.

Because of an American policy instated just before Sept. 11 to curb baggage-related flight delays, Atta's two checked bags ñ which had been held up from an earlier flight ñ were left behind in Boston, says the employee, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from the Dallas-based carrier, which continues to gag all employees from talking about the Sept. 11 hijackings. Two of the hijacked flights were American.
As it happens, Atta was the only passenger among the 81 aboard American Flight 11 whose luggage didn't make the flight, American sources confirm. Atta is thought to have piloted the Boeing 767, loaded with some 16,000 gallons of fuel, into the first World Trade Center tower a year ago today.

As a result, the 33-year-old Egyptian native, who was single, was denied his ceremonial outfit with which he apparently expected to enter the Muslim version of Heaven and join in "marriage" the "women of paradise ... dressed in their most beautiful clothing," as a five-page letter found in his other bag envisioned it.
According to the Koran, Muslims' sacred book, the afterworld is more a physical than metaphysical place, filled with sensuous earthly pleasures. Martyrdom, or dying in the cause of Allah, is the shortest path to get there.
In preparation for martrydom, ablution.
"Shave excess hair from the body and wear cologne. Shower," advises the letter, which was handwritten in Arabic and later translated by the FBI (it's still not clear if Atta penned the letter himself). "Do not leave your apartment unless you have performed ablution."
The bag with the clothing, moreover, included only personal items, whereas the other bag contained utility items, such as navigational tools and even a large serrated knife.

He says as soon as he and others gathered at Logan International Airport saw the suit and other items arranged as they were in the suitcase, it became clear to them that Atta had no plans on coming back to this world.

The other bag, which had also been locked, contained, among other things:
* A videotape of the Boeing 757 aircraft.
* A flight operating manual for the Boeing 757, which has the same cockpit as the 767.
* An Arab-English dictionary.
* A packet of papers which included the 5-page letter, as well as Atta's last will and testament, which was dated April 11, 1996, and also written in Arabic.
* A chart-plotting ruler.
* A manual slide-rule device called an "E6B," but more commonly known as a flight "computer," which pilots use to measure fuel consumption, weight and balance and other things.
* A folding-blade knife with finger grips on the handle.

One suitcase had Atta's earthly belongings, including many things he used or wanted to use in his mass-murdering plot, while the other contained his spiritual requirements to enter paradise.
"It was clear to us he did not want to check those bags," the American employee said.
Indeed, Atta intended to carry on all three of the bags he initially brought with him to Portland International Jetport in Maine earlier that morning, sources there say.
But Atta was forced to check his two larger bags, described as soft-sided with roller boards, because the 19-seat commuter plane he flew to Boston allows passengers just one carry-on bag each, says a US Airways Express employee who works at the ticket counter where Atta checked in.
The two bags were tagged for final destination to Los Angeles International Airport, which is where Flight 11 had been bound.
Both Atta and his traveling companion and fellow hijacker, Abdulaziz Alomari, boarded US Airways Express Flight 5930 with one carry-on each.
Their carry-ons also contained papers, says a passenger who was seated two rows in front of Atta on the shuttle flight.

Roger Quirion of Winslow, Maine, says he observed the two, who he says were "joined at the hip," while waiting at the gate.
"They were sitting together, acting very serious. They were going through papers, something from their carry-on," Quirion told WorldNetDaily.
"It struck me as though they were preparing for some type of meeting," he added. "I thought they were business travelers."
When Atta arrived at Logan's Terminal B from Portland, little did he know that US Airways was slow in transferring his bags from the commuter jet to the American baggage dock.
They arrived before takeoff ñ but after American's just-imposed cut-off time for late baggage. The new rule refused any bags delivered within 10 minutes of the flight's scheduled take-off. Atta's came within several minutes.
"His bags, which were transferred rampside, were transferred late by US Airways Express," the American employee said.
As soon as the bags were dropped off at American's loading dock, a ground-crew worker checked the tag, put them on a cart and drove them out to the 767 getting ready to taxi to the runway.
But he got a "thumbs down" by the crew that loads the bags, the employee said.
"It was about three minutes before departure," he said. "They had it locked up, and it was ready to go."
The bags were brought back and tagged for rerouting to the 11 a.m. flight to LAX, he says.
When it became clear that Flight 11 had been hijacked, the crew chief called the Massachusetts State Police, which dispatched a state trooper to the baggage rerouting area with a bomb-sniffing dog, says the American source, who assisted the trooper and other authorities.
After the dog cleared the bags for explosives, the trooper had the small locks on Atta's bags cut off and the bags opened.
Then the FBI got involved.
Authorities were able to quickly ID the bags as Atta's thanks to information a flight attendant aboard Flight 11 phoned down to an American flight-services manager at Logan. She described the attackers and gave their seat numbers and Atta's name. " - WorldNetDaily (09/11/02)

FBI says cameras shows hijackers in Portland area

"Atta and Alomari drove to Portland in a car rented at Boston's Logan International Airport, then boarded a USAirways flight back to Boston. From there, they boarded American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, the first building hit.
Alomari and Atta spent the night before the attack at the Comfort Inn in South Portland, about a mile from the airport, authorities said.
A bag that Atta checked at the airport in Portland never made the connecting flight in Boston. Officials said the bag contained a four-page document in Arabic which contained instructions for the mission as well as religious references." - USA Today (10/04/01)

<![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (6:00 am) - NORAD was in day two of a week long exercise called "Vigilant Guardian" in which some of it's military participants thought the first reports of the hijackings later on in the day were "part of the exercise."

"On Sept. 11, as Americans watched horror rain upon New York and Washington, command teams at a little-known military outpost in Rome, N.Y., worked feverishly to restore safe skies and rouse a slumbering homeland defense.
At the Northeast Air Defense Sector, radar operators who constantly scan the continent's boundaries suddenly faced a threat from within and a race they could not win.
6 A.M.: WAR GAMES
Lt. Col. Dawne Deskins figured it would be a long day.
Sept. 11 was Day II of "Vigilant Guardian," an exercise that would pose an imaginary crisis to North American Air Defense outposts nationwide. The simulation would run all week, and Deskins, starting her 12-hour shift in the Operations Center as the NORAD unit's airborne control and warning officer, might find herself on the spot.
At 8:40, Deskins noticed senior technician Jeremy Powell waving his hand. Boston Center was on the line, he said. It had a hijacked airplane.
"It must be part of the exercise," Deskins thought.
At first, everybody did. Then Deskins saw the glowing direct phone line to the Federal Aviation Administration.
On the phone she heard the voice of a military liaison for the FAA's Boston Center.
"I have a hijacked aircraft," he told her.
Six minutes after Boston Center's call, NEADS scrambled two armed F-15s at Otis Air Base on Cape Cod.
"We had no idea where the aircraft was," recalled Maj. James Fox, who gave the order. "We just knew it was over land, so we scrambled them towards land."
As the first plane hit the World Trade Center, the F-15s were rumbling off the runways at Otis.
Boston Center was still tracking a blip believed to be Flight 11." - Newhouse News Service (01/28/02)

"At 8:40 a.m. EDT, Tech. Sgt. Jeremy W. Powell of North American Aerospace Defense Command's (Norad) Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) in Rome, N.Y., took the first call from Boston Center. He notified NEADS commander Col. Robert K. Marr, Jr., of a possible hijacked airliner, American Airlines Flight 11.
"Part of the exercise?" the colonel wondered. No; this is a real-world event, he was told. Several days into a semiannual exercise known as Vigilant Guardian, NEADS was fully staffed, its key officers and enlisted supervisors already manning the operations center "battle cab."
In retrospect, the exercise would prove to be a serendipitous enabler of a rapid military response to terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Senior officers involved in Vigilant Guardian were manning Norad command centers throughout the U.S. and Canada, available to make immediate decisions.
Fortunately, Maj. Gen. Eric A. Findley, another Canadian and Norad's director of operations, was already in the mountain for the Vigilant Guardian exercise." - Aviation Week (06/03/02)

"If that weren't protection enough, on September 11th, NEADS (or the North East Air Defense System dept of NORAD) was several days into a semiannual exercise known as "Vigilant Guardian". This meant that our North East Air Defense system was fully staffed. In short, key officers were manning the operation battle center, "fighter jets were cocked, loaded, and carrying extra gas on board."
Lucky for the terrorists none of this mattered on the morning of September 11th." - Statement of Mindy Kleinberg to the 9/11 Commission (03/31/02)

"116. On 9/11, NORAD was scheduled to conduct a military exercise, Vigilant Guardian, which postulated a bomber attack from the former Soviet Union. We investigated whether military preparations for the large-scale exercise compromised the military's response to the real-world terrorist attack on 9/11. According to General Eber-hart, "it took about 30 seconds" to make the adjustment to the real-world situation. Ralph Eberhart testimony, June 17, 2004.We found that the response was, if anything, expedited by the increased number of staff at the sectors and at NORAD because of the scheduled exercise. See Robert Marr interview (Jan. 23, 2004)." - 9/11 Commission

"On the morning of 9/11, we were conducting a NORAD command post exercise and our headquarters and regions were postured for ̬wartime conditions.̮ Six minutes prior to the first attack on the World Trade Center, the FAA informed NORAD of the potential hijack of American Airlines Flight 11. As events unfolded throughout the morning, NORAD responded immediately with fighters and appropriate airspace control measures. Unfortunately, due to the constraints of time and distance, we were unable to influence the tragic circumstances." - Gen. Ralph Eberhart testimony, 9/11 Commission (06/17/04)

9/11 Tapes Reveal Ground Personnel Muffled Attacks

"So many unconnected dots, contradictions and implausible coincidences. Like the fact that NORAD was running an imaginary terrorist-attack drill called "Vigilant Guardian" on the same morning as the real-world attacks. At 8:40 a.m., when a sergeant at NORADís center in Rome, N.Y., notified his northeastern commander, Col. Robert Marr, of a possible hijacked airlineróAmerican Flight 11óthe colonel wondered aloud if it was part of the exercise. This same confusion was played out at the lower levels of the NORAD network." - New York Observer (06/17/04) [Reprinted at:  dangerouscitizen.com]

(See also:  9/11 (9:00 am) - The CIA began an exercise to simulate a plane crashing into one of it's buildings; September 12, 2001 - FEMA scheduled to participate in biochemical attack drill called "Operation TRIPOD" in New York City; February 11, 2005 - Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers confirm there were four wargames on 9/11)

<![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - President Bush is in Florida in which his brother Jeb is the Governor and was the state that had controversially handed him the 2000 presidency. "...you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack.  I was in Florida," said Bush. -White House (12/04/01) "The previous evening Mr Bush had dined beachside with his brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, the state that had, albeit controversially, handed him the presidency." - Telegraph-UK (12/16/01) (See also:  September 7, 2001 - Jeb Bush signs a two year Florida executive emergency order four days before 9/11; 8:52 am - President Bush arrives at Booker Elementary school in Sarasota, FL)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Former President, ex-CIA Director, and Bush's father George H. W. Bush had spent the night at the White House the night before and supposedly leaves early in the morning before the attacks occur. 'George And Laura', September 11, 2001, A Tuesday "Nine hundred miles to the north, Laura Bush also started the day early. In her husband's absence, the job of taking Spot the English springer spaniel and their frisky black Scottish terrier Barney for their morning walk had fallen to the First Lady. Afterward, Laura returned to the second-floor family quarters for a quick breakfast with her in-laws. George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara had spent the night at the White House and were about to board a private jet bound for a speaking engagement in Minnesota." -CBS 'The Early Show' (10/01/02) (See also: September 10, 2001 - Former President Bush meets with Osama's brother at Carlyle Group meeting in Washington D.C.)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Defense contractor, The Carlyle Group, is hosting a business conference in D.C. in which featured honored guest is one of Osama Bin Laden's brother. "On 11 September, while Al-Qaeda's planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Carlyle Group hosted a conference at a Washington hotel.  Among the guests of honor was a valued investor: Shafig bin Laden, brother to Osama." - Guardian Unlimited (05/16/02) (See also: September 10, 2001 - Former President Bush meets with Osama's brother at Carlyle Group meeting in Washington D.C.) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Three F-16 jetfighters from the D. C. National Guard at Andrews AFB, which is 15 miles from the Pentagon, were flown 180 nautical miles away for a training mission in North Carolina. "The 121st squadron's day had started normally. Three F-16s were flying an air-to-ground training mission on a range in North Carolina, 180 naut. mi. away." - Aviation Week (09/09/02) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - All of the five alleged Flight 77 hijackers lived in a motel right outside the gates of the NSA -- the U.S.'s most powerful spy agency in which it's 38,000 employees are sworn to a lifetime of secrecy. "A few miles out of Washington, on Route 1 to Baltimore, lies an inconspicuous military installation called Fort Meade. And yet it contains the largest mass of secrets in the world. It is home to the National Security Agency (NSA), the least visible but most powerful spy agency in America's armoury. The NSA's job is to eavesdrop on the world's phone calls and emails, but do not try to phone them. The NSA website does not list a phone number. You do not contact them. They listen to you. Though invisible on the map, 38,000 people work at the agency every day, more than the CIA and FBI put together - every one of them sworn to a lifetime of secrecy. When Osama bin Laden first moved to Afghanistan, the NSA listened in to every phone call he made on his satellite phone. In fact, one of the most bizarre ironies of all this is that five of the hijackers lived in a motel right outside the gates of the NSA. Early on the morning of 11 September, when Hani Hanjour and his four accomplices left the Valencia Motel on US route 1 on their way to Washington's Dulles airport, they joined the stream of NSA employees heading to work. Three hours later, they had turned flight 77 around and slammed it into the Pentagon." - BBC (06/08/02) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - The Director of the NSA on 9/11 was Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden from the United States Air Force. "Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden [United States Air Force] is Director, National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS), Fort George G. Meade, MD. As the Director of NSA/CSS, he is responsible for a combat support agency of the Department of Defense with military and civilian personnel stationed worldwide. March 1999 - Present - Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service, Ft. George G. Meade, MD" - NSA • 9/11 - Possible terrorist incident against President Bush early in the morning at his hotel resort in Florida. "At about 6 a.m. Sept. 11, Longboat Key Fire Marshall Carroll Mooneyhan was at the front desk of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort as Bush prepared for his morning jog. From that vantage point, Mooneyhan overheard a strange exchange between a Colony receptionist and security guard. A van occupied by men of Middle Eastern descent had pulled up to the Colony stating they had a èpoolsideÃÆ interview with the president, Mooneyhan said. The self-proclaimed reporters then asked for a Secret Service agent by name. Guards from security relayed the request to the receptionist, who had not heard of either the agent or plans for an interview, Mooneyhan said. The receptionist gave the phone over to a nearby Secret Service agent, who said the same thing ó no one knew of an agent by that name or of any poolside interview. The agent told the occupants of the van to contact the presidentís public relations office in Washington, D. C., and turned them away from the premises, Mooneyhan said." - Longboat Observer (09/26/01) (Also see:  September 9, 2001 - General Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, is assassinated by two Arabs posing as journalists.) • 9/11 (6:47 am) - The WTC 7's fire alarm system is placed on "TEST" mode for an eight hour period for "maintenance or other testing" in which any alarms that are received from the system are not shown on the operatorís display and are considered the result of the maintenance or testing and are ignored. "Finding 2.25: The fire alarm system that was monitoring WTC 7 sent to the monitoring company only one signal (at 10:00:52 a.m. shortly after the collapse of WTC 2) indicating a fire condition in the building on September 11, 2001. This signal did not contain any specific information about the location of the fire within the building. From the alarm system monitor service view, the building had only one zone, èAREA 1.ÃÆ The building fire alarm system was placed on TEST for a period of 8 h beginning at 6:47:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001. Ordinarily, this is requested when maintenance or other testing is being performed on the system, so that any alarms that are received from the system are considered the result of the maintenance or testing and are ignored. NIST was told by the monitoring company that for systems placed in the TEST condition, alarm signals are not shown on the operatorís display, but records of the alarm are recorded into the history file." - NIST: Progress Report - Chp 1; (PDF - pg 28) (June '04) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (7:59 am) - Two bags with Mohamed Atta's name tags are on a Portland flight, but are not transferred onto Flight 175 out of Logan Airport.   FBI seizes records of students at flight schools "Atta got on the jet off a connecting flight from Portland, Maine. Two bags with Atta's name tags were on the Portland flight, but did not get transferred in time to be loaded on the Los Angeles-bound flight that left Logan Airport at 7:59 a.m., about 45 minutes before it smashed into the World Trade Center tower in New York." - St. Petersburg Times (09/13/01) • 9/11 (8:00 am) - In his first round of intelligence briefings of the day, Bush's is briefed on the heightened terrorist risk reported throughout the summer. "On his return to the Colony, the President...sat down for the first routine intelligence briefing of the day. It was 8 am. The President's briefing appears to have included some reference to the heightened terrorist risk reported throughout the summer, but contained nothing specific, severe or imminent enough to necessitate a call to Condoleezza Rice, his 47-year-old National Security Adviser." - Telegraph (12/16/01) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:10 am) - Flight 77 takes of from Dulles airport in Washington D.C. in which the Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows no stats for Flight 77 taking off that day, was piloted by Capt. Charles Burlingame who was a Navy fighter pilot and once worked on anti-terrorism strategies in the Pentagon (the same area of the Pentagon that got hit), and one of the many unusual passengers on this flight was an Ex-Navy Admiral who also was a jet fighter pilot that once worked in the Pentagon and was also an American Airlines captain. "At Dulles Airport, Capt. Charles Burlingame, who had been a Navy F-4 pilot and once worked on anti-terrorism strategies in the Pentagon, was steering his 757, American Airlines Flight 77, down the runway for the long flight to Los Angeles." - Washington Post (09/16/04) "Mark Burlingame said his brother was in the Navy Reserve and had worked in the same area of the Pentagon where the airliner crashed." - Newsday "Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Wilson èBudÃÆ Falor Flagg was on American Airlines Flight 77 on Sept. 11 with his wife Darlene Ellen "Dee" Embree Flagg. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he went on to flight training and was designated a Naval aviator. He was deployed three times to Southwest Asia on the USS Oriskany, two of them combat cruises. He left active duty in 1967 and joined American Airlines and the Naval Reserve. As a Naval Reserve officer, he commanded two F-8 squadrons and two augment units, U.S. Naval Air Forces Eastern Atlantic and Reserve Readiness Command Region Two. He served in the Pentagon as special assistant to the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for reserve affairs and as assistant chief of Naval operations for air warfare. He also served as assistant chief of staff, readiness and training, on the staff of commander Naval Air Forces U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and as deputy for reserve affairs on the staff of commander in chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1986 and retired in 1995 with two stars. He retired in 1998 from American Airlines as a captain, flying international flights." - Defend America (See also:  BTS statistics for Flight 77; Killtowns:  The unusual passengers of Flight 77) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - The instant messaging service Odigo, says that two of its workers at their Israeli facility received messages two hours before the Twin Towers attack on September 11 predicting the attack would happen.   "Odigo, the instant messaging service, says that two of its workers received messages two hours before the Twin Towers attack on September 11 predicting the attack would happen, and the company has been cooperating with Israeli and American law enforcement, including the FBI, in trying to find the original sender of the message predicting the attack. Micha Macover, CEO of the company, said the two workers received the messages and immediately after the terror attack informed the company's management, which immediately contacted the Israeli security services, which brought in the FBI. Odigo is a U.S.-based company whose headquarters are in New York, with offices in Herzliya." - Haaretz "Officials at an instant-messaging firm Odigo confirmed today that two employees received text messages warning of an attack on the World Trade Center two hours before terrorists crashed planes into the New York landmarks. Citing a pending investigation by law enforcement, the company declined to reveal the exact contents of the message or to identify the sender. But Alex Diamandis, vice president of sales and marketing, confirmed that workers in Odigo's research and development and international sales office in Israel received a warning from another Odigo user approximately two hours prior to the first attack. Soon after the terrorist attacks on New York, the Odigo employees notified their management, who contacted Israeli security services. In turn, the FBI was informed of the instant message warning. FBI officials were not immediately available for comment today." - September11News.com/Washington Post (See also:  September 4, 2001 - Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co. moves out of the WTC; 9/11 - Elite Israeli military commando who understands Arabic allegedly shot on Flight 11; 9/11 - Israeli spies caught cheering while filming themselves with the WTC burning in the background; 9/11 - Netanyahu says 9/11 attacks are " very good" for US/Israeli relations) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Before the Pentagon was hit, Pentagon medic Matt Rosenberg was studying a new MASCAL emergency disaster plan which is based on the unlikely scenario of an airplane crashing into the Pentagon. "Matt Rosenberg was down on Corridor 8, a medic at the health clinic in the massive military headquarters, grateful for an uninterrupted hour in which he could study a new medical emergency disaster plan based on the unlikely scenario of an airplane crashing into the place." - Washington Post (09/16/01) "Matt Rosenberg was down on Corridor 8, a medic at the health clinic in the massive military headquarters, grateful for an uninterrupted hour in which he could study a new medical emergency disaster plan based on the unlikely scenario of an airplane crashing into the place. Into the Pentagon's health clinic rushed a man screaming, "Evacuate now! Evacuate now!" This was not part of the disaster drill Matt Rosenberg had studied earlier that morning. He stopped a procedure on a patient in Minor Surgery Treatment Room 2 and started evacuating patients. A naval officer rushed in and said a patient was in the courtyard where some people, confused and scared, had rushed to escape the collapsing inferno inside Corridor 5. Rosenberg, 26, dashed down a hallway, pushing through hundreds of people escaping the opposite direction, until he reached the courtyard, where he saw smoke billowing and people staggering out from the area that had been hit. He grabbed his radio and called back to the clinic. "You need to initiate MASCAL [the disaster plan] right now! We have mass casualties! I need medical assets to the courtyard!" - Star Tribune/Washington Post (09/21/01) [Printer version] Medic Describes 9/11 Response "Excerpts from an interview with Sgt. Matthew Rosenberg regarding Sept. 11, 2001. Sgt. Rosenberg is an Army medic assigned to the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic, the Pentagon. He also serves as the noncommissioned officer in charge of mass casualty events. He was awarded the Soldiers Medal for his actions on Sept. 11. The day started out pretty much like any other day. We were doing Ãñ minor procedures that day, when we found out that the World Trade Center had been hit. Ãñ Somebody came in and said, "The World Trade Center got hit," and we're like, "Yeah, we know. It's horrible." They're like, "No, it got hit again." And that's when we realized it was a terrorist thing. I got about 20 feet into the center courtyard, and that's when I saw the smoke rising out of the side of the building. Then I started seeing patients coming out, and I picked up my radio: "This is Sergeant Rosenberg. You need to initiate the MASCAL [mass casualty] plan now. We have multiple patients in the center courtyard, and I need medical assets in the center courtyard immediately." - Office of Medical History, OTSG (09/06/02)   Excerpts from an interview with Sergeant Matthew Rosenberg, a medic at the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic. "We had virtually completed our MASCAL plan. I was setting up training for medics, I was in the process of ordering new supplies, and trying to reinvent what we would do, how we would go about it. We still had the old MASCAL kits in place, and everything under the old guidance, and we were trying to take that a step beyond. Believe it or not, the day prior to the incident, I was just on the phone with the FBI, and we were talking ôso who has command should this happen, who has the medical jurisdiction, who does this, who does that,í and we talked about it and talked about it, and he helped me out a lot. And then the next day, during the incident, I actually found him. He was out there on the incident that day, and I made the joke, èYou know, I used to have questions about all this, about who would have the command.ÃÆ He would say, èYou got any more questions?ÃÆ I went, èNope, not anymore.ÃÆ When I started seeing patients coming out of the building, I picked up my radio, and I called in, èThis is Sergeant Rosenberg. You need to initiate the MASCAL plan now. We have multiple patients in the center courtyard, and I need medical assets in the courtyard immediately.ÃÆ - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML] (See also:  September 10, 2001 - Pentagon medic Matt Rosenberg is on the phone with the FBI talking about who has command of the MASCAL plane crash plan if a plane hits the Pentagon; 9/11 - Emergency equipment for the MASCAL plane crash plan was already out of their storage areas for an inventory check before the Pentagon was hit) • 9/11 - Emergency equipment for the Pentagon's MASCAL emergency plane crash plans were already out of their storage areas for an inventory check before the Pentagon was hit. Excerpts from an interview with Major Lorie A. Brown, who was Chief Nurse of DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic. "Because the crash site was on the west side of the building the clinic was almost directly opposite, our corridor was a clear avenue for people to escape. As soon as I saw that, we initiated the MASCAL, [mass casualty plan] started galvanizing all of our assets and put our plan in action. We actually had our MASCAL equipment out of the storage areas because we were doing an inventory. So there were many pieces that just fell into place and worked so well on that day. It was just fortuitous. It was just amazing that way that things kind of happened the way they did. But like I said our planning truly made such a huge difference on that day. Our Commander had the foresight to focus on MASCAL prep and gave us the time and budget to really revamp our old MASCAL plan. I canít say enough about how critical this was to our success." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML] (See also:  9/11 - Pentagon medic Matt Rosenberg was studying the MASCAL plane crash plan right before the Pentagon was hit; 9/11 - A Pentagon rescuer mentions how "eerie" it was that the MASCAL plane crash plan that he had twice trained for was "very similar to what actually happened")   • 9/11 - A "garrison control exercise" was being conducted at Fort Belvoir, less than 20 miles from the Pentagon, to "test the security at the base in case of a terrorist attack" and a team there was conducting classes about rescue techniques and then were one of the first responders to the Pentagon. An Engineer's Expertise Joins a Firefighter's Nightmare "Two groups rushing to the Pentagon that fateful morning were the firefighters from the Fort Belvoir Fire Department and a contingent of engineers from Headquarters Battalion, USAG Fort Belvoir, Military District of Washington. "Ironically, we were conducting classes about rescue techniques when we were told of the planes hitting the World Trade Center," said Staff Sgt. Mark Williams. "My team was one of the initial response groups and one of the first to enter the building upon our arrival at the site. AS FATE WOULD have it, that is exactly were the office of Fort Belvoir's new commanding officer, Col. Thomas Williams, who took command on July 11, 2002, had been just moments before. Col. Williams was not in the area of his office at the moment of impact. But two who were paid the ultimate price, and another suffered severe burns, from which he is still recovering. Lt. Col. Mark R. Lindon, Commander, Headquarters Battalion at Belvoir, was conducting a garrison control exercise. The object was to test the security at the base in case of a terrorist attack. That training exercise went operational that morning. "I was out checking on the exercise and heard about the World Trade Center on my car radio. As soon as it was established that this was no accident, we went to a complete security mode. Some people waited up to three hours to get on base that day," Lindon recalled. "Throughout the next 10 days, I was operating security either here or at the Pentagon." - Connection Newspapers (09/05/02) - Ft Belvoir to the Pentagon = approx 18 miles - Yahoo Maps (See also:  June 29, 2001 - MASCAL exercise about a terrorist incident involving an explosion is conducted at Fort Belvoir to test first team's "external response")   • 9/11 - A training exercise in "airport emergency operations" is being conducted at Fort Myer, a mile from the Pentagon. Belvoir firefighter among first responders at Pentagon "A training exercise in airport emergency operations at Fort Myer brought an assistant fire chief from Fort Belvoir to the Pentagon shortly after an aircraft crashed into its west wall. As training officer for the Fort Belvoir Fire Department, Dodge has acquired an expertise on airport emergency operations because of the Belvoir department's responsibilities at Davison Army Airfield. The morning of Sept. 11 the 28-year veteran was conducting training for the Fort Myer crew on precisely that topic. He and the class participants had heard during the first break in the training schedule about the first plane crash into one of the towers at the World Trade Center. "We didn't have access to a TV or anything," he said. "So we just kept on going with the training program. All of a sudden we heard this BOOM! And we felt the building shake. Everyone just looked at each other like, 'what was that?' Then one of the fire units from Arlington came over the radio and said they saw an aircraft go down in the vicinity of the Pentagon." Dodge said at that point everyone in the class just got up and left to get on the fire trucks. He jumped into a vehicle with Fort Myer's acting battalion commander, Dennis Gilroy. Once inside the truck, the fire teams received the news an aircraft had crashed into the Pentagon. "The word was that the unit on the ground [the helipad firefighters who are part of the Fort Myer Fire Department] were involved," Dodge said. "That didn't sound too good. When they say involved, it meant they were a part of the crash. "We were one of the very first ones there," Dodge said, "aside from the crew that was already positioned at the Pentagon. He said at that point, something caught his attention. "I saw one the guys from Fort Myer was trying to get as much equipment as possible off the crash truck parked at the helipad area," said Dodge, whose father retired from the Air Force following his last assignment at the Pentagon. "The crash truck [stationed at the Pentagon] was engulfed in flames, and they were trying to save what they could." - MDW (10/04/01) Local heroes: FMMC fire department reflects on attacks "The Fort Myer Military Community Fire Department had three men on the scene at the Pentagon when the attack occurred. In a matter of minutes, the rest of the team from Fort Myer joined the three men. The FMMC fire department is responsible for the landings and take-offs at the Pentagon heliport. The department sends three men to the Pentagon each day to cover the flights, according to FMMC Fire Chief Charles Campbell. While the three men were at the Pentagon, the majority of the men from the department were in an airport rescue firefighters class in the Education Center at Fort Myer. Immediately, the firemen got their equipment and went to the Pentagon to aid the victims. The ride to to the Pentagon took about four minutes, William Harris, a Fort Myer fire department sergeant, said. Harris was the driver of Engine 161." - DC Military (11/02/01) FMMC firefighters respond to terrorist action at Pentagon "Fort Myer, located approximately a mile from the Pentagon..." - DC Military (09/14/01) (See also:  April 23, 2001 - Fort Myer conducts a "Force Protection Exercise"; September 5, 2001 - Fort Myer and McNair implement "full access control")  <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Bernard Brown Jr., a young passenger on Flight 77 that was participating in a field trip, gets a lecture from his father about dying before his flight.  His father tells him "don't be afraid to die because we all are going to die someday."  Bernard's father, Navy Chief Petty Officer Bernard Brown Sr., takes a "rare day off" from work that day to play golf.  Bernard's dad works at the Pentagon.  He works in the same wing of the Pentagon that was hit by hijacked Flight 77.  Terrorís youngest victims; Unspeakable heartbreak for families of students killed on American Airlines Flight 77 "His father, a Navy chief petty officer, says he sat his son down on the morning of Sept. 11, and had a serious talk with him about dangers he might encounter on the trip. èTo be honest ó totally honest ó we talked about death,ÃÆ he says. èAnd I just told him, ôDonít be afraid.í Just because the events that they were going to do were pretty dangerous. Just listen to what the people tell you, and the instructions, youíll be all right. Youíll be fine. He said ôDaddy, Iím scared,í and I said, ôhey, donít be scared, donít be afraid to die. Because we all are going to die someday.íÃÆ Bernardís mom Sinata Brown went to work. Her husband Bernard took a rare day off to play golf. Had he not ó he would have been in his office at the Pentagon when the plane slammed in at 9:43. Tragically, his own sonís memorial is not the only one Bernard Brown expects to attend. Thatís because Flight 77 ó the flight carrying Bernard Brownís son ó actually crashed into the wing of the Pentagon where he works. Few of his colleagues survived." -MSNBC (09/25/01) [Reprinted at: wildfuryx] <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Five Raytheon employees are on three of the four hijacked planes. <![if !vml]><![endif]>Flight 11:  "Peter Gay, 54, Tewksbury, Massachusetts - Raytheon Co. vice president of operations for electronic systems based in Andover, Massachusetts. He had worked for Raytheon for more than 28 years." - September11Victims.com "While most of the children stayed in the area when they grew up, the second oldest, Peter, moved north of Boston to become a plant manager for Raytheon. But he stayed close to his family, spending summers with them on Cape Cod. And he never forgot the attention to spit and polish, in his work or play. "It doesn't shine itself," he'd reply when people admired the condition of his vintage car. Mr. Gay, who would have turned 55 this month, was commuting to California, where he'd been asked to increase production at a Raytheon plant producing a new military radar system. The plant had been producing five systems a day and the goal was nine; when Mr. Gay boarded Flight 11 for his weekly commute on Sept. 11, production was up to 14." - legacy.com <![if !vml]><![endif]>"David P. Kovalcin, 42, Hudson, New Hampshire - Raytheon Co. senior mechanical engineer for electronic systems in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. He had worked for Raytheon for 15 years." - September11Victims.com   "Mr. Kovalcin, 42, was a passenger on Flight 11, on a business trip for Raytheon, where he was a senior mechanical engineer. Mrs. Kovalcin said they had carved out a "Father Knows Best" kind of life, with him coming home at six every evening, choosing to know his family well rather than to work longer hours for more money. She remembers that her husband had trouble sleeping two nights before his departure. "He woke me up at 3 a.m., and said 'I'm pacing the house. I can't sleep,' " she said. "I rubbed his head and tried to calm him down. He was very distressed, but had no idea what it was. Then three days later I remembered, and thought, 'Holy cow, I wonder what that was about.' " The morning he left home he had written a note for his family: "Rebecca, Marina and Mommy, I will miss everybody very much. See you Friday night." At the end he added, "I fed the dogs but not the fish." - legacy.com <![if !vml]><![endif]>"Kenneth Waldie, 46, Methuen, Massachusetts - Raytheon Co. senior quality control engineer for electronic systems in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. He had worked for Raytheon for 17 years." - September11Victims.com   "Mr. Waldie, who lived in Methuen, Mass., had two other children: Andrew, 24, and Jeff, 21. A senior quality control engineer at Raytheon, he was headed to California on a business trip. Around work, his colleagues referred to him as "911," because of his generosity whenever someone needed help. His favorite number happened to be 11, and he was on Flight 11 when it crashed on the 11th." - legacy.com <![if !vml]><![endif]>Flight 175:  "Herbert W. Homer, 48, Milford, Mass. - Corporate executive, Raytheon Co." - September11Victims.com   "Herb W. Homer of Milford, an official with the US Department of Defense, was killed Tuesday when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed in New York. He was 48. Mr. Homer served as a US official coordinating government work by Raytheon Co. in Burlington. He began his 27-year federal career at the Defense Contract Management Agency's Raytheon office in 1974. A member of First Congregational Church of Milford, he worked on several church committees and volunteered in the church nursery." - legacy.com "The Department of Defense announced today that Herbert W. Homer, a civilian employee of the Defense Contract Management Agency, was among the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight # 175, which crashed into the World Trade Center. He was previously listed in error as unaccounted at the Pentagon." - DoD (09/15/01) <![if !vml]><![endif]>Flight 77:  "Stanley Hall, 68, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. - director of program management, Raytheon Co." - September11Victims.com   "Stan Hall, 68, was on board the American Airlines Flight 77, Tuesday, September 11, that crashed into the Pentagon. He was born in Arlington, Virginia, and attended Washington Lee High School. In 1953, Stan was drafted into the Army and served for two years during the Korean War. He graduated from George Washington University with a Bacheolor in Engineering in 1959 and a Masters from Drexell University in 1963. Stan was an active member of the South Bay Church of God for 11 years. He was a Sunday School teacher and on the Board of Trustees. He left his home in Rancho Palos Verdes six years ago to work at Raytheon's Washington DC facility, where he was director of program management. He was on his way to the company's operations in Goleta. Stan, a 17 year veteran of the company formerly known as Hughes, helped develop and build anti-radar technology. "He was our 'dean' of electronic warfare, and his objective was always to the protection of the American servicemen," colleaques remembered. On November 13, 5001 Army Brigadier General Edward M. Harrington, Director of the Defense Contract Management Agency, on the behalf of President Bush awarded the Defense of Freedom Medal to Stan Hall as well as 3 other Raytheon employees. The medal was to recognize civilian Deparment of Defense employees killed Sepember 11, 2001. It is the equalivant to the Purple Heart for civilains." - legacy.com Raytheon Employees Lost to the Sept. 11 Tragedy Awarded Defense of Freedom Medal "Army Brigadier General Edward M. Harrington, director of the Defense Contract Management Agency, awarded the Defense of Freedom Medal, the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart, to the families of the Raytheon employees who died in the Sept. 11 tragedy: Peter Gay of Tewksbury, Mass., Stanley Hall of Clifton, Va., David Kovalcin of Hudson, N.H., and Kenneth Waldie of Methuen, Mass., in a ceremony held at Raytheon's Andover, Mass., facility. Herb Homer, a Defense Contract Management Agency defense corporate executive assigned to Raytheon, was also awarded the Defense of Freedom Medal. The medal, created to recognize and honor civilian employees of the Department of Defense who were killed or wounded during the terrorist attacks, can be awarded to non-Defense employees based on their involvement in DoD activities at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense." - Raytheon; PRNewswire (10/13/01) September 11 Remembrance "I will always remember what it felt like when I learned that we had four people on those planes: Peter Gay, Stan Hall, Dave Kovalcin, and Ken Waldie. We lost other colleagues as well: Herb Homer of the Defense Contract Management Agency, who was assigned to Raytheon and worked side-by-side with us for many years, and three PricewaterhouseCoopers associates working on the Raytheon account." - Raytheon (See also:  September 6, 2001 - Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force demonstrate new technology aircraft precision approach and landing system; September 10, 2001 - Wife of David Kovalcin said her husband woke her up in the middle of the night complaining he couldn't sleep and that he seemed "very distressed" but she didn't know why; Killtown's:  Flight 77 unusual passengers) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) and Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL) -- the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees -- along with Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) and some other members of the House Intelligence Committee are in a meeting at the Capital building with the director of Pakistani intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad, who authorized a $100,000 wire transfer to alleged lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta. A Cloak But No Dagger "On the morning of Sept. 11, Goss and Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general named Mahmud Ahmed -- the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan's intelligence service. Ahmed ran a spy agency notoriously close to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban." - Washington Post (05/18/02) U.S. seeks reform of Pakistan spy agency "When terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, then ISI chief Gen. Mahmud Ahmad was visiting Washington. The Bush administration asked him to visit Afghanistan and convince the Taliban to surrender al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, the man believed to have masterminded the attacks. Instead, Ahmad advised the Taliban not to turn over bin Laden. He argued the Americans were only bluffing and they would not invade Afghanistan. He was fired by Musharraf upon returning from the Taliban headquarters in Kandahar." - UPI (02/20/04) Spying eyes and ears "On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, in a room on the House side of the Capitol, Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., and Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla. -- the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, respectively -- met for breakfast. Also at the meeting were Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., and some other members of the House Intelligence Committee. They were meeting with the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., Maleeha Lodhi, and the director of Pakistani intelligence, Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmed. They were talking about the late-August trip Goss, Graham, and Kyl had made to Pakistan." - Salon (09/14/01) Our Friends the Pakistanis "Yesterday we noted a report from a Pakistani newspaper that Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad had been fired as head of Islamabad's Inter-Services Security agency after U.S. linked him to a militant allied with terrorists who hijacked an Indian Airlines plane in 1999. Now the Times of India says Ahmad is connected to the Sept. 11 attacks: Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd. Senior government sources have confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed ISI chief. While they did not provide details, they said that Indian inputs, including Sheikh's mobile phone number, helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link." - Wall Street Journal (10/10/01) (scroll down) India helped FBI trace ISI-terrorist links "While the Pakistani inter services public relations claimed that former ISI director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad sought retirement after being superseded on Monday, the truth is more shocking. Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd. Senior government sources have confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed ISI chief. While they did not provide details, they said that Indian inputs, including sheikhís mobile phone number, helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link. A direct link between the ISI and the WTC attack could have enormous repercussions. The US cannot but suspect whether or not there were other senior Pakistani army commanders who were in the know of things. Evidence of a larger conspiracy could shake us confidence in Pakistan's ability to participate in the anti-terrorism coalition." - Times of India (10/09/01) U.S. Ties Hijackers' Money to Al Qaeda "The operation was kicked off with a $100,000 transfer into a U.S. bank account last year that has been traced to the United Arab Emirates. A source familiar with the investigation said the transfer may have been arranged by the financial lieutenant, Mustafa Muhammad Ahmed.* Scores of transfers subsequently poured into the hijackers' accounts, adding up to at least $500,000 in overseas funding. The funding for the attack began at least a year ago with a single deposit of more than $100,000 to a U.S. account controlled by Atta. Dennis M. Lormel, chief of the FBI's financial crimes section, testified at a congressional hearing last week that the transfer has been traced back to an account in the United Arab Emirates. In the following months, scores of cash infusions flowed into about a dozen accounts at SunTrust Bank in Florida and several other U.S. banks." - Washington Post (10/07/01) *Note: In this Washington Post article, the "financial lieutenant," Mustafa Muhammad Ahmed, is not Paki ISI director Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad. Sources: Suspected terrorist leader was wired funds through Pakistan As much as $100,000 was wired in the past year from Pakistan to Mohamed Atta, the suspected leader of the terrorist hijackings, CNN has been told by law enforcement sources. Pakistan is a common conduit for money going in and out of Afghanistan, home to Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, the leading suspect in the attacks. But at this point it's not known exactly where the funds may have originated. Sources said the wire transfers from Pakistan were sent to Atta through two banks in Florida." - CNN (10/01/01) FBI, CIA benefit from RAW's inputs "The US Administration has called for "quiet" investigations by Americaís intelligence establishment in close cooperation with its allies outside the United States of a set of reports, all accusing Pakistanís Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of having played its role while facilitating the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Even as Pakistan President and military ruler, Gen. Parvez Musharraf, has tried to divert Washingtonís attention by sacking the ISI chief, Gen. Mehmood Ahmed, Americaís FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) seem determined to investigate the allegations against the ISI. The FBI investigators have come across what has been termed as the "most damaging evidence" vis-ý-vis the former ISI chiefís connection with Omar Sheikh, the Pakistan-born British national, who was released by the Government of India along with Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Zargar towards the end of 1999 to seek the freedom of passengers of the hijacked plane of Indian Airlines at Kandahar in Afghanistan. The critical lead, the source elaborated, was the cellphone number of Omar Sheikh. In the initial stages, Americaís intelligence establishment was found having certain reservations on Indiaís inputs. The scenario changed after the RAW made available Omar Sheikhís cellphone number-0300 94587772. The FBIís examination of the hard disk of the cellphone company Omar Sheikh had subscribed to led to the discovery of the "link" between him and the deposed chief of the Pakistani ISI, Gen. Mehmood Ahmed. And as the FBI investigators delved deep, sensational information surfaced with regard to the transfer of 100,000 dollars to Mohammed Atta, one of the Kamikaze pilots who flew his Boeing into the World Trade Centre. Gen. Mehmood Ahmed, the FBI investigators found, fully knew about the transfer of money to Atta." - Daily Excelsior (10/17/01) Pearl kidnapper funded US attacks "The British-born mastermind behind the gruesome murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl helped bankroll the September 11 attacks on America with a payment of $ 100,000 ((pounds) 70,000) to lead hijacker Mohammed Atta. The FBI believe Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a Pakistani who goes by the name of Sheikh Omar and was raised in London and educated at the London School of Economics, provided Atta with the funds in the summer of 2000 to distribute among his co-conspirators. Omar, who is now in custody for the kidnapping and murder of Pearl, sent the funds to Atta - who flew the first hijacked plane into the World Trade Centre - using the alias Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad Atta sent the remainder of the unspent money, some $15,600 ((pounds) 11,000), back to Omar before the World Trade Centre attacks. Atta is also thought to have visited Omar in Pakistan shortly before September 11 and travelled to the Afghan border to meet with bin Laden. There are also claims that a sacked chief of ISI (Pakistani intelligence service), Lt Gen Mehmood Ahmed, knew about the wire transfers of money from Omar to Atta. This has fuelled growing speculation that rogue ISI agents were involved in the kidnap and murder of Danny Pearl." - Sunday Herald (02/24/02) [Reprinted at:  billstclair.com] Did ally Pakistan play role in 9-11? Indian intelligence finds more links to terrorist attacks in U.S., Delhi "Burger demanded the Indian government release three Pakistani terrorists from prison in exchange for the airline hostages. After an eight-day stand-off, New Delhi agreed to free Ahmed Omar Sayeed Sheikh among the three. Sheikh turns out to be one of Osama bin Laden's chief money men. About a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, Sheikh wired $100,000 from Pakistan to Atta from an account in the United Arab Emirates capital of Dubai. The Indian government thinks Pakistan's military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has sponsored and protected Azhar and his protÃàgÃà, Sheikh. According to accounts in both The Times of India and India Today, former ISI chief Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad instructed Sheikh to send the $100,000 to Atta. The Times says Ahmad lost his job only after India shared with the FBI evidence showing a link between the general and Sheikh's wiring of funds to Atta. J-e-M's accounts were frozen not long after Dennis M. Lormel, director of FBI's financial crimes unit, confirmed the $100,000 transaction, if not the source." - WorldNetDaily (2002) Online NewsHour: Improving Intelligence -- December 11, 2002 SEN. BOB GRAHAM: Yes, going back to your question about what was the greatest surprise. I agree with what Senator Shelby said the degree to which agencies were not communicating was certainly a surprise but also I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States. I am stunned that we have not done a better job of pursuing that to determine if other terrorists received similar support and, even more important, if the infrastructure of a foreign government assisting terrorists still exists for the current generation of terrorists who are here planning the next plots. To me that is an extremely significant issue and most of that information is classified, I think overly-classified. I believe the American people should know the extent of the challenge that we face in terms of foreign government involvement. That would motivate the government to take action. GWEN IFILL: Are you suggesting that you are convinced that there was a state sponsor behind 9/11? SEN. BOB GRAHAM: I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government and that we have been derelict in our duty to track that down, make the further case, or find the evidence that would indicate that that is not true and we can look for other reasons why the terrorists were able to function so effectively in the United States. GWEN IFILL: Do you think that will ever become public, which countries you're talking about? SEN. BOB GRAHAM: It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now. And, we need to have this information now because it's relevant to the threat that the people of the United States are facing today." - PBS (12/11/02) (See also:  January 5, 2002 - 15 yr. old crashes stolen Cessna into Tampa office building which houses the office of Sen. Bob Graham; February 23, 2003 - Sen. Graham runs for president; August 10, 2004 - President Bush nominates Porter Goss to head the CIA) • 9/11 - General Tommy Franks was en route to Pakistan to meet with President Musharraf to discuss security cooperation and terrorism. "On 11 September 2001, General Tommy Franks was enroute to Pakistan to meet with President Musharraf to discuss a number of issues, among them security cooperation and terrorism. The events of that day caused him to return immediately to Tampa, Florida, where his staff was already working along with Defense and other government agencies to ensure what is referred to in the military as "command and control survivability" while continuing to develop "situational awareness." - GlobalSecurity.org   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - FAA memo says Flight 11 passenger was shot who happened to be a multi-millionaire elite Israeli military commando who understands Arabic and who happened to be sitting directly in front of one of the alleged hijackers. Hijacker shot passenger on Flight 11: FAA memo; 'One bullet fired,' killing 9B occupant, but agency claims report was in error "An internal Federal Aviation Administration memo summarizing the Sept. 11 hijackings says a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11 was shot to death by a single bullet, WorldNetDaily has learned. The FAA claims the memo, time-stamped Sept. 11 at 5:30 p.m., was written in error. "It was a first draft," said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown in a phone interview today. "There was no gun." She said a final draft of the executive summary, received by FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, does not include the account of a gun being fired aboard the plane, which slammed into the first World Trade Center tower not long after departing Boston. Brown refused to release the final draft, however, arguing it is "protected information." WorldNetDaily has obtained a copy of the first draft of the memo, which can be viewed here. Here is the key excerpt, which is very specific (although the time is plainly wrong): "The American Airlines FAA Principal Security Inspector (PSI) was notified by Suzanne Clark of American Airlines Corporate Headquarters, that an on board flight attendant contacted American Airlines Operations Center and informed that a passenger located in seat 10B shot and killed a passenger in seat 9B at 9:20 a.m. "The passenger killed was Daniel Lewin, shot by passenger Satam Al Suqami. One bullet was reported to have been fired." In fact, Flight 11 had already crashed well before 9:20 a.m. (assuming the FAA memo writer was referring to the Eastern time zone and not a later one). At 8:25 a.m. ñ nearly an hour earlier than stated in the memo ñ Flight 11 had turned sharply off its planned westbound path and headed south toward Manhattan. It then crashed into the north tower at 8:48 a.m." - WorldNetDaily (02/27/02) Friends think Flight 11 Israeli was 'executed'; Daniel Lewin, named in FAA shooting memo, was officer in elite unit of Jewish state's military "In another tragic irony of Sept. 11, three of the five Islamic hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 were seated next to an elite Israeli commando. And it may just have gotten that Jewish passenger killed before all the others. In fact, his friends and associates are now sure of it, after reading a secret government memo naming Israeli-American Daniel C. Lewin as a gunshot victim on the flight. WorldNetDaily published the Federal Aviation Administration memo in an exclusive article Wednesday. The FAA, while confirming the document is authentic, claims the report of Lewin's shooting, written several hours after the Sept. 11 hijackings, was premature and inaccurate. His friends don't buy it. "Danny was an officer in a secret unit of the Israeli army called 'sayeret matkal,'" said Yehuda Schwartzberg, a childhood friend from Jerusalem. "My guess is that he did something in some way to stand up against the hijackers, and was executed because of it." Keith Lowery, a business associate of the late Boston high-tech executive who had dual citizenship, says the terrorists may have singled him out because of his "Jewishness" -- as they did Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The FAA memo's summary of the Flight 11 shooting incident, real or not, is the most detailed and specific -- not to mention shocking -- of the four hijacking summaries. It says Lewin, sitting in seat 9B, was "shot by passenger Satam al-Suqami," sitting behind him in seat 10B. (Both names match those on the manifest released by the airline.) "One bullet was reported to have been fired," the memo states. What's more, the report echoes another account of a fatal struggle in that same business-class section of the plane -- as revealed by the FBI. An FBI investigative document reconstructing notes of a frantic phone call from a Flight 11 flight attendant to her manager on the ground in Boston, reveals that "a business-class passenger" was killed by the hijackers. "A hijacker also cut the throat of a business-class passenger, and he appears to be dead," Amy Sweeney relayed to American flight services manager Michael Woodward on the ground at Logan International Airport. She also relayed the exact seat numbers of the hijackers in the ninth and 10th rows -- the very rows cited in the controversial FAA report. The FBI's account of the unrecorded call was leaked to the Los Angeles Times, which ran a story Sept. 20. The 31-year-old Lewin, an Israeli citizen since a teen, was a captain in the Israel Defense Force and had extensive anti-terrorism training. "Anyone who knows Danny knows that it was not his nature to go down without a fight," Schwartzberg said. "Maybe this (memo) shows that he died a hero." An FAA special agent agrees. "With his background in special forces, he would have had more of a fighting instinct click into gear, rather than be herded around" or fooled by their cover, said the agent, who wished to go unnamed. "They probably killed him first because he was fighting back." Lewin, a graduate of MIT and Israel's Technion, lived with his wife, Anne, and two sons, Eitan and Itamar, in Brookline, Mass., where he helped run Akamai Technologies -- which he co-founded, nearly becoming a billionaire in the dot-com stock boom. He previously worked for IBM's research lab in Haifa, Israel. His parents and brothers all live in Israel. Attempts to reach his family for comment were unsuccessful. Lewin was traveling to Los Angeles on business." - WorldNetDaily (03/01/02) Lewin: Flight 11's unsung hero? 'Knives wouldn't have stopped' ex-Israeli commando, army pal says "He could bench-press 315 pounds and squat more than 450 pounds as a teen-ager. As an officer in an elite unit of the Israeli army, he was trained to kill terrorists with a pen or a credit card, or just his bare hands. On Sept. 11, he may have gotten the chance. As fate would have it, Daniel C. Lewin, a 31-year-old Israeli-American, was seated on American Airlines Flight 11 between hijackers Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari in the row in front of him, and hijacker Satam al-Suqami in the row behind him. A secret Federal Aviation Administration executive summary, first uncovered by WorldNetDaily, says that al-Suqami, who would have been sitting directly behind Lewin in seat 10B, shot and killed Lewin with a single bullet. The FAA maintains the high-level report was a mistaken first draft and that Lewin was more than likely stabbed, not shot, along with American Airlines crew members on Flight 11. (Box cutters were allowed that day through airline security, which the FAA regulated, but not guns.) But a childhood friend who served with Lewin in the Israel Defense Force says only a bullet would have stopped Lewin. "He'd be more than a match for those skinny little (expletive)," said Brad Rephen, a New York lawyer who grew up with Lewin in Jerusalem. "With his training, he would have killed them with his bare hands." "I can tell you, their knives would not have stopped him," he added. "He would have taken their knives or their box cutters away and used them against them." Rephen recalls Lewin's injured hands after he returned from an Israeli anti-terrorist training course. "They were pretty beaten up from the fighting he did," he said. "He knew how to fight with knives and take knives away from people." He described Lewin, at about 5-11, 200 pounds, as "thick-boned." He says he witnessed him bench-press more than 300 pounds and squat close to 500 pounds. "He was very, very strong and had a lot of meat on him," Rephen said. "They couldn't have subdued him by slashing him. The only way they could have stopped him was by shooting him." Before returning to America, where he worked as an Internet company executive in Boston, the Denver-born Lewin was a captain in Sayeret Matkal, a top-secret reconnaissance unit of the Israeli army used for special anti-terror missions such as the raid on Entebbe. In 1976, Israeli commandos rescued 103 hostages from a gang of Arab terrorists at the airport in the Ugandan capital. Lewin went on dozens of such missions, friends say. In the '80s, for example, he helped rescue thousands of Jews stranded in Ethiopia. His outfit ñ Unit 269 ñ secured the airport there during the airlift operation, friends say. Rephen called Lewin "the best of the best." "About 2,500 guys try out for the unit he was in," he said. "Twenty-five make it, and one gets chosen as an officer. It was him." He was also extremely tough and determined, Rephen says. He recalls an earlier time, during basic military training, when Lewin fell into a ravine and was knocked unconscious and rushed to the hospital. "He was back the next day," Rephen said. He guesses that Lewin, who understood Arabic, sensed something was wrong on Flight 11 the moment he took his seat next to the three terrorists, including Atta, the ringleader. "He probably picked up that they were on a suicide mission by what they were saying or wearing," Rephen said. "Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups put on headbands as badges of their death," he added. "If they put that stuff on, and he saw it, he would have known the ride was over." And then he would have made his move. "If I know Danny, when he realized what they were doing, he attacked them," Rephen said. "He probably cursed them in Arabic to scare them, and then he hurt them." He speculates that during the struggle with Atta and the other hijacker sitting in front of Lewin in row 8, al-Suqami shot him from behind. "I have no doubt they got a gun on the plane as a backup for a situation like that," Rephen said, speculating that they either brought it on board the plane, likely in pieces, or had it planted there earlier by ground services crew. The FAA report, though very specific, does not indicate whether Lewin was killed during a struggle or while sitting in his seat. Whatever happened, it likely went down within 15 minutes or so of takeoff. Authorities say the pilots were overpowered by then. Rephen, like other Lewin friends and associates contacted by WorldNetDaily, doubts the report of gunfire was written in error. "If this were an error, they wouldn't have been so fact-specific," Rephen said. The FBI says the Lewin incident is still under investigation. "I don't think we know for sure right now if he was killed" on board the flight, said FBI spokesman Paul Bresson. "All of this is something we're trying to figure out ourselves." Attempts to reach Lewin's family were unsuccessful. His wife and children live in the Boston area, and his parents, both doctors, and two younger brothers live in Israel." - WorldNetDaily (03/27/02)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>Flight 11 seating chart: First class: 2A- Wail Alsheri; 2B- Waleed Alsheri Business class: 8D- Mohamed Atta 9B- Daniel Lewin; 9G- Abdul Alomari 10B- Satam Al Suqami  Source:  NYT, Boston Globe and SH     (See also:  9/11 - Workers at Israeli company get text warnings about attacks 2 hours prior; 9/11 - Israeli spies caught cheering while filming themselves with the WTC burning in the background; 9/11 - Netanyahu says 9/11 attacks are " very good" for US/Israeli relations) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:30 am) - Rookie Navy Capt. Charles Leidig, Jr. temporary takes command of the National Military Command Center (NMCC) inside the Pentagon after being asked to the previous day.       STATEMENT OF CAPT CHARLES J. LEIDIG, JR. "Approximately two months prior to 11 September 2001, I assumed duties as the Deputy for Command Center Operations in the J3 Directorate of the Joint Staff. In this role, I was responsible for the maintenance, operation, and training of watch teams for the National Military Command Center (NMCC). Further, I qualified in August 2001 to stand watch as the Deputy Director for Operations in the NMCC. On 10 September 2001, Brigadier General Winfield, U. S. Army, asked that I stand a portion of his duty as Deputy Director for Operations, NMCC, on the following day. I agreed and relieved Brigadier General Winfield at 0830 on 11 September 2001. Shortly after assuming duty, I received the first report of a planeís striking the World Trade Center. Some time after, I learned of the second planeís collision with the World Trace Center. In response to these events, I convened a Significant Event Conference, which was subsequently upgraded to an Air Threat Conference. During the Air Threat Conference, Brigadier General Winfield relieved me and reassumed duties as Deputy Director for Operations for the National Military Command Center. The details of the Air Threat Conference are contained in the conference transcript. I was given the opportunity to review this transcript during testimony I gave to members of The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States staff on 29 April 2004. On that date, I recounted my actions as Deputy Director for Operations, NMCC, on 11 September 2001." - 9/11 Commission (07/17/04) (See also:  September 10, 2001 - Gen. Winfield asks rookie Capt. Leidig to take temporary command of the National Military Command Center at Pentagon for Sept. 11.)       <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:38 am) - NORAD is alerted that a United Airlines flight has been hijacked.       Military Alerted Before Attacks " NORAD received word at 8:38 a.m. that a United Airlines flight had been hijacked, and six minutes later, two F-15 fighter jets were ordered into the air from Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod. But two minutes later, the United plane crashed into the first New York tower. The military jets were airborne at 8:52. When a second United plane hit the other tower at 9:02, they were still 70 miles away from Manhattan, officials said. Military authorities learned that still another hijacked plane might be headed toward Washington several minutes after the second attack in New York. Two F-16 fighter jets took off from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia at 9:35, but the American Airlines plane that roared into the Pentagon struck two minutes later. The F-16s were in position over Washington in time to have intercepted the fourth plane hijacked, the one that crashed in a Pennsylvania forest. Asked if rules of engagement would have allowed the Air Force to shoot the plane down, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said yesterday: "I think it was pretty clear at that point that that airliner was not under the pilot's control and that it was heading to do major damage." He said any military intervention would have ultimately been the decision of President Bush." - Washington Post (09/15/01)   (See also:  October 27, 2004 - NORAD takes their 9/11 response timeline off their website)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:40 & 8:43 am) - The FAA notifies NORAD of two hijackings -- the first time this has happened is U.S. history -- before the first WTC plane crash and scrambles jetfighters before Bush arrives at Booker Elementary school. American Airlines Flight 11 ñ Boston enroute to Los Angeles FAA Notification to NEADS 0840* Fighter Scramble Order (Otis Air National Guard Base, Falmouth, Mass. Two F-15s) 0846** Fighters Airborne 0852 Airline Impact Time (World Trade Center 1) 0846 (estimated)*** Fighter Time/Distance from Airline Impact Location Aircraft not airborne/153 miles United Airlines Flight 175 ñ Boston enroute to Los Angeles FAA Notification to NEADS 0843 Fighter Scramble Order (Otis ANGB, Falmouth, Mass. Same 2 F-15s as Flight 11) 0846 Fighters Airborne 0852 Airline Impact Time (World Trade Center 2) 0902 (estimated) Fighter Time/Distance from Airline Impact Location approx 8 min****/71 miles - NORAD (09/18/01) "No one at the FAA or the airlines that day had ever dealt with multiple hijackings. Such a plot had not been carried out anywhere in the world in more than 30 years, and never in the United States." - 9/11 Commission • Sidenote - "At the time [of the first hijacking reports], more than 4,000 aircraft were airborne over the nation, most in the northeast sector, which monitors half a million square miles of airspace." - Aviation Week (06/03/02) (See also:  8:46 am - Flight 11 crashes into the WTC; 8:52 am - President Bush arrives at Booker Elementary school in Sarasota, FL) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - NORAD's operation "Northern Vigilance" that had jetfighters patrolling the Alaskan region to monitor a Russian air force exercise is called off upon learning of the first hijacking. "Deep inside a mountain in Colorado and far beneath the granite of North Bay, members of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) are at full "battle staff" levels for a major annual exercise that tests every facet of the organization. Operation Northern Vigilance, planned months in advance, involves deploying fighter jets to locations in Alaska and northern Canada. Part of this exercise is pure simulation, but part is real world: NORAD is keeping a close eye on the Russians, who have dispatched long-range bombers to their own high north on a similar exercise. An hour into his shift, something unscripted happens. NORAD's Northeast Air Defence Sector (NEADS), based in Rome, N.Y., contacts the mountain. The Federal Aviation Administration has evidence of a hijacking and is asking for NORAD support. This is not part of the exercise. In a flash, Operation Northern Vigilance is called off. Any simulated information, what's known as an "inject," is purged from the screens. Another timely decision was made halfway around the world. The Russians, on seeing the attacks in New York and Washington, immediately cancelled their own exercises, turning back their bombers and calling off planned missile testing. The Russians knew NORAD would have its hands full." - Toronto Star (12/09/01) [Reprint at:  9/11 Truth Reading Room] <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:44 am) - Donald Rumsfeld is in his office at the Pentagon talking about missile defense and the risk of terrorism and predicts there will be a terrorist attack two minutes before the first plane crashes into the WTC. "Inside, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had some people in to talk about missile defense and the risk that terrorism seen in the past would happen again. èLet me tell ya,ÃÆ he said, èIíve been around the block a few times. There will be another event.ÃÆ Two minutes later, a plane smashed into the first World Trade Center tower and proved him right." - Fayetteville Observer/AP (09/16/01) (See also:  9/11 - Rumsfeld predicts attacks for the 2nd time of the day; October 12, 2001 - In an interview by Parade Magazine, Rumsfeld talks as if the Pentagon was hit by a missile on 9/11; December 24, 2004 - In a speech, Donald Rumsfeld talks as if the plane that was said to have crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11 was shot down) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:46 am) - WTC janitor William Rodriguez was working in the basement area of the North Tower when he hears a large explosion from the floors below him seconds before the first plane crashes into the top of the building, rescues a fellow worker who is severely burnt from the blast below, and also hears various explosions from the 20th trough the 30th floors included the 34th floor which was completely empty due to a "construction project". Collapsed Trade Center towers still dangerous "William Rodriguez worked on the basement level of the north tower and was in the building when the first plane struck his building. "We heard a loud rumble, then all of a sudden we heard another rumble like someone moving a whole lot of furniture," Rodriguez said. "And then the elevator opened and a man came into our office and all of his skin was off." Rodriguez, who had keys to the elevators, began climbing the upper levels of the tower with a police officer to help trapped people. He saw firefighters weighted with rescue equipment catching their breath on the 39th floor. Rodriguez escaped and said he later saw people who had jumped or fallen from the building embedded in the sidewalk." - CNN (09/12/01)   William Rodriguez, a 9-11 Survivor This past week I had the great pleasure of meeting William Rodriquez, a humble man from Puerto Rico who worked at the World Trade Center. William had worked for the New York Port Authority for about twenty years. He was in charge of the three stairwells - A, B and C.  His job included the maintenance of the three narrow stairwells in the class "A" building - WTC1, the north tower. Arriving at 8:30 on the morning of 9-11 he went to the maintenance office located on the first sublevel, one of six sub-basements beneath ground level. There were a total of fourteen people in the office at this time. As he was talking with others, there was a very loud massive explosion which seemed to emanate from between sub-basement B2 and B3. There were twenty-two people on B2 sub-basement who also felt and heard that first explosion. At first he thought it was a generator that had exploded. But the cement walls in the office cracked from the explosion. "When I heard the sound of the explosion, the floor beneath my feet vibrated, the walls started cracking and everything started shaking." said Rodriguez, who was crowded together with fourteen other people in the office including Anthony Saltamachia, supervisor for the American Maintenance Company. Just seconds later there was another explosion way above which made the building oscillate momentarily. This, he was later told, was a plane hitting the 90th floor. Upon hearing about the plane, he immediately thought of the people up in the restaurant. Then there were other explosions just above B1 and individuals started heading for the loading dock to escape the explosion's resulting rampant fire. When asked later about those first explosions he said: "I would know if an explosion was from the bottom or the top of the building." He heard explosions both before and after the plane hit the tower. A fellow worker Felipe David came into the office. "He had been standing in front of a freight elevator on sub-level 1 about 400 feet from the office when fire burst out of the elevator shaft, causing his injuries." The skin on his face had been peeled away by the heat of the blast and he was horribly burned on thirty-three percent of his body. "He was burned so badly from the basement explosion that flesh was hanging from his face and both arms." William asks: "How could a jetliner hit 90 floors above and burn a man's arms and face to a crisp in the basement below within seconds of impact?" William led Felipe David outside to safety. William continued to hear people screaming and returned to the building in spite of police orders. There were people encased in elevators. There were people who needed help. The firemen made it up to the 27th floor but were exhausted from the burden of their equipment. As William had ascended up the stairwell he, as well as the firemen, had heard explosions from the 20th through the 30th floor. Chunks of the building were falling down all around them and they could literally hear the building coming down. Yet, the firemen continued to climb and give aid. After all, they assumed the fire was isolated at the location where the plane entered. Strangely, while William was on the 33rd floor he heard lots of very loud noise as if someone was moving heavy equipment and furniture around on the 34th floor. The reason this is interesting is that the 34th floor was completely empty. Elevators did not stop at the 34th floor. It was off limits due to a construction project. He said that this was the first time that he felt fear. He made it back down to the hole where the front doors used to be before they were blown out. The bottoms of the elevator doors were blown partially open. William Rodriguez saved lives that day. Currently he is attempting to alert the public to what actually happened. He is a courageous witness to those terrible events. William spent hours testifying before the 9-11 Commission behind closed doors. His testimony as an eye witness does not appear anywhere in the 576 page report. But after all, Bush told us who did it, so why bother to examine the evidence or talk with the witnesses. The only agency that was allowed to investigate the circumstances of the event was FEMA. The National Institute of Safety and Technology (NIST), an independent investigative group ignored his plea to tell his story. He contacted them four times but never got a response. NIST was funded by the government which gives you a pretty good idea of just how subjective their findings were. They were paid $35 million dollars and the investigation lasted two years. William Rodriguez also contacted the FBI who never followed up. The media was not interested. CNN spent a day filming and interviewing him at his home but when it was shown the following day it was thoroughly edited. Some reporters have subtly warned Rodriguez to keep quiet as he could jeopardize his life. They said "You do not know who you are dealing with!" He already looked death in the face and he will probably continue to courageously tell his story. He is speaking the truth and he is speaking it for his friends. He says: "I am living on borrowed time since I probably should be dead anyway." William Rodriguez says: "I have tried to tell my story to everybody, but nobody wants to listen. It is very strange what is going on here in supposedly the most democratic country in the world. In my home country of Puerto Rico and all the other Latin American countries, I have been allowed to tell my story uncensored. But here, I can't even say a word." - Conservative Voice (08/25/05)   WTC Basement Blast And Injured Burn Victim Blows 'Official 9/11 Story' Sky High "What happened to William Rodriguez the morning of 9/11 is a miracle. What happened to his story after-the-fact is a tragedy. Declared a hero for saving numerous lives at Ground Zero, he was the janitor on duty the morning of 9/11 who heard and felt explosions rock the basement sub-levels of the north tower just seconds before the jetliner struck the top floors. Rodriguez claims this was impossible and clearly demonstrates a controlled demolition brought down the WTC, saying "Letís see them (the government) try to wiggle out of this one." "When I heard the sound of the explosion, the floor beneath my feet vibrated, the walls started cracking and it everything started shaking," said Rodriguez, who was huddled together with at least 14 other people in the office. "Seconds after the first massive explosion below in the basement still rattled the floor, I hear another explosion from way above," said Rodriguez. "Although I was unaware at the time, this was the airplane hitting the tower, it occurred moments after the first explosion." "He was burned terribly," said Rodriguez. "The skin was hanging off his hands and arms. His injuries couldnít have come from the airplane above, but only from a massive explosion below. I donít care what the government says, what scientists say. I saw a man burned terribly from a fire that was caused from an explosion below. "I know there were explosives placed below the trade center. I helped a man to safety who is living proof, living proof the government story is a lie and a cover-up. "I have tried to tell my story to everybody, but nobody wants to listen. It is very strange what is going on here in supposedly the most democratic country in the world. In my home country of Puerto Rico and all the other Latin American countries, I have been allowed to tell my story uncensored. But here, I canít even say a word." - Arctic Beacon (06/24/05)   - William Rodriguez's blog; lawsuit:  Rodriguez vs. Bush; Video interview:  William Rodriguez and Greg Syzmanski   (See also:  June 2001 - WTC janitor William Rodriguez claims to have been approached in the building by one of the alleged 9/11 hijackers)       <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - WTC worker Mike Pecoraro and a co-worker, who were in the basement of the North Tower, see "white smoke" begin to fill the room after a loud explosion and believes a bomb went off in the basement floors above him after he witnesses that the machine shop on Level C was totally destroyed and a 50 ton hydraulic press there was "gone," sees that the parking garage the floor above had been totally destroyed, and sees that both lobbies of the North and South Towers were heavily damaged too.   We Will Not Forget "Mike Pecoraro... worked as a Stationary Engineer on a roving crew that serviced all of the buildings at the complex. The 36 year-old father of two stopped and bought breakfast on the way into One World Trade Center and changed into his work clothes. At about 6:45 he went to the mechanical shop in the second subbasement... Deep below the tower, Mike Pecoraro was suddenly interrupted in his grinding task by a shake on his shoulder from his co-worker. "Did you see that?" he was asked. Mike told him that he had seen nothing. "You didn't see the lights flicker?", his co-worker asked again. "No," Mike responded, but he knew immediately that if the lights had flickered, it could spell trouble. A power surge or interruption could play havoc with the building's equipment. Mike told his co-worker to call upstairs to their Assistant Chief Engineer and find out if everything was all right. His co-worker made the call and reported back to Mike that he was told that the Assistant Chief did not know what happened but that the whole building seemed to shake and there was a loud explosion. They had been told to stay where they were and "sit tight" until the Assistant Chief got back to them. By this time, however, the room they were working in began to fill with a white smoke. "We smelled kerosene," Mike recalled, "I was thinking maybe a car fire was upstairs", referring to the parking garage located below grade in the tower but above the deep space where they were working. The two decided to ascend the stairs to the C level, to a small machine shop where Vito Deleo and David Williams were supposed to be working. When the two arrived at the C level, they found the machine shop gone. "There was nothing there but rubble, "Mike said. "We're talking about a 50 ton hydraulic press ? gone!" The two began yelling for their co-workers, but there was no answer. They saw a perfect line of smoke streaming through the air. "You could stand here," he said, "and two inches over you couldn't breathe. We couldn't see through the smoke so we started screaming." But there was still no answer. The two made their way to the parking garage, but found that it, too, was gone. "There were no walls, there was rubble on the floor, and you can't see anything" he said. They decided to ascend two more levels to the building's lobby. As they ascended to the B Level, one floor above, they were astonished to see a steel and concrete fire door that weighed about 300 pounds, wrinkled up "like a piece of aluminum foil" and lying on the floor. "They got us again," Mike told his co-worker, referring to the terrorist attack at the center in 1993. Having been through that bombing, Mike recalled seeing similar things happen to the building's structure. He was convinced a bomb had gone off in the building. Mike walked through the open doorway and found two people lying on the floor. One was a female Carpenter and the other an Elevator Operator. They were both badly burned and injured. The smoke in the stairwell was constant and at one point, Mike told Arti that he was going to catch a quick breath of fresh air. He walked out into the main lobby of the building, seeing it for the first time. "When I walked out into the lobby, it was incredible," he recalled. "The whole lobby was soot and black, elevator doors were missing. The marble was missing off some of the walls. 20-foot section of marble, 20 by 10 foot sections of marble, gone from the walls". The west windows were all gone. They were missing. These are tremendous windows. They were just gone. Broken glass everywhere, the revolving doors were all broken and their glass was gone. Every sprinkler head was going off. I am thinking to myself, how are these sprinkler heads going off? It takes a lot of heat to set off a sprinkler head. It never dawned on me that there was a giant fireball that came through the air of the lobby. I never knew that until later on. The jet fuel actually came down the elevator shaft, blew off all the (elevator) doors and flames rolled through the lobby. That explained all the burnt people and why everything was sooted in the lobby." Mike Pecoraro and Arti made their way out of Tower One and went to Tower Two. They encountered a crowd of people standing outside the tower, not knowing what had happened. Apparently, they had witnessed a fireball come through the lobby after the second airplane had struck that tower, but they were entering directly from the subway underground and had as yet, no idea of what was happening." - The Chief Engineer   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:46 am) - American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, allegedly crashes between the 94th and 98th floors of the North WTC Tower traveling at approximately 470 mph. 'We Have Some Planes' "At 8:46:40, American 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City." - 9/11 Commission   2 WTC 1 and WTC 2 "American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north face of WTC 1 approximately between the 94th and 98th floors, causing massive damage to the north face of the building within the immediate area. ...American Airlines Flight 11 was flying at approximately 470 mph." - FEMA WTC Study: Ch 2 (PDF) America's Chaotic Road to War "Bush's motorcade left for the school at 8:30 a.m. As it was arriving, pagers and cell phones alerted White House aides that a plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Bush remembers senior adviser Karl Rove bringing him the news, saying it appeared to be an accident involving a small, twin-engine plane." - Washington Post (01/27/02) - See here, here and here for more analysis of the crash of Flight 11. (See also:  July 28, 1945 - The only time a plane has crashed into a U.S. skyscraper was a military plane during the night through heavy fog; May 22, 1962 - Continental Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 707, becomes the first known commercial airliner to be sabotaged when a bomb explodes onboard; February 26, 1993 - The WTC was first bombed by Islamic terrorists and the F.B.I. knew about the plot; 8:40 am & 8:43 am - The FAA notifies NORAD of two hijackings before the first WTC plane crash; 10:28 am - North WTC Tower collapses)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - A large commercial aircraft flies past the WTC right after the North Tower is hit. - Video:  local, terrorize.dk - Slideshow at:  thewebfairy.com (See also:   9/11 - White aircraft seen flying behind WTC as South Tower gets hit)     <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Larry Silverstein is absent from his office on the 88th floor of the North Tower because of a "doctors appointment" and his two kids, Roger and Lisa, are also absent from the office because they were "running late."   Who Wants to Move to Ground Zero? "On the morning of September 11, 2001, Silverstein was in his Park Avenue apartment, squabbling with his wife, Klara, about how he had to get to work on the 88th floor of the north tower, where he was moving his companyís offices. Klara gave him an icy stare. Silverstein had a dermatologistís appointmentóafter a lifetime of boating, he has a history of facial carcinomasóand there was no way he was missing the appointment. As surreal as it was for most of us to witness, one after the other, the explosion and collapse of the tallest buildings in New York, it was stranger still for the man who had just bought them. First he thought of his children. Silversteinís son, Roger, was in the parking garage of the original 7 World Trade when the first plane hit, and his daughter Lisa was turned away by police farther uptown; they both work for their father." - New York Magazine (04/18/05)   Mike Sees City Taking Control At Ground Zero "After a last-minute breakdown in the front-running bid, Mr. Silversteinís team won by a hair. His son, Roger, and his daughter, Lisa, were working for him in temporary offices on the 88th floor of the W.T.C. north tower. Regular meetings with tenants in the weeks immediately following their July 26, 2001, takeover of the building were held each morning at Windows on the World. But on Sept. 11, Roger and Lisa Silverstein were running late. Meanwhile, Mr. Silversteinís wife of 46 years had laid down the law: The developer could not cancel an appointment with his dermatologist, even to meet with tenants at his most important property. If the * *attack had happened just a little later, Mr. Silversteinís children would likely have been trapped at Windows. As it was, Silverstein Properties lost four employees in the attack, two of whom had just recently been hired." - New York Observer (03/13/03) [Reprinted:  wirednewyork.com]     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - David Angell, who was the creator and executive producer of the NBC sitcom "Frasier" and who was on board Flight 11, was formerly in the Army and worked at the Pentagon until 1972.   Victim of FLIGHT 11, PASSENGERS David Angell, 54, Pasadena, California "Creator and executive producer of the hit NBC sitcom "Frasier." A native of West Barrington, Rhode Island, Angell entered the Army after graduating from college and served at the Pentagon until 1972. He worked in insurance and engineering before selling a script for a TV series in 1977. In 1983, he joined the TV series "Cheers" as a staff writer and began working with co-supervising producers Peter Casey and David Lee. This team formed a production company, creating and producing "Wings" in 1990 and "Frasier" in 1993. The trio won 24 Emmys." - September11victims.com   Their lives, deaths touch us all "David Angell, 54, and his wife, Lynn Angell, 45, both of Pasadena, Calif., were returning from a family wedding on the East Coast to Los Angeles for the upcoming Emmy Awards, which were postponed in the wake of Tuesday's attack. Angell was the creator and executive producer of the NBC sitcom "Frasier" and had won numerous awards for his work on that show and its predecessor, "Cheers." A Rhode Island native, Angell worked in the U.S. Army, at the Pentagon, with an enginnering company and an insurance firm on the East Coast before moving to Los Angeles in 1977, when he sold his first television script, according to a biography issued by the Paramount Television Group." - Chicago Tribune (09/13/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:52 am) - President Bush arrives at Booker Elementary school in Sarasota, FL and is told by his staff that a small, twin-engine plane crashed into the WTC and assumes it's just an accident and thinks the pilot "must have had a heart attack." "At 8:52 a.m. ET, ABCNEWS' Good Morning America broke in with a special report showing flames coming out of the World Trade Center. At the time, President Bush's motorcade was arriving at the Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., for a planned event..." - ABC (9/14/01) "As it was arriving, pagers and cell phones alerted White House aides that a plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Bush remembers senior adviser Karl Rove bringing him the news, saying it appeared to be an accident involving a small, twin-engine plane. Based on what he was told, Bush assumed it was an accident. "This is pilot error," the president recalled saying. "It's unbelievable that somebody would do this." Conferring with Andrew H. Card Jr., his White House chief of staff, Bush said, "The guy must have had a heart attack." - Washington Post (01/27/02) (See also:  9/11 - President Bush is in Florida in which his brother Jeb is the Governor; 8:55 am - Rice tells Bush a commercial plane crashed into the WTC) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Vice President Cheney's instincts of the first crash is that is was not an accident. Cheney recalls taking charge from bunker Cheney was in his West Wing office when he received word that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. He watched TV and hoped that his instincts were wrong. "It was a clear day, there were no weather problems, and then we saw the second airplane hit in real time," Cheney told CNN's John King in an interview in the vice president's office. "At that moment, you knew this was a deliberate act. This was a terrorist act." - CNN (09/11/02)   (See also:  March 21, 1989 - Cheney becomes the 17th US Secretary of Defense)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Mayor Rudy Giuliani thinks the first crash into the WTC was an attack and not an accident. "MR. RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI:  Maybe it would be helpful if I just outlined quickly what I did in the first hour or two that morning, why I did it, and then you know, whatever questions that you have. The morning of September 11, 2001 was a primary day in the city of New York. The Democratic party and the Republican party were voting to select the next mayor of the city. And I was having breakfast that morning at the Peninsula hotel on 55th Street with two old friends and colleagues, Dennison Young who was my counsel, and Bill Simon who was an Assistant United States attorney who had worked with me. As we finished breakfast, the police notified Denny, the two police officers that were on my detail that morning, were notified and then they notified Denny Young, my counsel, and Denny walked up to me and he said the following. That it's been reported that a twin engine plane has crashed into the North Tower and there's a terrible fire there. So I left immediately, walked out into the street, and as I walked out into the street, Denny and I looked up in the sky, and what we saw was a beautiful clear day, about as clear as we had had in a long time, and came to the immediate conclusion that it could not have been an accident, that it had to have been an attack. But we weren't sure whether it was a planned terrorist attack, or maybe some kind of act of individual anger or insanity or some person angry at some business in the building or whatever. But we knew it was an attack...I tried to reach all the people the mayor would generally be in contact with at that point including, we attempted to reach the White House and the Governor's office...I was not able to reach the head of emergency services, Mr. Sheirer, we were not able to make a call outside the city, to the White House, which led me to believe that we had to have hard lines available in order to do that. As we were coming down very, very close to this building, just a few blocks from this building on 6th, we passed St. Vincent's Hospital...A little below St. Vincent's hospital, we could see the fire in the tower, but we saw a big explosion, and we didn't know what it was. We probably concluded that it was just an after effect of the original attack.  But within seconds of seeing it, we received a phone call from the police, and were notified that a second plane had hit, and realized at that point that obviously it was a terrorist attack." - 9/11 Commission (05/19/04) (See also:  September 1972 - Mayor Giuliani is on a high-level government panel which developed plans against an airline missile terrorist attack; 9/11 - Giuliani says he was told the WTC was going to collapse)   • 9/11 - President Bush and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers (who was about to become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) continued to do what they were doing after this highly unusual plane crash at the WTC because they were told that the plane that crashed into it was a "small" aircraft. "As it was arriving, pagers and cell phones alerted White House aides that a plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Bush remembers senior adviser Karl Rove bringing him the news, saying it appeared to be an accident involving a small, twin-engine plane." - Washington Post (01/27/02) "Myers said he was on Capitol Hill that morning in the offices of Georgia Sen. Max Cleland to discuss his confirmation hearing to become chairman. While in an outer office, he said, he saw a television report that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. "They thought it was a small plane or something like that," Myers said. So the two men went ahead with the office call. Meanwhile, the second World Trade Center tower was hit by another jet. "Nobody informed us of that," Myers said. "But when we came out, that was obvious. Then, right at that time, somebody said the Pentagon had been hit." - DefenseLINK (10/23/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - After the first WTC plane crash, an aide to CIA Director George Tenet tells him that the WTC has just been "attacked" by an airplane and Tenet say this attack has Osama bin Laden's "fingerprints all over it." "In Washington, CIA Director George Tenet and David Boren, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, were having breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel three blocks from the White House. "Out of the corner of my eye, I could see several people converging on our table," Boren said. "One of them said to George Tenet, 'Mr. Director, the World Trade tower has just been attacked by an airplane.' I was struck by the fact he used the word 'attacked.'" An aide handed a cell phone to Tenet. "After he Ãñ handed the cell phone back to his security person," Boren recalled, "he said to me, 'You know, this has bin Laden's fingerprints all over it.'" At 9:03 a.m. ET, with television stations on the air live, a plane hit the World Trade Center's south tower." - ABC (9/14/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Duchess Sarah Ferguson Was Headed to WTC When Terrorists Attacked "The former Sarah Ferguson, ex-wife of Britain's Prince Andrew, had an 8:45 a.m. meeting scheduled that day for her Chances for Children charity, which was based at the World Trade Center, but was running late, reports columnist Cindy Adams. Her staffers were gathered downstairs in the lobby to greet the duchess and escort her upstairs. Just seconds after the first plane hit, Sarah's car arrived at the door. After whisking her employees into her limo, she sped off to safety, Adams reports. The charity's offices were on the 101st floor, according to wire service reports, although it's not clear which tower they were located in." - ABC (9/16/01)   • 9/11 - An announcement in the South WTC tower said for no need to evacuate the building because of the fire in the North WTC tower. "Brent Glading, a salesman for MassMutual Financial Group's OppenheimerFunds Inc., was on the 33rd floor of the South Tower yesterday morning when the first plane hit the North Tower. He headed down the stairs, but then there was an announcement over the building's public address system that said a plane had hit the North Tower but that the South Tower was secure. So he and others began heading back to their offices." - Pulitzer/Wall Street Journal (09/12/01) "A Briton who worked in the World Trade Centre in New York has said that staff were told there was no need to evacuate the building after the first plane smashed into the north tower of the complex on Tuesday morning. Mike Shillaker said he was on the 72nd floor of the south tower when the first hijacked plane struck. "We started walking down the stairs," he said. "A message came out of the Tannoy when we were on about floor 50 that there was an isolated fire in the first building and there was actually no need to proceed down the stairs any further if we didnít want to. There was no need to evacuate." Mr Shillaker said he ignored this message and continued to descend the stairs: "We got down to about floor 40 and I think that is when the second plane hit, but even at that stage we were completely oblivious to actually what was going on. "The rumours were that a small plane had maybe hit the first building and that the second bang was an aftershock or something like that. It was only when we got downstairs that there was some sort of sense of panic." - TCM Breaking News (9/14/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:55 am) - President Bush goes into a holding room inside Booker Elementary to speak with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice who tells him it was a commercial plane that crashed into the WTC. "At 8:55, before entering the classroom, the President spoke to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who was at the White House. She recalled first telling the President it was a twin-engine aircraft-and then a commercial aircraft-that had struck the World Trade Center, adding "that's all we know right now, Mr. President." - 9/11 Commission (See also:  8:52 am - President Bush arrives at Booker Elementary school in Sarasota, FL; 9:02 am - Bush continues on with his scheduled classroom reading event) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (8:57 am) - Flight 77's radar stops near the Ohio/Kentucky border and is the only one of the four hijacked planes that wasn't able to be tracked via radar the whole way. "Someone on board Flight 77 had flipped off the transponder, the device that sends a plane's airline identification, flight number, speed and altitude to controllers' radar screens." - Washington Post (9/12/01) - Map sources:  Flight Explorer; Washington Post (See also:  Killtown's: Did Flight 77 really crash into the Pentagon? - Timeline)   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:00 am) - A team from the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), who operate many of the US's spy satellites and are located about four miles from Dulles Airport where Flight 77 would take off from, had planned to begin an exercise to simulate a plane crashing into one of its buildings.   John Fulton - Intelligence Networking & Analysis "On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team at the CIA were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building.  Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day." - National Law Enforcement and Security Institute   Agency planned exercise on Sept. 11 built around a plane crashing into a building "In what the government describes as a bizarre coincidence, one U.S. intelligence agency was planning an exercise last Sept. 11 in which an errant aircraft would crash into one of its buildings. But the cause wasn't terrorism -- it was to be a simulated accident. Officials at the Chantilly, Va.-based National Reconnaissance Office had scheduled an exercise that morning in which a small corporate jet would crash into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building after experiencing a mechanical failure. The agency is about four miles from the runways of Washington Dulles International Airport. Agency chiefs came up with the scenario to test employees' ability to respond to a disaster, said spokesman Art Haubold. No actual plane was to be involved -- to simulate the damage from the crash, some stairwells and exits were to be closed off, forcing employees to find other ways to evacuate the building. "It was just an incredible coincidence that this happened to involve an aircraft crashing into our facility," Haubold said. "As soon as the real world events began, we canceled the exercise." Terrorism was to play no role in the exercise, which had been planned for several months, he said. Adding to the coincidence, American Airlines Flight 77 -- the Boeing 767 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon -- took off from Dulles at 8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 50 minutes before the exercise was to begin. It struck the Pentagon around 9:40 a.m., killing 64 aboard the plane and 125 on the ground. The National Reconnaissance Office operates many of the nation's spy satellites. It draws its personnel from the military and the CIA. After the Sept. 11 attacks, most of the 3,000 people who work at agency headquarters were sent home, save for some essential personnel, Haubold said. An announcement for an upcoming homeland security conference in Chicago first noted the exercise. In a promotion for speaker John Fulton, a CIA officer assigned as chief of NRO's strategic gaming division, the announcement says, "On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team ... were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day." The conference is being run by the National Law Enforcement and Security Institute. " - Boston Globe (2002), SFGate (08/21/02) [Wayback]   Federal agency planned plane-crashing-into-building drill ... last Sept. 11 - USA Today (08/22/02) (See also:  9/11 (6 a.m.) - NORAD was in day two of a week long exercise called "Vigilant Guardian"; September 12, 2001 - FEMA and hundreds of other state and federal government officials were scheduled to participate in a biochemical attack drill called "Operation TRIPOD" in New York City)   • 9/11 - Exit doors to the WTC's roofs are locked, preventing people to escape on to the roof. NIST NCSTAR 1 (Draft) "Hundreds of people were on the floors above the impact zone. They soon realized that they were unable to go downward to get away from the smoke and heat that were building up around them. At 8:54 a.m., occupants began breaking windows to provide access to fresh air. By 9:02 a.m., 26 calls, representing hundreds of people, had been made to 9-1-1, asking for help and seeking more information about what was happening. Some of the people went toward the roof. However, there was no hope because roof evacuation was neither planned nor practical, and the exit doors to the roof were locked." - NIST (09/05) [PDF; pg 26]   9 - HEROISM AND HORROR "Doors leading to the roof were locked. There was no rooftop evacuation plan. Civilians were not informed that rooftop evacuations were not part of the evacuation plan, or that doors to the roof were kept locked. The Port Authority acknowledges that it had no protocol for rescuing people trapped above a fire in the towers." - 9/11 Commission   (See also:  September 10, 2001 - The roofs at the WTC are closed)       <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Five young men set up video cameras aimed at the Twin Towers prior to the attack then where witnessed on top of a white van celebrating afterward before later being arrested and identified as Israeli citizens -- some later found to be Israeli spies -- with one saying upon being arrested: "We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem." They were found with large amounts of cash, a box cutter, multiple foreign passports, maps linking them to the blasts, a bomb-sniffing dogs reacted as if detecting explosives in their van, and when the FBI seized and developed their photos, one showed the driver flicking a cigarette lighter in front of the smoldering ruins in an apparently celebratory gesture.   One Arrested, Others Detained at NY Airports "The New York Times reported Thursday that a group of five men had set up video cameras aimed at the Twin Towers prior to the attack on Tuesday, and were seen congratulating one another afterwards." - FOX (09/14/01)   The White Van; Were Israelis Detained on Sept. 11 Spies? "Millions saw the horrific images of the World Trade Center attacks, and those who saw them won't forget them. But a New Jersey homemaker saw something that morning that prompted an investigation into five young Israelis and their possible connection to Israeli intelligence. Maria, who asked us not to use her last name, had a view of the World Trade Center from her New Jersey apartment building. She remembers a neighbor calling her shortly after the first plane hit the towers. She grabbed her binoculars and watched the destruction unfolding in lower Manhattan. But as she watched the disaster, something else caught her eye. Maria says she saw three young men kneeling on the roof of a white van in the parking lot of her apartment building. "They seemed to be taking a movie," Maria said. The men were taking video or photos of themselves with the World Trade Center burning in the background, she said. What struck Maria were the expressions on the men's faces. "They were like happy, you know Ãñ They didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was very strange," she said. The arresting officers said they saw a lot that aroused their suspicion about the men. One of the passengers had $4,700 in cash hidden in his sock. Another was carrying two foreign passports. A box cutter was found in the van. But perhaps the biggest surprise for the officers came when the five men identified themselves as Israeli citizens. According to the police report, one of the passengers told the officers they had been on the West Side Highway in Manhattan "during the incident" ó referring to the World Trade Center attack. The driver of the van, Sivan Kurzberg, told the officers, "We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem." The other passengers were his brother Paul Kurzberg, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Marmari. When the men were transferred to jail, the case was transferred out of the FBI's Criminal Division, and into the bureau's Foreign Counterintelligence Section, which is responsible for espionage cases, ABCNEWS has learned. The five men were held in detention for more than two months. Some of them were placed in solitary confinement for 40 days, and some of them were given as many as seven lie-detector tests. One reason for the shift, sources told ABCNEWS, was that the FBI believed Urban Moving may have been providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation. Eventually, The Forward, a respected Jewish newspaper in New York, reported the FBI concluded that two of the men were Israeli intelligence operatives. As to what they were doing on the van, they say they read about the attack on the Internet, couldn't see it from their offices and went to the parking lot for a better view. But no one has been able to find a good explanation for why they may have been smiling with the towers of the World Trade Center burning in the background. Both the lawyers for the young men and the Israeli Embassy chalk it up to immature conduct. While the former detainees refused to answer ABCNEWS' questions about their detention and what they were doing on Sept. 11, several of the detainees discussed their experience in America on an Israeli talk show after their return home. Said one of the men, denying that they were laughing or happy on the morning of Sept. 11, "The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event."" - ABC (09/21/02) [Reprinted at:  Common Dreams.  Archived at:  WayBack Machine]   Five men detained as suspected conspirators "About eight hours after terrorists struck Manhattan's tallest skyscrapers, police in Bergen County detained five men who they said were found carrying maps linking them to the blasts. The five men, who were in a van stopped on Route 3 in East Rutherford around 4:30 p.m., were being questioned by police but had not been charged with any crime late Tuesday. The Bergen County Police bomb squad X-rayed packages found inside the van but did not find any explosives, authorities said. However, sources close to the investigation said they found other evidence linking the men to the bombing plot. "There are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted," the source said. "It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park." Sources also said that bomb-sniffing dogs reacted as if they had detected explosives, although officers were unable to find anything. The FBI seized the van for further testing, authorities said. Sources close to the investigation said the men said they were Israeli tourists, but police had not been able to confirm their identities. Authorities would not release their names. "We got an alert to be on the lookout for a white Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration and writing on the side," said Bergen County Police Chief John Schmidig. "Three individuals were seen celebrating in Liberty State Park after the impact. They said three people were jumping up and down." The woman, who asked not to be identified, said the people detained appeared to be white men, but she could not give more details. About 5:30 p.m., police evacuated the hotel without offering guests an explanation." - Bergen Record NJ (09/12/01) [Reprinted at:  Action Report; Archived at:  WayBack Machine]   U.S. arrests of Israelis a mystery "Also, five of the Israelis came to the FBI's attention after they were seen by New Jersey residents on Sept. 11 making fun of the World Trade Center ruins and going to extreme lengths to photograph themselves in front of the wreckage. The FBI seized and developed their photos, one of which shows Sivan Kurzberg flicking a cigarette lighter in front of the smouldering ruins in an apparently celebratory gesture." - Globe & Mail (12/17/01) [Reprinted:  unknownnews.net)   Five Israelis were seen filming as jet liners ploughed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 ... "THERE was ruin and terror in Manhattan, but, over the Hudson River in New Jersey, a handful of men were dancing. As the World Trade Centre burned and crumpled, the five men celebrated and filmed the worst atrocity ever committed on American soil as it played out before their eyes. Who do you think they were? Palestinians? Saudis? Iraqis, even? Al-Qaeda, surely? Wrong on all counts. They were Israelis ñ and at least two of them were Israeli intelligence agents, working for Mossad, the equivalent of MI6 or the CIA." - Sunday Herald (11/02/03)   "There are reports five men suspected of being involved in the attack on the World Trade Centre set up cameras to record the atrocity. The men set up cameras by the Hudson River and trained them on the twin towers. The New York Times reports they congratulated each other when the crashes occurred. The paper reported law officials said the team was "aided by confederates in Newark who were responsible for logistical support, including money, rental cars, credit cards and lodging"." - TCM Breaking News (09/13/01)   Spy Rumors Fly on Gusts of Truth; Americans Probing Reports of Israeli Espionage "Despite angry denials by Israel and its American supporters, reports that Israel was conducting spying activities in the United States may have a grain of truth, the Forward has learned. In particular, a group of five Israelis arrested in New Jersey shortly after the September 11 attacks and held for more than two months was subjected to an unusual number of polygraph tests and interrogated by a series of government agencies including the FBI's counterintelligence division, which by some reports remains convinced that Israel was conducting an intelligence operation. The five Israelis worked for a moving company with few discernable assets that closed up shop immediately afterward and whose owner fled to Israel. According to one former high-ranking American intelligence official, who asked not to be named, the FBI came to the conclusion at the end of its investigation that the five Israelis arrested in New Jersey last September were conducting a Mossad surveillance mission and that their employer, Urban Moving Systems of Weehawken, N.J., served as a front. However, a counterintelligence investigation by the FBI concluded that at least two of them were in fact Mossad operatives, according to the former American official, who said he was regularly briefed on the investigation by two separate law enforcement officials. "The assessment was that Urban Moving Systems was a front for the Mossad and operatives employed by it," he said. "The conclusion of the FBI was that they were spying on local Arabs but that they could leave because they did not know anything about 9/11." The five men ó Sivan and Paul Kurzberg, Oded Ellner, Omer Marmari and Yaron Shmuel ó were arrested eight hours after the attacks by the Bergen County, N.J., police while driving in an Urban Moving Systems van. The police acted on an FBI alert after the men allegedly were seen acting strangely while watching the events from the roof of their warehouse and the roof of their van. In addition to their strange behavior and their Middle Eastern looks, the suspicions were compounded when a box cutter and $4,000 in cash were found in the van. Moreover, one man carried two passports and another had fresh pictures of the men standing with the smoldering wreckage of the World Trade Center in the background. The FBI questioned Mr. Suter once. However, he left the country afterward and went back to Israel before further questioning. Mr. Suter declined through his lawyer to be interviewed for this article. After they returned to Israel at the end of November, the five men told local media that they were kept in solitary confinement, beaten, deprived of food and questioned while blindfolded and in their underwear." - The Forward (03/15/02)   - All articles archived here:   The Dancing Israelis on 9/11 - killtown.blogspot.com (See also:  9/11 - Workers at Israeli company get text warnings about attacks 2 hours prior; 9/11 - Elite Israeli military commando who understands Arabic allegedly shot on Flight 11; 9/11 - Press reports a group with 'Palestine' in the name has claimed responsibility for attacks; 9/11 - Netanyahu says 9/11 attacks are " very good" for US/Israeli relations; December 12, 2001 - Israeli spy scandal) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:02 am) - Even after being told that a commercial plane hit the WTC and apparently never getting in contact with the FAA or NORAD about the previous two hijackings, Bush continues on with his scheduled classroom reading event. "Mr. Bush was told about the first plane just before sitting down with a class of second graders. He was watching a reading drill when, just after 9 a.m., United Flight 175 exploded into the second tower." - CBS (09/10/03)  "Bush stopped to greet the congressmen and school officials, but Card urged him to go inside. "Mr. President, you really need to take this phone call," Card said. Brogan followed Bush into a room set aside for the White House staff as the president took the call. At that point, White House officials believed a small propeller plane had hit the tower. Bush ended the call and walked into Kay Daniels' second-grade classroom. "Hello, boys and girls," Bush said, shaking hands with the children. Principal Gwen Rigell was struck by how closely Bush followed the White House script. He sat in a plain padded chair and listened as the children read him a story about a girl and her pet goat." - St. Petersburg Times (09/08/02) (See also:  8:40 am & 8:43 am - The FAA notifies NORAD of two hijackings before the first WTC plane crash; 8:55 am - Rice tells Bush a commercial plane crashed into the WTC; 9:07 am - Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispers in Bush's hear that a second plane has hit the WTC)     <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:03 am) - United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767, allegedly crashes between the 78th and 84th floors of the South WTC Tower traveling at approximately 470 mph and is the only one of any of the four hijacked planes caught on film or video that is recognizable.   "Table 1.  WTC Seismic Events - Date: 09/11/2001, Time (EDT):  9:02:54, Remark:  second impact." - Vibration Data.com (November 2002 Newsletter)   "United Airlines Flight 175 was scheduled to depart for Los Angeles at 8:00. Captain Victor Saracini and First Officer Michael Horrocks piloted the Boeing 767, which had seven flight attendants. Fifty-six passengers boarded the flight. At 9:03:11, United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center." - 9/11 Commission   2 WTC 1 and WTC 2 "United Airlines Flight 175 struck the south face of WTC 2 approximately between the 78th and 84th floors. ...United Airlines Flight 175 was flying much faster, with an estimated speed of 590 mph..." - FEMA WTC Study: Ch 2 (PDF) (See also:  April 19, 1995 - The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK is bombed at approximately 9:02 a.m.; 9:59 am - South WTC Tower collapses)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - A white aircraft is seen flying behind the WTC in the distance as the South Tower gets hit. - See: terrorize.dk (See also:  9/11 - A large commercial aircraft flies past the WTC right after the North Tower is hit)   • 9/11 - Diesel fuel tanks were stored on the 88th floor of the south tower. "But Braford, who lives on a quiet street in Princeton, also had another job in 1973 that gives him a connection with the World Trade Center. That was the year the twin towers of the World Trade Center were completed and Braford was the construction superintendent for the electrical end of the project in the south tower. He said he supervised the installation of three generators on the 88th floor of the south tower. Braford was familiar with many details of the building, telling how there were water tanks for keeping the generators cool and diesel fuel tanks there to run the generators." - Princeton Union-Eagle   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - The two Boeing 767's that allegedly crashed into the North and South WTC Towers crashed at approximately the same angle. - See:  9-11 Hole Science - Gallerize.com   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Ann Tatlock, a CEO at Fiduciary Trust located in the South WTC Tower, is on her way to an early morning charity event at the U.S. Strategic Command Center at Offutt AFB in Nebraska -- where Bush later flew to for "safety" -- hosted by billionaire Warren Buffett and is escorted by military officers into an officer's lounge with a TV and watches the 2nd hijacked plane crash right into her offices. "On the morning of Sept. 11, Tatlock herself had just arrived with a small group of business leaders at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha for a charity event hosted by Warren Buffett. She then heard the news of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center's north tower. Moments later, back in Omaha, a television picture flashed on a large screen, and Tatlock witnessed the second plane plowing into the south tower. "There on the screen, I saw the second plane crash into my office," Tatlock recalled." - San Francisco Business Times (week of 02/04/02) "Anne Tatlock found out about the collision of a plane with the North Tower while en route to the U.S. Strategic Command headquarters in Omaha. The 62-year-old chief executive of Fiduciary Trust Co. International was one of a small group of business leaders at a charity event hosted by Warren Buffett. Military officers boarded the bus she was on, and escorted her to an officer's lounge and a television, just in time to see the second plane hit the South Tower between the 87th and 93rd floors--right where 650 of her employees worked. Fiduciary, which today manages $44 billion of securities for pension plans, endowments and wealthy individuals..." - Forbes (10/15/01) "On the morning of September 11, 2001, Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, was watching television in his home in Omaha, Nebraska, as he got ready to host his last annual Charity Classic golf and tennis tournament." - Robert P. Miles (05/02) "3:07 p.m. ñ Bush arrives at U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska." - September11News.com (See also Killtown's:  Where was Warren Buffett on 9/11?)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Fiduciary Trust, located in the south tower, had scheduled an emergency drill for the day.   City Releases Tapes of 911 Calls From Sept. 11 Attack "Just before the south tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., a spurt of calls reached the 911 operators. One of these was from Shimmy Biegeleisen, who worked for Fiduciary Trust in the south tower on computer systems. He was on the 97th floor where, by chance, an emergency drill had been scheduled for that day." - NY Times (03/31/06)     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - After the 2nd crash into the WTC, Vice President Cheney directs the U.S. government's response from and emergency bunker in the White House; the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC).   Cheney recalls taking charge from bunker "As horrified Americans watched the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, unfold on their television sets, Vice President Dick Cheney directed the U.S. government's response from an emergency bunker. The actions included moving key members of Congress to a secure location and having the Secret Service bring his wife, Lynn, to the bunker. Cheney was in his West Wing office when he received word that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. He watched TV and hoped that his instincts were wrong. "It was a clear day, there were no weather problems, and then we saw the second airplane hit in real time," Cheney told CNN's John King in an interview in the vice president's office. "At that moment, you knew this was a deliberate act. This was a terrorist act." He called President Bush in Florida and spoke with top aides. Then his door burst open. "My [Secret Service] agent all of a sudden materialized right beside me and said, 'Sir, we have to leave now.' He grabbed me and propelled me out of my office, down the hall, and into the underground shelter in the White House," Cheney said. In White House terminology, it is the PEOC, short for the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. A relic of the Cold War, the deep underground bunker became the vice president's base of operations on the first day of a new war. After the planes struck the twin towers, a third took a chunk out of the Pentagon. Cheney then heard a report that a plane over Pennsylvania was heading for Washington. A military assistant asked Cheney twice for authority to shoot it down. "The vice president said yes again," remembered Josh Bolton, deputy White House chief of staff. "And the aide then asked a third time. He said, 'Just confirming, sir, authority to engage?' And the vice president -- his voice got a little annoyed then -- said, 'I said yes.'" - CNN (09/11/02)   (See also:  March 21, 1989 - Cheney becomes the 17th US Secretary of Defense; 9/11 - Young man enters PEOC and tells Cheney a plane is approaching D.C. and asks if orders still stand)     • 9/11 (9:06 am) - A missile was reportedly launched from the Woolworth Building near the WTC.   CHRONOLOGY OF EMERGENCY RESPONDER OPERATIONS, WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK, SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 "9:06:31 PAPD Police Desk radio report, PA Channel W ñ èUnits on channel W, this is 8581 Sierra. Thereís been a reported missile launching from the Woolworth Building. CPD, if you are monitoring, get in touch with New York City. Have them check the Woolworth Building roof top." - NIST [local]   Innuendo, Erroneous Reports Abound In WTC Transcripts "The caller's story was outrageous: Someone had fired missiles at the World Trade Center's north tower from atop the nearby Woolworth Building.  The Woolworth Building, itself once the tallest in the world, was cited as a possible source of the attack. "Can you send somebody over to the Woolworth Building to check the roof?" a Port Authority police officer asked. "There's a possible ... they said it was ... we just had a second explosion, possibly a missile from the roof of the Woolworth Building." "The Woolworth Building?" replied a police operator. "`Yeah, on ... on Broadway," the officer said." - WNBC (09/01/03)   Advice at WTC:  Just stay put "At one point in the radio dispatches, there is a report of a "possible missile launching from the Woolworth Building," a landmark a few blocks away. Another person called out: "They're shooting at the Trade Center from the Woolworth Building." - New York Daily (08/29/03)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:07 am) - Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispers in Bush's hear that a second plane has hit the WTC and that America is under attack and then immediately walks away from the president without waiting for any kind of response and President Bush doesn't look at or even respond to Card after receiving supposedly horrible surprising news. "Bush is visiting a second-grade class when Card whispers to him that a second plane has struck the towers. President delays plans to address the tragedy, deciding to get more information first." - September11News.com "'A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.' White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card leaned over and whispered these words into President Bush's right ear at 9:07 a.m. September 11." - Washington Times (10/08/02) "Card walked away from Bush immediately after delivering the bad news. ``I did not want to have a discussion with the president in front of that audience and in front of those cameras,'' he said." - Boston Herald (09/08/02) "White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card leaned over and whispered these words into President Bush's right ear at 9:07 a.m. September 11. "I looked at him, and that's all he said," Mr. Bush recalled months later, in a series of extensive interviews with The Washington Times in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One. "Then he left. There was no time for discussion or anything." White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card had informed the president of the first, seemingly accidental crash just as Mr. Bush arrived at the school. Then, at 9:07, Mr. Card entered the classroom and seized a pause in the reading drill to walk up to Mr. Bush's seat. "A second plane hit the second tower," he whispered into the president's right ear. "America is under attack." - Washington Times (10/08/02) (See also:  9:02 am - Bush continues on with his scheduled classroom reading event)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:08 am*) - President Bush picks up a book after he is just told that his country is under attack and begins to read with 2nd graders for 7 to 11 minutes and after finishing the reading lesson, Bush then takes a few questions from the children before he leaves the classroom. *Time based on video showing Bush picking up a book approx. 45 seconds after Cards finishes whispering into Bush's ear. "Then, at 9:04 a.m., while Bush met with second-graders, staff chief Andrew H. Card Jr. whispered in his ear that a second plane had struck. Bush's sunny countenance went grim.  After Card's whisper, Bush looked distracted and somber but continued to listen to the second-graders read and soon was smiling again. He joked that they read so well, they must be sixth-graders." - September11news.com "Slowly, Bush picked up his book and read with the students for eight or nine minutes." - Tampa Bay Online (09/01/02) "Bush was reading to a grade-school class in Florida at that moment. Instead of jumping up and leaving, he instead sat in front of the class, with an unfortunate look of confusion, for nearly 11 minutes. There Bush sits, with no access to his advisers, while New York is being viciously attacked." - FOX News (06/15/04) "At the moment the second plane was slamming into the south tower, President Bush was being introduced to the second-graders of Emma E. Booker Elementary in Sarasota, Fla...he soon appeared in the classroom and listened appreciatively as the children went through their reading drill. As he was getting ready to pose for pictures with the teachers and kids, chief of staff Andy Card entered the room, walked over to the President and whispered in his right ear. The President's face became visibly tense and serious. He nodded. Card left and for several minutes the President seemed distracted and somber, but then he resumed his interaction with the class. "Really good readers, whew!" he told them. "These must be sixth-graders!" - Time (9/12/01) "Bush finished the lesson and even took a few questions from the children. He then excused himself and walked into the adjacent staff room." - St. Petersburg Times (09/08/02) (See also:  September 11, 2002 - Andrew Card seems to suggest Bush left the classroom he was in within "seconds" after he whispered "America is under attack"; October 29, 2004 - Bin Laden mocks President Bush for sitting in a classroom reading the pet goat story while America was being attacked; Killtown's: Was Bush complicit with the 9/11 attacks?) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:16 - 9:26 am) - U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson -- who has admitted in public that the U.S. government lies and who helped stopped the Florida recount that helped Bush win the '00 election -- claims his third wife, conservative commentator and author Barbara Olson, called him collect from Flight 77 twice via her cellphone, is the only one that describes that the hijackers had box cutters, never mentions the hijackers nationality or how many there were, and was one of only two of the 64 passengers on board to have allegedly called from the plane. "Associates of her husband said after she and the other passengers were herded into the back of the plane, she pulled out her cellphone and twice called her husband's office at the Justice Department. When she reached her husband, she told him the plane was being hijacked and urged him to quickly call the FBI. CNN, the network for whom Mrs. Olson worked, reported that she also told her husband that the hijackers were wielding knives and cardboard cutters and that their motives were not readily apparent. Since their marriage 5 years ago, the Olsons have been a formidable conservative pair. She wrote a biting biography of former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. He successfully represented George W. Bush at the Supreme Court last December, stopping the Florida recounts and guaranteeing Bush the White House." - USA Today (09/11/01) "'Unlike the earlier flights, the Flight 77 hijackers were reported by a passenger to have box cutters. At some point between 9:16 and 9:26, Barbara Olson called her husband, Ted Olson, the solicitor general of the United States. She reported that the flight had been hijacked, and the hijackers had knives and box cutters. She further indicated that the hijackers were not aware of her phone call, and that they had put all the passengers in the back of the plane. About a minute into the conversation, the call was cut off. Solicitor General Olson tried unsuccessfully to reach Attorney General John Ashcroft. Shortly after the first call, Barbara Olson reached her husband again. She reported that the pilot had announced that the flight had been hijacked, and she asked her husband what she should tell the captain to do. Ted Olson asked for her location and she replied that the aircraft was then flying over houses. Another passenger told her they were traveling northeast. The Solicitor General then informed his wife of the two previous hijackings and crashes. She did not display signs of panic and did not indicate any awareness of an impending crash. At that point, the second call was cut off." - 9/11 Commission Report "[Barbara Olson] described how hijackers forced passengers and the flight's pilot to the rear of the aircraft. She said nothing about the number of hijackers or their nationality." - Washington Post  (09/11/01) ôI Canít Just Sit Backí "Then the phone rang. It was Barbara calling collect. èMy first reaction was, ôThank God, youíre OKí,ÃÆ he recalled. Barbara called backóand gave still more information: how the plane was circling around and then appeared to be heading in a northeasterly direction. Finally, the line went dead moments before American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon." - MSNBC (12/29/01) "KING: Let's talk about that. You were very -- this was your third marriage, right?  T. OLSON: Yes. KING: Barbara's second?  T. OLSON: Yes." - CNN/Larry King Live (12/25/01) "The United States Government's top lawyer has said that officials have the right to lie to American citizens, telling the US Supreme Court that misleading statements are sometimes needed to protect foreign policy interests. "It's easy to imagine an infinite number of situations where the government might legitimately give out false information," the Solicitor-General, Theodore Olson, told the court on Monday.  "It's an unfortunate reality that the issuance of incomplete information and even misinformation by government may sometimes be perceived as necessary to protect vital interests." - Sydney Morning Herald (03/20/02) [Reprinted at:  Citizen Review Online] "On American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon with 53 passengers and six crew onboard, flight attendant Rene May and passenger Barbara Olson, wife of Solicitor General Ted Olson, made calls." - CNN (05/28/04) (See also:  Killtown's: The Unusual Passengers of Flight 77) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:26 am) - FAA orders all aircraft, including military, to be grounded. "0926. The FAA bans takeoffs of all civilian aircraft regardless of destination -- a national groundstop." - FAA (08/02) "At 9:25, Garvey, in an historic and admirable step, and almost certainly after getting an okay from the White House, initiated a national ground stop, which forbids takeoffs and requires planes in the air to get down as soon as reasonable. The order, which has never been implemented since flying was invented in 1903, applied to virtually every single kind of machine that can takeoff ó civilian, military, or law enforcement." - Time (09/14/01) "MR. MINETA: It was clear that we had to clear the air space as soon as possible to stop any further attacks and ensure domestic air space was available for emergency and defensive use. And so at approximately 9:45 a.m., less than one hour after I had first been notified of an airplane crash in New York, I gave the FAA the final order for all civil aircraft to land at the nearest airport as soon as possible. It was the first shutdown of civil aviation in the history of the United States." - 9/11 Commission <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - All four planes hijacked (two 757's & two 767's) are made by Boeing -- a major defense contractor -- that virtually have the same flight decks, can store an entire flight path plan, and can be automatically flown immediately after takeoff up until landing. The Boeing 757-200 "The 757-200 flight deck, designed for two-crew member operation, pioneered the use of digital electronics and advanced displays. • A fully integrated flight management computer system (FMCS) provides for automatic guidance and control of the 757-200 from immediately after takeoff to final approach and landing. • The precision of global positioning satellite (GPS) system navigation, automated air traffic control functions, and advanced guidance and communications features are now available as part of the new Future Air Navigation System (FANS) flight management computer.  Flight decks of the 757 and 767 are nearly identical and both aircraft have a common type-rating. Pilots qualified to fly one of the aircraft also can fly the other with only minimal additional familiarization." - Boeing "Boeing is the worldís leading aerospace company and the largest combined manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft. With additional capabilities in rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, rocket engines, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems, the companyís reach extends to customers in 145 countries. In terms of sales, Boeing is one of the largest U.S. exporters. Total company revenues for 2004 were $52.5 billion." - Boeing "New techniques for navigation and flight control are used on the 767-200... An automatic flight control system coupled with a computer allows storage of an entire flight plan and gives automatic guidance and control of the aircraft from takeoff to landing." - NASA (See also:  August 25, 2001 - Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force force lands a Boeing 727 in a anti-hijacking experiment; Boeing specs) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:31 am) - President Bush is still at the elementary school approx. 25 minutes after being told America's under attack and gives his first speech of the day there at exactly the same time he was scheduled to make a speech at the school. "9:31 A.M. - President Bush makes a short statement to reporters." - Patriot Resource "It was just after 9:30 a.m. The president unfolded his hands and straightened three sheets of hand-scrawled notes that he had spread on the podium in the school library. He folded his hands again and looked back up at his audience. "Today, we've had a national tragedy," Mr. Bush said. - Washington Times (10/08/02) Remarks by the President After Two Planes Crash Into World Trade Center Emma Booker Elementary School - Sarasota, Florida 9:30 A.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for America. I, unfortunately, will be going back to Washington after my remarks. Secretary Rod Paige and the Lt. Governor will take the podium and discuss education. I do want to thank the folks here at Booker Elementary School for their hospitality. Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. I have spoken to the Vice President, to the Governor of New York, to the Director of the FBI, and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families, and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act. Terrorism against our nation will not stand. And now if you would join me in a moment of silence. May God bless the victims, their families, and America. Thank you very much." - White House (9/11/01) "FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE ADVANCE SCHEDULE FOR TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 SENT: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2001 9:30 A.M. (ZF) PRESIDENT BUSH REMARKS AT EMMA BOOKER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SARASOTA, FL(SJ) SENATE JUDICIARY CMTE HRNG RE: NOMINATION OF JOHN P. WALTERS TO BE ONDCP DIRECTOR 226 DIRKSEN(WT) USTR ZOELLICK REMARKS TO INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS RE: TRADE PROMOTION AUTHORITY IIE" - Federal News Service [Reprinted at:  TENC.net] (See also:  9:07 am - Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispers in Bush's hear that a second plane has hit the WTC; and Killtown's: Was Bush complicit with the 9/11 attacks?) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:32 am) - Two clocks have their times frozen from being knocked down from an explosion at the Pentagon. Pentagon helipad clock "Description: This Skilcraft electric wall clock, which hung in the Pentagon helipad fire station, was knocked to the ground by the impact of American Airlines flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon. Context: When terrorists flew American Airlines flight 77 into the Pentagon, the crash nearly took the nearby Pentagon helipad firehouse with it. The concussion caused the ceiling of the firehouse to collapse, temporarily trapping firefighter Dennis Young in the fallen debris. The blast also knocked this clock from the wall, freezing it at 9:32. The airplane actually struck the Pentagon at 9:38 am; apparently the clock was six minutes slow." - Smithsonian   clock frozen at the time of impact "A Clock frozen at the time of impact when a hijacked commercial airliner crashed into the Pentagon on Sep. 11. The terrorist attack caused extensive damage to the Pentagon. American Airlines FLT 77 was bound for Los Angeles from Washington Dulles with 58 passengers and 6 crew. All aboard the aircraft were killed, along with 125 people in the Pentagon." - Navy (09/14/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:34 am) - President Bush leaves Booker Elementary school, he is never evacuated by the Secret Service even though a terrorist attack is happening. "His limousine barreled away toward the city airport at 9:34 a.m." - Washington Times (10/08/02) "Mr. Bush was reading to a group of schoolchildren at Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., yesterday morning when an aide whispered to him word of the first attack on the World Trade Center. For some reason, Secret Service agents did not bustle him away. Instead, within minutes, even before the attack on the Pentagon, the President made a statement to reporters, promising 'to hunt down and to find those folks that committed this act. Terrorism against our nation will not stand.'"  - Globe and Mail (09/12/01) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:34 am) - A man in broken English announces over the cockpit intercom of Flight 93 that there is a bomb onboard and the plane will be "returning to the airport" at about the time the plane is flying over the Cleveland, Ohio area in which later a Cincinnati news station reports that Flight 93 made an emergency landing at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport -- which is adjacent to a NASA Glenn Research Center -- due to concerns of a "bomb aboard," but later retracts their story. From takeoff to takeover "9. 9:34 a.m. - Cockpit intercom: In broken English, a man announces there is a bomb and that the plane is returning to the airport. 10. 9:35 a.m. - Hijacked plane is turned around near Cleveland." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   "NASA Glenn is located at Lewis Field, a 350-acre site, adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, upon which the main campus is built." - NASA   Plane Lands In Cleveland; Bomb Feared Aboard Reported by: 9News Staff Web produced by: Liz Foreman 9/11/01 11:43:57 AM "A Boeing 767 out of Boston made an emergency landing Tuesday at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport due to concerns that it may have a bomb aboard, said Mayor Michael R. White. White said the plane had been moved to a secure area of the airport, and was evacuated. United identified the plane as Flight 93. The airline [didn't] say how many people were aboard the flight. United said it was also "deeply concerned" about another flight, Flight 175, a Boeing 767, which was bound from Boston to Los Angeles. On behalf of the airline CEO James Goodwin said: "The thoughts of everyone at United are with the passengers and crew of these flights. Our prayers are also with everyone on the ground who may have been involved. "United is working with all the relevant authorities, including the FBI, to obtain further information on these flights," he said." - WCPO-TV (09/11/01) [Archived:  WayBack Machine; reprinted at:  911Truth.org, Global Free Press, Rense.com]   Plane Lands In Cleveland; Bomb Feared Aboard "This story has been removed from WCPO.com. It was a preliminary AP story, and was factually incorrect." - WCPO-TV (09/11/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - As an airplane approaches Washington D.C. area, a young man enters the Presidential Emergency Operating Center (PEOC) where Vice President Cheney and Transportation Sect. Norman Mineta are at and tells Cheney, "The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out. The plane is 10 miles out," and then asks him "Do the orders still stand?" in which Cheney turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" PANEL 1: SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: THE ATTACKS AND THE RESPONSE; WITNESSES: SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION NORMAN MINETA "MR. HAMILTON: We thank you for that. I wanted to focus just a moment on the Presidential Emergency Operating Center. You were there for a good part of the day. I think you were there with the vice president. And when you had that order given, I think it was by the president, that authorized the shooting down of commercial aircraft that were suspected to be controlled by terrorists, were you there when that order was given? MR. MINETA: No, I was not. I was made aware of it during the time that the airplane coming into the Pentagon. There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, "The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to, "The plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" Well, at the time I didn't know what all that meant. And -- MR. HAMILTON: The flight you're referring to is the -- MR. MINETA: The flight that came into the Pentagon. MR. HAMILTON: The Pentagon, yeah." - 9/11 Commission (05/23/03) [Video]   (See also:  9/11 - Cheney directs the U.S. government's response from the PEOC; June 23, 2006 - Norman Mineta resigns one day after Jim Fetzer tells Hannity & Colmes about his 9/11 Commission testimony)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:35 am?) -  For the second time of the day, Donald Rumsfeld predicts another terrorist attack right before it happens and correctly predicts it will happen to the Pentagon. "Seven minutes later, as Mr Bush, his entourage and the accompanying press corps were boarding Air Force One, American Flight 77 swooped low over the suburbs of northern Virginia and slammed into the Pentagon. Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defence, was in his office on the eastern side of the building, in a meeting with Christopher Cox, the defence policy committee chairman of the House of Representatives. Mr Rumsfeld, recalls Mr Cox, watched the TV coverage from New York and said: "Believe me, this isn't over yet. There's going to be another attack, and it could be us." Moments later, the plane hit." - Telegraph UK (12/16/01) (See also: 9/11 - Rumsfeld predicts attacks for the 1st time of the day; October 12, 2001 - In an interview by Parade Magazine, Rumsfeld talks as if the Pentagon was hit by a missile on 9/11; December 24, 2004 - In a speech, Donald Rumsfeld talks as if the plane that was said to have crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11 was shot down) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:36 am) - A large number of fire and medical service units were dispatched to a high-rise building fire near the Pentagon, but the fire was already reported out by the time the first responder arrived which made most of the units available to help at the Pentagon. "Additionally, just 1 minute before the Pentagon crash, in response to a 9-1-1 telephone call at 9:37 a.m., the ECC dispatched several units to an apartment fire at 1003 Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn. Because it was located in a high-rise building, it was a substantial dispatch involving nine different fire and medical service units. Engine 103 reached the Rosslyn scene first and radioed that the apartment fire was out. Thus, by sheer coincidence, there were a significant number of units already on the road near the Pentagon at the time of the attack. The ECC redirected units that had been dispatched minutes earlier to a Rosslyn high-rise fire, now reported under control." - Arlington County After-Action Report "There were responses to two fires on the morning of September 11, which the fill-in units readily handled. On the morning of September 11, the regional response was almost overwhelming. Because of a dispatch for an apartment fire in the Rosslyn area minutes before the plane hit the Pentagon, numerous units were on the air or in the vicinity, and those units immediately self-dispatched as they anticipated the ECC's response need." - Fire Engineering Magazine (11/02) "Starting from: 1003 Wilson Blvd, Rosslyn, VA 22209-2201 Arriving at: US Pentagon Rotary, Arlington, VA Distance: 2.6 miles Approximate Travel Time: 5 mins" - Yahoo Maps (See also:  Killtown's: Did Flight 77 really crash into the Pentagon?) <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:37:46 am) - Flight 77 is said to have crashed right in the middle of the only renovated section of the Pentagon being renovated to bolster it against an attack traveling at 530 mph, which at the time this section housed the fewest people in the entire building, important budget information was located in the damaged area, the attack came near the end of the fiscal year, and a large number of those killed there were civilian accountants, bookkeepers and budget analysts. "At 9:37, the west wall of the Pentagon was hit by hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757. The crash caused immediate and catastrophic damage. All 64 people aboard the airliner were killed, as were 125 people inside the Pentagon (70 civilians and 55 military service members)." - 9/11 Commission "At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour." - 9/11 Commission [local] Pentagon repairs to cost $700 million "Luck ó if it can be called that ó had it that the terrorists aimed the Boeing 757 at the only part of the Pentagon that already had been renovated in an 11-year, $1.3 billion project meant to bolster it against attack. That significantly limited the damage and loss of life by slowing the plane as it tore through the building and reducing the explosion's reach." "The reconstruction is expected to cost over $700 million and take until spring 2003." - USA Today (01/01/02)   Installation hosts briefing on initial response to Pentagon attack "Schwartz explained that renovations on the Pentagon began several years earlier and were nearing completion, particularly the section called Wedge 1, when the crash occurred. He said the plane struck the building almost in the middle of the space where the renovation had been completed. Personnel had not completely reoccupied this area of the building. "This contributed to the relatively low number of casualties," Schwartz said. "The number could have been far greater had the plane struck another portion of the building not affected by the renovation." - Fort Meade/Army Arlington County After-Action Report on the Response to the September 11 Terrorist Attack on the Pentagon "The impact area included both the Navy operations center and the office complex of the National Guard and Army Reserve. It was also the end of the fiscal year and important budget information was in the damaged area." - Arlington County After-Action Report   Army unit piecing together accounts of Pentagon attack "Most of those killed in the office, called Resource Services Washington, were civilian accountants, bookkeepers and budget analysts. They were at their desks when American Airlines Flight 77 struck." - South Coast Today/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (12/20/01) (See also:  September 10, 2001 - Donald Rumsfeld announces the Pentagon lost track of $2.3 trillion dollars; 9/11 - Within minutes of the explosion at the Pentagon, the FBI confiscates security videos that had captured the crash from a nearby gas station and hotel; March 7, 2002 - A set of five frames taken from a Pentagon security camera that supposedly shows Flight 77 crashing into it are released; Killtown's: Did Flight 77 really crash into the Pentagon? & Pentagon fatalities)     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:40am ?) - A simulated aircraft hijacking was scheduled by NORAD.   9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes "As Major Kevin Nasypany, the facility's mission-crew commander, drove up the hill to work on the morning of 9/11, he was dressed in his flight suit and prepared for battle. Not a real one. The Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), where Nasypany had been stationed since 1994, is the regional headquarters for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the Cold Warñera military organization charged with protecting North American airspace. As he poured his first coffee on that sunny September morning, the odds that he would have to defend against Russian "Bear Bombers," one of NORAD's traditional simulated missions, were slim. Rather, Nasypany (pronounced Nah-sip-a-nee), an amiable commander with a thick mini-mustache and a hockey player's build, was headed in early to get ready for the NORAD-wide training exercise he'd helped design. The battle commander, Colonel Bob Marr, had promised to bring in fritters. For the NEADS crew, 9/11 was not a story of four hijacked airplanes, but one of a heated chase after more than a dozen potential hijackingsósome real, some phantomóthat emerged from the turbulence of misinformation that spiked in the first 100 minutes of the attack and continued well into the afternoon and evening. 08:37:52 BOSTON CENTER: Hi. Boston Center T.M.U. [Traffic Management Unit], we have a problem here. We have a hijacked aircraft headed towards New York, and we need you guys to, we need someone to scramble some F-16s or something up there, help us out. POWELL: Is this real-world or exercise? BOSTON CENTER: No, this is not an exercise, not a test. Powell's questionó"Is this real-world or exercise?"óis heard nearly verbatim over and over on the tapes as troops funnel onto the ops floor and are briefed about the hijacking. Powell, like almost everyone in the room, first assumes the phone call is from the simulations team on hand to send "inputs"ósimulated scenariosóinto play for the day's training exercise. 8:37:56 WATSON: What? DOOLEY: Whoa! WATSON: What was that? ROUNTREE: Is that real-world? DOOLEY: Real-world hijack. WATSON: Cool! "When they told me there was a hijack, my first reaction was 'Somebody started the exercise early,'" Nasypany later told me. The day's exercise was designed to run a range of scenarios, including a "traditional" simulated hijack in which politically motivated perpetrators commandeer an aircraft, land on a Cuba-like island, and seek asylum. "I actually said out loud, 'The hijack's not supposed to be for another hour,'" Nasypany recalled. (The fact that there was an exercise planned for the same day as the attack factors into several conspiracy theories, though the 9/11 commission dismisses this as coincidence. After plodding through dozens of hours of recordings, so do I.) 09:04:50 óIs this explosion part of that that we're lookin' at now on TV? óYes. óJesus Ãñ óAnd there's a possible second hijack also óa United Airlines Ãñ óTwo planes?Ãñ óGet the f*ck out Ãñ óI think this is a damn input, to be honest. The last lineó"I think this is a damn input"óis a reference to the exercise, meaning a simulations input. It's either gallows humor or wishful thinking. From the tape, it's hard to tell." - Vanity Fair (08/01/06)   • 9/11 - Many key emergency response people arrive at the Pentagon within five minutes after the crash. "9:38 a.m. American Airlines Flight #77, carrying 58 passengers and a crew of 6, crashes into the Pentagon 9:40 a.m. Captain Chuck Gibbs [ACFDís Training Officer] arrives at the Pentagon 9:40 a.m. Captain Mark Penn [Deputy Coordinator of Emergency Services] arrives at Arlington County EOC 9:41 a.m. Battalion Chief Bob Cornwell arrives at the Pentagon and assumes Incident Command 9:41 a.m. ACFD Truck 105 arrives at the Pentagon 9:42 a.m. ACFD Captain Edward Blunt arrives at the Pentagon and establishes EMS Control 9:43 a.m. MWAA [Metropolitan Medical Response System] first responders arrive at the Pentagon" - Arlington County After-Action Report     • 9/11 - Witnesses at the Pentagon report that the aircraft that crashed into the Pentagon sounded and/or behaved like a missile.   ¬º Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY reporter "...saw the plane slam into the Pentagon. "It sounded like an artillery shell. It hit on the west side of the building, near the helipad." - USA Today, 'I fear for my daughter' (09/11/01)   ¬º Michael DiPaula, 41, project coordinator Pentagon Renovation Team "Suddenly, an airplane roared into view, nearly shearing the roof off the trailer before slamming into the E ring. 'It sounded like a missile,' DiPaula recalls." - Baltimore Sun   ¬º Lon Rains, Editor at Space News "With the Pentagon to the left of my van at about 10 oíclock on the dial of a clock, I glanced at my watch to see if I was going to be late for my appointment. At that moment I heard a very loud, quick whooshing sound that began behind me and stopped suddenly in front of me and to my left. In fractions of a second I heard the impact and an explosion. The next thing I saw was the fireball. I was convinced it was a missile. It came in so fast it sounded nothing like an airplane. Friends and colleagues have asked me if I felt a shock wave and I honestly do not know." - Space News, Eyewitness: The Pentagon (06/30/05)   ¬º Tom Seibert, 33, Pentagon network engineer ""We heard what sounded like a missile, then we heard a loud boom," said Tom Seibert, 33, a network engineer at the Pentagon. "We were sitting there and watching this thing from New York, and I said, you know, the next best target would be us. And five minutes later, boom."" - Guardian, 'Everyone was screaming, crying, running. It's like a war zone' (09/12/01)     • 9/11 - Witnesses of the Pentagon crash describe seeing an aircraft very different from a Boeing 757.   ¬º D. S. Khavkin "...my husband and I heard an aircraft directly overhead. At first, we thought it was the jets that sometimes fly overhead. However, it appeared to be a small commercial aircraft." - BBC, More eyewitness accounts of the attack on the US (09/13/01)   ¬º Steve Patterson, 43, graphics artist "He said the plane, which sounded like the high-pitched squeal of a fighter jet, flew over Arlington cemetary so low that he thought it was going to land on I-395. He said it was flying so fast that he couldn't read any writing on the side. The plane, which appeared to hold about eight to 12 people, headed straight for the Pentagon. Then, he said, he saw the Pentagon "envelope" the plane and bright orange flames shoot out the back of the building." - Washington Post, 'Extensive Casualties' in Wake of Pentagon Attack (09/11/01)   ¬º Joel Sucherman, USA Today Editor "I did not see the engines, I saw the body and the tail; and it was a silver jet with the markings along the windows that spoke to me as an American Airlines jet, this was not a commercial, excuse me, a business jet, it was not a lear jet, it was a bigger plane than that." - CNN video     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - CNN correspondent Jamie McIntyre reporting live from the Pentagon says that there's no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the building.   ¬º Jamie Mcintryre, CNN correspondent "From my close-up inspection, there's no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon. The only site, is the actual side of the building that's crashed in. And as I said, the only pieces left that you can see are small enough that you pick up in your hand. There are no large tail sections, wing sections, fuselage, nothing like that anywhere around which would indicate that the entire plane crashed into the side of the Pentagon and then caused the side to collapse. Even though if you look at the pictures of the Pentagon you see that the floors have all collapsed, that didn't happen immediately. It wasn't until almost about 45 minutes later that the structure was weakened enough that all of the floors collapsed." - CNN (09/11/01) [Video archived at:  Prison Planet; The Web Fairy]   (See also:  9/11 - Witness at Flight 93 crash scene says there was nothing that could 'distinguish that a plane had crashed there'; Killtown's: Did Flight 77 really crash into the Pentagon?)     • 9/11 - Witnesses at the Pentagon report no plane at the crash site.   ¬º Steve DeChiaro, engineer "Instead of following the streams of people away from the Pentagon, Steve DeChiaro ran toward the smoke. As he reached the west side of the building he saw a light post bent in half. "But when I looked at the site, my brain could not resolve the fact that it was a plane because it only seemed like a small hole in the building," he said. "No tail. No wings. No nothing." He followed the emergency crews that had just arrived. He saw people hanging out of windows and others crawling from the demolished area. "These people were covered in what I thought was powder - I don't know anything about medicine or first aid, I'm an engineer - but it looked like powder," DeChiaro said." - Commercial Appeal/Memphis Online   ¬º Lincoln Liebner, Army Captain "I got to the building. Remarkably, there was no debris from the airplane." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon   ¬º Allan Lindsley, Army Captain, Physicians Assistant for Emergency Medical Services at Dewitt Army Community Hospital, Ft. Belvoir, VA. "At the time we could walk right up to the building. I walked right down, I was within 100 meters of the building, right in front of the crash site. I didnít see any of the plane. By then, the floors had collapsed." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon   ¬º Eileen Murphy, Head Nurse of the Minor Surgery Clinic at the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic "I knew it was a crash site before we got there, and I didnít know what it was going to look like. I couldnít imagine because the building is like rock solid. I expected to see the airplane, so I guess my initial impression was, èWhereís the plane? How come thereís not a plane?ÃÆ I would have thought the building would have stopped it and somehow we would have seen something like part of, or half of the plane, or the lower part, or the back of the plane. So it was just a real surprise that the plane wasnít there." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon   ¬º Maybon Pollock, Sergeant First Class, NCOIC Logistics in the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic  I was more impressed, I was truly impressed, with how the building stood up, after they told me the size of the plane. And then I was in awe that I saw no plane, nothing left from the plane. It was like it disintegrated as it went into the building." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon   ¬º Will Jarvis, operations research analyst, Office of Secretary of Defense "That smell was his only clue that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon, where he works as an operations research analyst for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Jarvis, who was around the corner from the disaster, tried but failed to see the plane when he left the building. èThere was just nothing left. It was incinerated. We couldnít see a tail or a wing or anything,ÃÆ he says. èJust a big black hole in the building with smoke pouring out of it.ÃÆ - Univ of Toronto Magazine, Testimony to Tragedy (Winter 2002) [Wayback Machine]     • 9/11 - Witnesses at the Pentagon report the smell of cordite, a smokeless explosive powder.   ¬º Gilah Goldsmith, personnel attorney at the Pentagon "We saw a huge black cloud of smoke," she said, saying it smelled like cordite, or gun smoke." - Jewish News Weekly (09/21/01)   ¬º Don Perkal, deputy General Counsel, Office of the Secretary of Defense "The airliner crashed between two and three hundred feet from my office in the Pentagon, just around a corner from where I work. I'm the deputy General Counsel, Washington Headquarters Services, Office of the Secretary of Defense. A slightly different calibration and I have no doubt I wouldn't be sending this to you. My colleagues felt the impact, which reminded them of an earthquake. People shouted in the corridor outside that a bomb had gone off upstairs on the main concourse in the building. No alarms sounded. I walked to my office, shut down my computer, and headed out. Even before stepping outside I could smell the cordite. Then I knew explosives had been set off somewhere. Two explosions, a few minutes apart, prompted me to start walking." - McSweeney's Internet Tendency: The Works of Humankind (09/19/01)   - cordite - A smokeless explosive powder consisting of nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, and petrolatum that has been dissolved in acetone, dried, and extruded in cords. - Cordite is a smokeless propellant explosive made by combining two explosives: nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin. It has commonly been used in firearms since the early 20th Century. It has also been used in solid fuel rockets.     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Experienced air traffic controllers thought that the alleged Boeing 757 that was flying towards the Pentagon flew like a "military jetfighter."   ôGet These Planes on the Groundí, Air Traffic Controllers Recall Sept. 11 "The speed, the maneuverability, the way that he turned, we all thought in the radar room, all of us experienced air traffic controllers, that that was a military plane," says O'Brien. "You don't fly a 757 in that manner. It's unsafe." "And it went six, five, four. And I had it in my mouth to say, three, and all of a sudden the plane turned away. In the room, it was almost a sense of relief. This must be a fighter. This must be one of our guys sent in, scrambled to patrol our capital, and to protect our president, and we sat back in our chairs and breathed for just a second," says O'Brien. But the plane continued to turn right until it had made a 360-degree maneuver." - ABC (10/24/01) [Wayback Machine]   On Flight 77: 'Our Plane Is Being Hijacked' "But just as the plane seemed to be on a suicide mission into the White House, the unidentified pilot executed a pivot so tight that it reminded observers of a fighter jet maneuver." "Aviation sources said the plane was flown with extraordinary skill, making it highly likely that a trained pilot was at the helm, possibly one of the hijackers." - Washington Post (9/12/01)   Primary Target "New radar evidence obtained by CBS News strongly suggests that the hijacked jetliner which crashed into the Pentagon hit its intended target." "But the jet, flying at more than 400 mph, was too fast and too high when it neared the Pentagon at 9:35. The hijacker-pilots were then forced to execute a difficult high-speed descending turn." "Radar shows Flight 77 did a downward spiral, turning almost a complete circle and dropping the last 7,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes." "The steep turn was so smooth, the sources say, it's clear there was no fight for control going on. And the complex maneuver suggests the hijackers had better flying skills than many investigators first believed." - CBS (9/21/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Flight 77 is allegedly flown into the Pentagon by 28 year old Saudi Arabian Hani Hanjour who has never flown a Boeing 757 in real life, was described by many of his former flight instructors as a "horrible pilot," is the only alleged hijacker to not have a passenger number or seat assignment, is thought that he might not have had a ticket to get on board the plane, and was unable to rent a single-engine Cessna 172 one month before the attacks because he had trouble controlling and landing it during a flight test. "Staff members characterized Mr. Hanjour as polite, meek and very quiet. But most of all, the former employee said, they considered him a very bad pilot. "I'm still to this day amazed that he could have flown into the Pentagon," the former employee said. "He could not fly at all." - New York Times (05/04/02) "I couldn't believe he had a commercial license of any kind with the skills that he had." Peggy Chevrette, Arizona flight school manager - CBS (05/10/02) "Hijacking Suspects - Aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which took off from Washington Dulles Airport for Los Angeles and crashed into the Pentagon." - ABC (09/15/01) Alhamzi, Nawaq ó Passenger No. 12 Almidhar, Khalid ó Passenger No. 20, Seat 12B Alhamzi, Salem ó Passenger No. 13, Seat 5F Moqed, Majed ó Passenger No. 19, Seat 12A Hanjour, Hani ó [N/A] "His name [Hani Hanjour] was not on the American Airlines manifest for the flight because he may not have had a ticket." - Washington Post   Tracing Trail Of Hijackers "The hijacker believed to have steered American Airlines Flight 77 on its fatal path toward the Pentagon recently honed his rusty flying skills at a small Maryland airport, and more than a year ago sought training at a flight school in Arizona. At Freeway Airport in Bowie, Md., 20 miles west of Washington, flight instructor Sheri Baxter instantly recognized the name of alleged hijacker Hani Hanjour when the FBI released a list of 19 suspects in the four hijackings. Hanjour, the only suspect on Flight 77 the FBI listed as a pilot, had come to the airport one month earlier seeking to rent a small plane. However, when Baxter and fellow instructor Ben Conner took the slender, soft-spoken Hanjour on three test runs during the second week of August, they found he had trouble controlling and landing the single-engine Cessna 172. Even though Hanjour showed a federal pilot's license and a log book cataloging 600 hours of flying experience, chief flight instructor Marcel Bernard declined to rent him a plane without more lessons. In the spring of 2000, Hanjour had asked to enroll in the CRM Airline Training Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., for advanced training, said the center's attorney, Gerald Chilton Jr. Hanjour had attended the school for three months in late 1996 and again in December 1997 but never finished coursework for a license to fly a single-engine aircraft, Chilton said. When Hanjour reapplied to the center last year, "We declined to provide training to him because we didn't think he was a good enough student when he was there in 1996 and 1997," Chilton said." - Newsday (12/23/01) [Archived:  Wayback Machine] (See also:  Killtown's:  Did Flight 77 really crash into the Pentagon? - The alleged hijackers)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - A Pentagon rescuer mentions how "eerie" it was that the Pentagon's MASCAL emergency plane crash plan that he had trained twice for was "very similar to what actually happened". Excerpts from an interview with Lieutenant Colonel John Felicio, who was Deputy Commander for Administration of the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic. "I then went out to the front of the clinic, which is basically where we normally marshal in MASCAL situations. Meanwhile, I knew because of the two MASCAL exercises we previously did that Colonel Kaminski, our Chief of Ancillary Services, was responsible for being our Medical Liaison at the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) and that he should be en route to that location. The saving grace to our efforts was the two MASCAL exercises we previously had conducted with the clinic leadership and staff. You know it was kind of eerie. The scenario we had for these MASCALS was very similar to what actually happened. Our scenario for both MASCALS was a plane flying into the Pentagon courtyard." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML] (See also:  9/11 - Emergency equipment for the MASCAL plane crash plan was already out of their storage areas for an inventory check before the Pentagon was hit; 9/11 - Walter Reed Army Medical Center personnel also say that it was "eerie" how an emergency situation they went through just two weeks before the attack helped prepare them for the Pentagon crash)   • 9/11 - Personnel from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center who helped the rescuing efforts at the Pentagon also say that it was "eerie" how an emergency situation they went through just two weeks before the attack helped prepare them for the Pentagon crash. "Many believe that an extended emergency the previous month helped WRAMC in its response on September 11. èWe had just come off a 100-hour commercial power lossÃñSo we had basically had about a two-week respite before the attack. A lot of the procedures that we used in the September 11 tragedy, we had just come out of this power loss where we had implemented a lot of what we did. We had good procedures in place that we had already just executed. It was really eerie.ÃÆ - Soldiers to the Rescue/Walter Reed Army Medical Center (See also:   9/11 - A Pentagon rescuer mentions how "eerie" it was that the MASCAL plane crash plan that he had twice trained for was "very similar to what actually happened"; October 24, 2000 - The Pentagon conducts the first of two emergency training exercises called MASCAL which is about a mock plane crash of a Boeing 757 into the Pentagon)   <![if !vml]><![endif]> <![if !vml]><![endif]> • 9/11 - Andrews Air Force Base, home to the D.C. Air National Guard and Air Force One,  is only 15 miles away from the Pentagon, but supposedly had no jetfighters on alert and couldn't manage to scramble any of it's fighters units (121st Fighter Squadron, Naval Air Facility, and Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 321) in the air until after the Pentagon was hit. "Until Tuesday, the fighter base on alert closest to the Pentagon was 130 miles away at Langley Air Force Base, Va. That was too distant for fighter jets to intercept the hijacked jetliner before it crashed into the Pentagon. Andrews Air Force Base, home to Air Force One, is only 15 miles away from the Pentagon, but it had no fighters assigned to it. Defense officials won't say whether that has changed." - USA Today (09/16/01) "F-16 fighter aircraft from the D.C. Air National Guard scrambled over Washington and could be seen flying over the Pentagon - only heightening the anxiety for some, who had heard rumors that a second hijacked plane was headed toward the Pentagon. Quigley said he couldn't comment on those rumors, or on reports that U.S. fighter planes had fired upon the jet before it struck the Pentagon." - Newsday (09/12/01) "The Andrews-based 121st Fighter Sqdn. was not standing alert on Sept. 11, because the District of Columbia Air National Guard (DCANG) unit was not assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command air defense force. Norad had already scrambled three F-16s from their alert base at Langley AFB, Va., but they were about 12 min. from Washington when the Pentagon was struck at 9:37 a.m. The 121st squadron's day had started normally. Three F-16s were flying an air-to-ground training mission on a range in North Carolina, 180 naut. mi. away. Soon thereafter, the Secret Service called back, asking whether the squadron could get fighters airborne. The unit's maintenance section was notified to get several F-16s armed and ready to fly. Anticipating such an order, Col. Don C. Mozley, the 113th Logistics Group commander, had already ordered his weapons officer to "break out the AIM-9s and start building them up." The missiles had to be transported from a bunker on the other side of the base, which would take a while. Another call from the Secret Service commanded, "Get in the air now!" Almost simultaneously, a call from someone else in the White House declared the Washington area "a free-fire zone. That meant we were given authority to use force, if the situation required it, in defense of the nation's capital, its property and people," Sasseville said. Maj. Billy Hutchison and his wingmen had just landed after being recalled from a training mission in North Carolina. When Hutchison checked in via radio, Thompson told him to take off immediately." - Aviation Week (09/09/02) "The Air National Guard Readiness Center develops, manages and directs Air National Guard programs which implement national-level policies set by the Department of Defense, the Air Force and the National Guard Bureau. The 113th now flies the F-16C Fighting Falcon and only recently the C-21 Learjet and C-22 Boeing 727, as a result of the DCANG unit reorganization when the 201st Airlift Squadron became part of the wing in October 1995. 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. Naval Air Facility, Washington, D.C., is a Naval Air Reserve training facility operating under the commander, Naval Reserve Force. A variety of Naval aircraft can be seen on NAF's flight line. Regular sightings include P-3 Orions, C-20 Gulfstreams, C-130 Hercules, T-39 Sabreliners and F/A-18 Hornets. In the best tradition of the Marine Corps, a "few good men and women" support two combat-ready reserve units at Andrews AFB. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 321, a Marine Corps Reserve squadron, flies the sophisticated F/A-18 Hornet. Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 49, Detachment A, provides maintenance and supply functions necessary to maintain a force in readiness. " - Andrews Air Force Base (Summer 2001) [Note: this link is a back up from Internet Archive.] <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Donald Rumsfeld is in his office on the opposite side of the building - the safe side -  from where the Pentagon was hit. "To give an idea of the power of the impact when American Airlines Flight 77 hit the building Tuesday, Bush said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld felt the explosion in his office - on the opposite side of the massive five-sided structure." - The Augusta Chronicle/AP (09/12/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Air Force Gen. Richard Myers (who was about to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) claims he was never informed of the second WTC plane crash and only became aware of it at about the time the Pentagon was hit. "Meanwhile, the second World Trade Center tower was hit by another jet. "Nobody informed us of that," Myers said. "But when we came out, that was obvious. Then, right at that time, somebody said the Pentagon had been hit." - DefenseLINK (10/23/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Within minutes of the explosion at the Pentagon, the FBI confiscates security videos that had captured the crash from a nearby gas station and hotel. "Velasquez says the gas station's security cameras are close enough to the Pentagon to have recorded the moment of impact. "I've never seen what the pictures looked like," he said. "The FBI was here within minutes and took the film." - National Geographic (12/11/01) "MCINTYRE (on camera): These pictures are the first to be made public, but they are not the only images of the plane hitting the Pentagon. Sources tell CNN that the FBI on September 11th confiscated a nearby hotel's security camera videotape, which also captured the attack. So far, the Justice Department has refused to release that videotape. Aaron. BROWN: Why? Do we have any idea why they won't release it? MCINTYRE: Well, the claim - we have filed a freedom of information request for it. They claim that it might provide some intelligence to somebody else who might want to do harm to the United States. But officials I talked to here at the Pentagon say they don't see any national security or criminal value to that tape. The FBI tends to hold on to things. But the government may eventually release that tape, and if they do, we'll bring it to you. BROWN: Jamie, thanks. I must have missed something in how, where the intelligence possibilities are there, but that happens with me sometimes. Thank you for your work today, nice job." - CNN (03/07/02) (See also:  9:37 am - Flight 77 is said to have crashed into the only renovated section of the Pentagon being renovated to bolster it against an attack which at the time housed the fewest people in the entire building; March 7, 2002 - A set of five frames taken from a Pentagon security camera that supposedly shows Flight 77 crashing into it are released; Killtown's: Flight 77 Fabricated Video) • 9/11 - All the alleged hijacked planes that supposedly hit their targets flew in tilting to the left. <![if !vml]><![endif]> <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>       (Left pic - Flight 11 into the WTC 1;  Center pic - Flight 175 into the WTC 2;  Right pic - Flight 77 into the Pentagon.) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Pentagon economist, Bryan Jack, may have lived if he was at his Pentagon office and not on Flight 77. "Had Bryan Jack gone to his Pentagon office and settled at his computer at 8 a.m. Tuesday as he normally did, he might be alive today. But in a cruel twist of fate, Jack was headed to California to give a lecture at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. He was aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it slammed into the Pentagon at 9:40 a.m." - USA Today (09/17/01) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - The Secret Service received a threatening message that said "Air Force One is next" from someone using 'American code words' suggesting evidence of a mole in the highest levels of the U.S. government. "A threatening message received by the Secret Service that "Air Force One is next" was relayed to agents accompanying the President. The use of American codewords made the threat credible. The worry now must be that knowledge of codewords, presidential whereabouts and secret procedures indicates the terrorists may have a mole in the White House or the Secret Service, FBI, FAA or CIA. If so, America's war on terror may well have to start in its own front room." - Independent News UK (09/14/01) [Reprint at:  News Mine] • 9/11 (10:00 am) - Of the 27 employees that worked in an office in the area where the Pentagon got hit, 26 were instantly killed and one was spared when his dental appointment at the Pentagon's dental clinic was moved up earlier in the day causing him to be absent from the office at the time of the explosion. Excerpts from an interview with Captain William B. Durm, USN, who was Commander of the Pentagonís Triservice Dental Clinic. "An interesting story. I had an appointment with a gentleman to have a root canal finished at 10:00 that morning. He actually had an appointment for 1:00 in the afternoon; however, because I had a meeting with my staff that afternoon, I had my technician call him up and move him to 10:00. There are 27 employees in his office. Twenty-six were immediately killed. He was the only one that survived that thing, and that's because we called him up to come in early for a root canal." - Office of Medical History, OTSG [HTML] <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (10:03 - 10:06 am) - Flight 93 is said to have flipped over and crashed straight down in a empty field in the rural town of Shanksville, PA, burrowing itself underground traveling 580 mph and carrying approx. 5,500 gallons of jet fuel reportedly after the passengers on board tried to take over the plane from the alleged hijackers. "With the sounds of the passenger counterattack continuing, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes' flying time from Washington, D.C. United 93 crashed in Pennsylvania at 10:03:11, 125 miles from Washington, D.C. The precise crash time has been the subject of some dispute." - 9/11 Commission [local]   "A handful of people working near or driving through a rural area of Somerset County watched as the plane flipped over and disappeared with a smoky boom at 10:06 a.m. yesterday, between the tiny communities of Lambertsville and Shanksville. "It dropped out of the clouds," too low for a commercial flight, Butler said. The plane rose slightly, trying to gain altitude, then "it just went flip to the right and then straight down." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (09/12/01)   "The Boeing 757 still heavily laden with jet fuel slammed at about 575 mph almost straight down into a rolling patch of grassy land that had long ago been strip-mined for coal. The impact spewed a fireball of horrific force across hundreds of acres of towering hemlocks and other trees, setting many ablaze. The fuselage burrowed straight into the earth so forcefully that one of the "black boxes" was recovered at a depth of 25 feet under the ground." - Washington Post (05/12/02)   "Figure 7 shows fuel flow and fuel remaining for UAL Flight 93, calculated in the same way as just described for AAL Flight 77. Based on ACARS transmissions to the airplane, the fuel load on takeoff was 48,700 lb. This results in about 37,500 lb. [5,500 gal*]  of fuel remaining upon impact (the end of the DFDR data)." - NTSB (02/13/02)  [*One pound of jet fuel = 6.84 pounds per gallon. - csgnetwork.com.  See also:  Crash Stats] "168. Ibid., pp. 23-27.We also reviewed a report regarding seismic observations on September 11, 2001, whose authors conclude that the impact time of United 93 was "10:06:05¬±5 (EDT)." Won-Young Kim and G. R. Baum, "Seismic Observations during September 11, 2001,Terrorist Attack," spring 2002 (report to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources). But the seismic data on which they based this estimate are far too weak in signal-to-noise ratio and far too speculative in terms of signal source to be used as a means of contradicting the impact time established by the very accurate combination of FDR, CVR, ATC, radar, and impact site data sets." - 9/11 Commission "18. 10:06 a.m. - Flight 93 crashes near Shanksville, approximately 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh." - Pittsburg Post Gazette "But although the government was authorized to shoot down the errant planes, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the NewsHour he believes that crash came instead as a result of a passenger uprising. "We responded awfully quickly I might say on Tuesday," Wolfowitz said. "And in fact we were already tracking in on that plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. I think it was the heroism of the passengers on board that brought it down, but the Air Force was in a position to do so if we had had to." - PBS (9/16/01) (See also:  June 16, 2001 - A simulated terrorist attack exercise called "Mall Strike 2001" is conducted in the Pennsylvania county of Westmoreland which borders Somerset county; Killtown's:  Did Flight 93 Crash in Shanksville?) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Shanksville, PA, is a military flight corridor. Witnesses Recall Plane Crash "A plane going over Shanksville wasn't anything unusual because it is a military flight corridor, said Kelly Leverknight, who lives in Shanksville, just a couple miles from the crash scene." - Daily American (2001) [Reprinted:  local; us-pentagon.tripod.com] "corridor - Restricted airspace for the passage of aircraft." - Google map of Shanksville, Pa crash site. <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Val McClatchey, who lives east of the crash site near the north west tip of Indian Lake, hears a plane flying over her house in the opposite direction Flight 93 was said to have flown in and claims she took this photo of a rising mushroom cloud of smoke from her front porch without even aiming "approx. 5 seconds" after almost being knocked off the edge of her couch from feeling an explosion and instinctively jumped up and grabs her month-old digital camera that she said she had ready by her front door waiting for a friend to do a flyby with his helicopter and snaps only one photo before she claims to have dropped her camera which "jolted the battery loose". The day that changed America "Val McClatchey heard the 757 roar over Indian Lake, three miles east of where it would crash. She had been watching the "Today" show, with footage from New York, and now the Pentagon. She looked out the window, above the red barns. She caught a glimpse of it, like light off a watch face. Then nothing, and then a boom that nearly knocked her off the couch. The lights went out. The phones, too. She grabbed her camera. She stepped onto the front porch and shot one frame of the smoke cloud, a charcoal puff in a pure blue sky. That image ó "End of Serenity," she called it ó caught the essence of Somerset County that day. The barns, the blue sky, the open slope of pasture ó it's a postcard, except for that fat, black cloud, swelling like a smoke signal, warning that something horrible has happened. "I thought it was an accident," McClatchey says, a Time and a Newsweek and a Reader's Digest in the binder on the coffee table, the pages with her photo marked with Post-Its. "I thought it was a small plane. I figured they were just trying to get out of the air." She didn't walk up that road, toward the hole in the tree line. She could hear the sirens; she knew it was bad. She didn't need to see. She went into the kitchen and put on barbecue for the rescue crews." - Pittsburgh Live (09/11/02)   A little romance muscles its way into car lovers' hearts "On Sept. 11, 2001, she was in her Somerset County home, having recently helped a Camaro buddy looking to relocate in Johnstown. As a way of saying thanks, the friend promised to buzz her Indian Lake house in a helicopter. She set her camera by the door, waiting for the sound of his flyover, but what she heard instead was the horrific roar of Flight 93 going down. The impact nearly knocked her over, but she got to the door in time to capture the black smoke billowing above a red barn seconds after the crash in Shanksville." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (06/29/03)   Lives changed in countless ways "Her picture sells for $20 at Ida's Store in Shanksville, with $18 going to a fund for the victims' families." - PittsburghLive (09/08/02)   The Picture; The Shanksville Episodes:  Val McClatchey "It sat in my camera for a few days. You know, to me it was just a photograph of something. The state police and the FBI were asking for any photos related to Flight 93. Ran back and got a memory card reader and as soon as I did I downloaded, made a copy of the photo, took it to the state police and within an hour, three FBI agents were in my house. It turns out to be the very first photo taken related. Itís -- timed it out -- it was approximately 5 seconds after impact that I snapped the photo. It was the very first one related. In some of it, I -- apparently the FBI thought it was worthwhile; they took the original memory card. Well the FBI, when they came in, they looked at it on my computer which is a lot clearer. The could actually see, you know, what they appear to be debris flying out from that cloud of smoke which Iím sure with modern technology they could do a little more scientific evidence I believe. Well our life has definitely changed. Right before 9/11, we suffered some severe business loss to the point we were forced to file Chapter 11 with our business. We were in the process of reorganizing and right afterwards the insurance company decided they no longer want to deal with high-risk businesses. When we tried to get insurance, we could no longer afford it. The rates have doubled, tripled, quadrupled to the point we couldnít recoup, so as of Dec. 31st, we ended up losing our business, putting 40 some other people out of work, which is not a great way to start the New Year. Iíd had some health problems. Gall bladder surgery and during the testing for all the gall bladder problems, they found a tumor on my kidney and lesions on my liver, so day after Christmas, I had my gall bladder out. We may have lost our company. We may lose my house, but who knows? We might find a nicer house, we might ñ you know you just donít know? I have a young, well my son and his young wife. They just bought a house, looking forward to starting their family. A daughter, who is getting married in May, just found out she has cancer, so now I have to be strong for her and supportive and get her through her crisis and get her happily married and start her family. And I have a great husband and somehow weíre going to make it." - Windsor Park Stories [Download.  Transcribed at:  flight93photo.blogspot.com]   <![if !vml]><![endif]>Debunking The 9/11 Myths "Indian Lake is less than 1.5 miles southeast of the impact crater--not 6 miles--easily within range of debris blasted skyward by the heat of the explosion from the crash. And the wind that day was northwesterly, at 9 to 12 mph, which means it was blowing from the northwest--toward Indian Lake." - Popular Mechanics (03/05)   Conspiracy theorists blog that Flight 93 photo is fake "Taken the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, seconds after United Airlines Flight 93 plunged into a nearby field, the eerie photo was, and still is, according to the FBI, the closest thing it's got to an image of the crash itself. Val McClatchey snapped the single picture with her new digital camera. The wife and mother had been sitting on the edge of her sofa, clutching her second cup of coffee and watching the smoking towers of the World Trade Center on TV, when she heard the sudden surge of a plane engine, followed by a violent, house-shaking boom. Mrs. McClatchey grabbed the camera and ran onto the front porch of her house along Indian Lake. "I didn't even aim. I was just like, 'Oh, my God,' " she said. She dropped the camera, jolting the battery loose, then tried in vain to call her husband, son and daughter. She had no idea what she'd captured until the state police put a call out to people in the area, asking for photos, debris and other evidence. She took a printout of her photo to the police, she said, and, within an hour, FBI agents were at her house. She copyrighted her photo and gave it a title, "End of Serenity." This would later prove an apt description of what was in store for Mrs. McClatchey, 50. She would find herself the target of 9/11 conspiracy theorists and involved in a copyright lawsuit against The Associated Press. During the next few years, the photo would appear in magazines and newspapers, from Newsweek to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, with Mrs. McClatchey's permission. It became part of a fund-raising brochure for the Flight 93 Memorial Fund. Copies are available upon request, with proceeds going to the charity Heroic Choices, formerly the Todd Beamer Foundation. Mrs. McClatchey acknowledged that a lot of people are alleging she fabricated the photo, but she stands by its authenticity. Days after Sept. 11, neighbors saw the image, still in her camera. The camera and computer were new, and she didn't have access to Photoshop or any other photo-altering software. Mrs. McClatchey still occasionally gets requests for copies of "End of Serenity." She prints them out on her personal printer, and says she has no idea how many hundreds or thousands of dollars the photo has raised for the Heroic Choices charity. She operates on the honor system, she says, and simply forwards the checks to them. Representatives from the charity did not return calls requesting comment. Mrs. McClatchey has begun accepting some money, on account of her copyright action against The Associated Press, which, she says, distributed her photo without her permission." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (08/06/06)   Photo under fire; Local woman forced to defend shot's integrity "Her photograph of a mushroom cloud of gray smoke rising above the bucolic countryside ñ snapped just moments after the crash of Flight 93 ñ has become a target for 9/11 conspiracy theorists. Five years later, the 50-year-old Indian Lake woman is frustrated by allegations the photo is a masterful hoax. Conspiracy theorists, specifically the blog Killtown, contend the photo is an elaborate fraud that starts with McClatchey and serpentines up to the highest levels of the federal government. Killtown suggests the photograph is a fake, claiming the gray smoke looks more like a plume from an ordnance blast than the black cloud from a jet crash. As she was trying to call her husband from an area with spotty cellphone coverage, she said she heard the sudden surge of a jet plane and saw a silver flash outside. èAll of a sudden, boom!ÃÆ McClatchey said. èThe house shook, my electricity went out. I was sitting on the edge of the sofa at the time, and it knocked me off balance. You could tell something happened outside.ÃÆ McClatchey said she ran a short distance to the door, saw smoke and instinctively grabbed her month-old digital camera from nearby. She said she managed to snap just one photo. èI didnít realize any of the significance,ÃÆ she said." - Tribune Democrat (09/09/06); Flight 93 crash photo target of conspiracy theorists - CNHI (09/08/06)   - See also:  Flight93photo.blogspot.com     • 9/11 - Multiple witnesses see a small white plane flying in the Shanksville area and coming in the opposite direction before and right after Flight 93 allegedly crashes.   ¬º Jim Brandt - "Somerset County resident Jim Brandt said that he saw another plane in the area. He said it stayed there for one or two minutes before leaving." -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)   ¬º Dale Browning - "It's the damndest darn thing," said Dale Browning, a farmer. "Everybody's seen this thing in the sky, but no one can tell us what it is." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)   ¬º Rick Chaney - "Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)   ¬º Susan Custer - "said she saw a small white jet streaking overhead." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)   ¬º Dennis Decker - "As soon as we looked up, we saw a midsized jet flying low and fast," Decker said. "It appeared to make a loop or part of a circle, and then it turned fast and headed out." Decker and Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)   ¬º Robin Doppstadt - "was working inside her family food-and-supply store when she heard the crash. When she went outside, she said, she saw a small white jet that looked like it was making a single circle over the crash site. "Then it climbed very quickly and took off. " -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Susan Mcelwain - "who lives two miles from the site, knows what she saw - the white plane rocketed directly over her head. "It came right over me, I reckon just 40 or 50ft above my mini-van," she recalled. "It was so low I ducked instinctively. It was traveling real fast, but hardly made any sound. "Then it disappeared behind some trees. A few seconds later I heard this great explosion and saw this fireball rise up over the trees, so I figured the jet had crashed. The ground really shook. So I dialed 911 and told them what happened. "I'd heard nothing about the other attacks and it was only when I got home and saw the TV that I realized it wasn't the white jet, but Flight 93. I didn't think much more about it until the authorities started to say there had been no other plane. The plane I saw was heading right to the point where Flight 93 crashed and must have been there at the very moment it came down. "There's no way I imagined this plane - it was so low it was virtually on top of me. It was white with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that look. "It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. I haven't found one like it on the internet. It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets. The FBI came and talked to me and said there was no plane around. "Then they changed their story and tried to say it was a plane taking pictures of the crash 3,000ft up. "But I saw it and it was there before the crash and it was 40ft above my head. They did not want my story - nobody here did." Mrs Mcelwain, who looks after special needs children, is further convinced the whole truth has yet to come out because of a phone call she had within hours from the wife of an air force friend of the family. "She said her husband had called her that morning and said 'I can't talk, but we've just shot a plane down,' " Susan said. "I presumed they meant Flight 93. I have no doubt those brave people on board tried to do something, but I don't believe what happened on the plane brought it down. "If they shot it down, or something else happened, everyone, especially the victims' families, have a right to know." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02) More - Susan Mcelwain of Stonycreek Township said a small white jet with rear engines and no discernible markings swooped low over her minivan near an intersection and disappeared over a hilltop, nearly clipping the tops of trees lining the ridge. It was less than a minute later, Mcelwain said, that the ground shook and a white plume of smoke appeared over the ridge. "It was so close to me I ducked," Mcelwain said. "I heard it hit and saw the smoke. All I could think of was how close I came to dying. " -The Bergen Record (9/14/01) [Video testimony]   ¬º Lee Purbaugh, 32 - was the only person to see the last seconds of Flight 93 as it came down on former strip-mining land at precisely 10.06am - and he also saw the white jet. He was working at the Rollock Inc. scrap yard on a ridge overlooking the point of impact, less than half a mile away. "I heard this real loud noise coming over my head," he told the Daily Mirror. "I looked up and it was Flight 93, barely 50ft above me. It was coming down in a 45 degree and rocking from side to side. Then the nose suddenly dipped and it just crashed into the ground. There was this big fireball and then a huge cloud of smoke." But did he see another plane? "Yes, there was another plane," Lee said. "I didn't get a good look but it was white and it circled the area about twice and then it flew off over the horizon." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)   ¬º Tom Spinelli - "was working at India Lake Marina, a mile and a half away. "I saw the white plane," he said. "It was flying around all over the place like it was looking for something. I saw it before and after the crash." India Lake also contributes to the view there was an explosion on board before the Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on the lake - a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was no mid-air explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the ground. "It was mainly mail, bits of in-flight magazine and scraps of seat cloth," Tom said. "The authorities say it was blown here by the wind." But there was only a 10mph breeze and you were a mile and a half away? Tom raised his eyebrows, rolled his eyes and said: "Yeah, that's what they reckon." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02) More - "Another Somerset County resident, Tom Spinello, said that he saw the plane. He said that it had high back wings." -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Three Shanksville High students - UA 93: The Road To Shanksville (part 2) "John: We think it was shot down because as soon as it crashed a big fighter plane flew over the school. Brian: We saw that [fighter] plane like right after it happened. We were the only ones who saw it pretty much from the school. Nobody one else saw. Narrator: How long after did you guys see the fighter plane? John: Like ten seconds. As soon as we saw the mushroom cloud, this plane goes flying over. Brian: Right there. It was right after everything." - GNN (2005) [Part 1]         • 9/11 - Witnesses at the Shanksville crash scene report very little plane debris.   ¬º Homer Barron - "Barron and Phillips drove to the crash scene and found a smoky hole in the ground. A few firefighters had already begun pouring water onto the debris. "It didn't look like a plane crash because there was nothing that looked like a plane," Barron said. "I never seen anything like it," Barron said. "Just like a big pile of charcoal." - post-gazette.com (09/12/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Chris Konicki, photographer FOX News reporter:  It looks like there's nothing there, except for a hole in the ground. Photographer Chris Konicki:  Ah, basically that's right.  The only thing you can see from where we where, ah, was a big gouge in the earth and some broken trees.  We could see some people working, walking around in the area, but from where we could see it, there wasn't much left. Reporter:  Any large pieces of debris at all? Konicki:  Na, there was nothing, nothing that you could distinguish that a plane had crashed there. Reporter:  Smoke?  Fire?  Konicki:  Nothing.  It was absolutely quite.  It was, uh, actually very quiet.  Um, nothing going on down there.  No smoke.  No fire.  Just a couple of people walking around.  They looked like part of the NTSB crew walking around, looking at the pieces..." - FOX (09/11/01)   ¬º Nina Lensbouer, former volunteer firefighter - "My instinct was to run toward it, to try to help" said Nina Lensbouer, Tim's Lensbouer's wife and a former volunteer firefighter. "But I got there and there was nothing, nothing there but charcoal. Instantly, it was charcoal." - post-gazette.com (09/12/01)   ¬º Capt. Frank Monaco, state police - "If you would go down there, it would look like a trash heap," said state police Capt. Frank Monaco. "There's nothing but tiny pieces of debris. It's just littered with small pieces." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (09/12/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Mark Stahl - "There's a crater gouged in the earth, the plane is pretty much disintegrated. There's nothing left but scorched trees," said Mark Stahl, of Somerset, who went to the scene." - CNN (09/11/01)           <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Ernie Stull, mayor of the nearby village of Shanksville recalls [question] They had been sent here because of a crash but there was no plane? Ernie Stull: No. Nothing . Only this hole. [question] I thought it was a crash siteÃñ Ernie Stull: And it is. But there was nothing there to see. The plane had completely disintegrated. Puff. It hit the ground and flew to piecesñcompletely." Question: At the very first, what did you think it could be? Ernie Stull: Well...that a plane had crashed. But when we got here, there wasnít anything. Question: What do you mean--there wasnít anything? Ernie Stull: Well...there was no plane. There was what you see a hole. and that is the dirt that the airliner threw out--and the hole, about 6 meters deep...and that was all there was." - 9/11 File Unsolved   "When Der Spiegel confronts Stull with the English translation of these passages in the book and the film script, the man is speechless: "My statements were taken completely out of context. Of course there was an airplane. It's just that there wasn't much left of it after the explosion. That's what I meant when I said 'no airplane'. I saw parts of the wreckage with my own eyes, even one of the engines. It was lying in the bushes." Wisnewski disputes accusations that he manipulated Stull and mentions a statement Stull made in the WDR film, in which his description was correctly reproduced: "The airplane was completely destroyed. Bang! It crashed into the ground and disintegrated - completely." Although this is correct, it amounts to hair-splitting, since Wisnewski and Brunner also suggest in the film that there was no aircraft." - Der Spiegel (09/08/03)   ¬º Maj. Lyle Szupinka, State police - "The best I can describe it is if youíve ever been to a commercial landfill. When itís covered and you have papers flying around. You have papers blowing around and bits and pieces of shredded metal. Thatís probably about the best way to describe that scene itself." - Pittsburgh Live (09/14/01)   (See also:  9/11 - Live at Pentagon scene, CNN reporter says there's no evidence a plane crashed anywhere near the building; Killtown's:  Did Flight 93 Crash in Shanksville?)     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Somerset county coroner Wallace Miller, who was working at the crash site of allegedly Flight 93, said it looked as if someone took a scrap truck, dug a 10-foot ditch and dumped trash into it, said there was nothing visible of human remains and that it was as if the plane had "stopped and let the passengers off before it crashed," and also said that the most eerie thing about the site was that he hadn't seen a "single drop of blood" there.   Hallowed Ground "Wally Miller hits the siren on his dark Ford Excursion. Before Miller can even unfold his lanky 6-foot-4 body from the vehicle, a deputy sheriff thrusts at him a plastic baggie containing a handful of jagged metallic nuggets, mangled and melted into irregular shapes, little bigger than children's marbles. They are the latest of the shreds to be recovered -- nearly six months later -- of what remains of United Airlines Flight 93. Miller holds up the bag and says that virtually the entire airplane, including its 44 human occupants, disintegrated in similar fashion. As coroner, responsible for returning human remains, Miller has been forced to share with the families information that is unimaginable. As he clinically recounts to them, holding back very few details, the 33 passengers, seven crew and four hijackers together weighed roughly 7,000 pounds. They were essentially cremated together upon impact. Hundreds of searchers who climbed the hemlocks and combed the woods for weeks were able to find about 1,500 mostly scorched samples of human tissue totaling less than 600 pounds, or about 8 percent of the total. Miller was among the very first to arrive after 10:06 on the magnificently sunny morning of September 11. He was stunned at how small the smoking crater looked, he says, "like someone took a scrap truck, dug a 10-foot ditch and dumped all this trash into it." Once he was able to absorb the scene, Miller says, "I stopped being coroner after about 20 minutes, because there were no bodies there. It became like a giant funeral service." Thousands of people -- the locals estimate up to 1,000 a week -- have arrived at an old coal-mining access trail called Skyline Road, where finally they can see what remains of Flight 93: nothing. "There's not really much to it, is there?" Wally Miller often says to families and other visitors who are bewildered by what they don't see. Immediately after the crash, the seeming absence of human remains led the mind of coroner Wally Miller to a surreal fantasy: that Flight 93 had somehow stopped in mid-flight and discharged all of its passengers before crashing. "There was just nothing visible," he says. "It was the strangest feeling." It would be nearly an hour before Miller came upon his first trace of a body part. The emotionally wrenching impact of what happened to the bodies caused Miller to resolve to seek out and talk personally to every one of the victims' families. Miller says he is often asked how he copes emotionally with the work he must do. He says he is not sure. Then he tells the church audience that, remarkably, two heavily damaged Bibles were found in the wreckage of the flight; a white one at the crash site that belonged to a passenger who was a practicing Buddhist; and a second one, black, of uncertain ownership. Miller says he ran across the second one on the floor of the warehouse where victims' belongings were being kept. The second Bible was scrunched up and was lying open, he says, to the 121st Psalm, which is customarily read at funerals. He says he has no idea who left the Bible in that position." - Washington Post (05/12/02)   Newsmaker: Coroner's quiet unflappability helps him take charge of Somerset tragedy "Even in the middle of it all, where trees were scorched and the Boeing 757's fuselage disintegrated in a crater that collapsed on itself to leave a gouge maybe 14 feet across, the destruction was so complete that it was hard to imagine what happened. "It was as if the plane had stopped and let the passengers off before it crashed," Miller said. The FBI took control of the crash scene. Miller had charge of a provisional morgue six miles away." - Pittsburg Post Gazette (10/15/01)   The day that changed America "The plane hit at about 575 mph. The cockpit and first-class cabin collapsed; the rest crumpled into it, the rivets giving, the fireball scorching everything. Investigators crawled through the debris field, bagging bolts and bone fragments. They found chunks of seat cushion foam, and honeycombed sound insulators. Then a shoelace, some shirt buttons, and a wedding ring. Then part of a passport, and a necktie, still knotted. Wallace Miller, the lanky, Civil War-studying county coroner, did see it. He sat at the family funeral home, his father, Wilbur, with him. They watched the second plane sweep in low, from nowhere. They winced when it hit. He couldn't believe the scene. He saw the burnt trees, and some debris smoking in the dirt. He saw half a window frame. He saw shreds of that white cloth they put over the headrests. He saw things in the trees. He takes off his glasses, cleans them with his T-shirt. "This is the most eerie thing," he says. "I have not, to this day, seen a single drop of blood. Not a drop." On Sept. 11, though, he simply tried to make sense of the crash site. He went home about 2 a.m., too tired to think straight. He'd start fresh in the morning. The federal mortuary team would be there then. The light would be better." - Pittsburg Live (09/11/02)   Somerset coroner recalls Sept. 11, 2001 "On Sept. 11, 2001, a person couldn't have gotten much closer than Wallace Miller did to the crash site of United Flight 93 in Somerset County. Just 20 minutes after the crash, Miller, a funeral director and the Somerset County Coroner, arrived at the scene. According to Miller, there were 600 samples for 40 people, which was not a lot of samples because the size of the fragments were very small." - Daily Courier/Pittsburg Live (05/30/02)   After Flight 93 spotlight, coroner stays true to small-town roots "County Coroner Wallace Miller remembers hearing melting plastic drip from the trees, and days and weeks later, comforting the families of doomed Flight 93. When he got to the scene, about 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, there was little evidence that what crashed had been a plane. "I can just remember seeing very small bits of debris everywhere. There really wasn't any large sections of debris or aircraft," he says." - phillyBurbs (09/10/05)     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Transportation Sect., former Lockheed Martin V.P., and former Army intelligence officer, Norm Mineta, says he wasn't aware of Flight 93 until after it crashed and thought it was shot down.   "MR. MINETA: And so then, at the time we heard about the airplane that went into Pennsylvania, then I thought, "Oh, my God, did we shoot it down?" And then we had to, with the vice president, go through the Pentagon to check that out. MR. HAMILTON: But there very clearly was an order to shoot commercial aircraft down. MR. MINETA: Subsequently I found that out. MR. HAMILTON: With respect to Flight 93, what type of information were you and the vice president receiving about that flight? MR. MINETA: The only information we had at that point was when it crashed. MR. HAMILTON: I see. You didn't know beforehand about that airplane. MR. MINETA: I did not." - 9/11 Commission   Norman Y. Mineta; Former Secretary of Transportation, 2001-2006 "Prior to joining President Bushís administration as Secretary of Transportation, Mineta served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Clinton, becoming the first Asian Pacific American to serve in the cabinet. He is the first Secretary of Transportation to have previously served in a cabinet position. Prior to joining the Commerce Department, he was a vice president at Lockheed Martin Corporation. Secretary Mineta and his family were among the 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry forced from their homes and into internment camps during World War II. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Secretary Mineta joined the Army in 1953 and served as an intelligence officer in Japan and Korea." - White House   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (10:31 am) - The commander of NORAD says he didn't receive the presidential order to shoot down any of the hijacked planes until after Flight 93 crashed and the 9/11 Commission report confirms NORAD didn't get this order until 28 minutes after the crash. "[Maj. Gen. Larry] Arnold also said that his unit did not receive the presidential order authorizing the military to shoot down hijacked United Flight 93 until five minutes after it crashed into a field in Pennsylvania." - Seattle Post (05/24/03) "A shootdown authorization was not communicated to the NORAD air defense sector until 28 minutes after United 93 had crashed in Pennsylvania." - 9/11 Commission • 9/11 - Each of the four hijacked cross country flights were well below normal passenger loads, averaging only between 19% and 36% full. Flight   Plane Crashed   Capacity Passengers % Full American Airlines 11 Boeing 767 North WTC 255 92 36 United Airlines 175 Boeing 767 South WTC 255 65 25 American Airlines 77 Boeing 757 Pentagon 239 64 27 United Airlines 93 Boeing 757 Stony Creek, PA 239 45 19 Total Capacity  =     988 Total Passengers =  266 Average % full =      27% Difference of total passengers and Flight 93's seating capacity = 27 - Compiled from the Washington Post. "The numbers appear out-of-whack, thankfully. And so, a lingering question is why the passenger loads on the four planes hijacked in U.S. skies are being described by industry officials as "very, very low.'' - CNN (09/20/01)     • 9/11 - A third explosion occurred at the south WTC tower and parts of the tower collapses afterward.   Third explosion at World Trade Centre 2:59:08 PM "A huge explosion has occurred at the second of the two twin towers hit by planes in New York. The tower is now covered in smoke." - TCM Breaking News (09/11/01)   Part of second tower collapses 3:02:21 PM There are reports that a part of the second tower has collapsed after the new explosion. Earliest reports say that both passenger planes that crashed into the World Trade Centre had been hijacked by terrorists in Boston this morning. Earliest reports indicate that at least six people have been killed and that thousands are injured. The first crash happened just before 9am New York time and the second just ten minutes later. It is understood that the US Government had issued a vague warning that US citizens were in danger all over the world less than a week ago." - TCM Breaking News (09/11/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (9:59 am) - The South WTC Tower collapses -- in 10 seconds -- even though it was hit after the North Tower was. "At 9:58:59, the South Tower collapsed in ten seconds, killing all civilians and emergency personnel inside, as well a number of individuals-both first responders and civilians-in the concourse, in the Marriott, and on neighboring streets. The building collapsed into itself, causing a ferocious windstorm and creating a massive debris cloud. The Marriott hotel suffered significant damage as a result of the collapse of the South Tower." - 9/11 Commission "Table 1.  WTC Seismic Events, Time:  09:59:04, Signal Duration:  10 seconds, Remark:  first collapse" - Vibrationdata.com (See also:  9:03 am - Flight 175 crashes into the South WTC tower and is the only recognizable plane caught on film)     • 9/11 - Various people in or near the WTC twin towers reports flashes, bombs and explosions going off before the towers collapse.   ¬º Jeff Birnbaum, EMT "When we got to about 50 ft from the South Tower, we heard the most eerie sound that you would ever hear. A high-pitched noise and a popping noise made everyone stop. We all looked up. At the point, it all let go. The way I see it, it had to be the rivets. The building let go, there was an explosion and the whole top leaned toward us and started coming down. "I stood there for a second in total awe, and then said, ôWhat the F_____?í I honestly thought it was Hollywood." - CEE News (02/13/02)   ¬º Louie Cacchioli, 51, is a firefighter assigned to Engine 47 in Harlem "We were the first ones in the second tower after the plane struck. I was taking firefighters up in the elevator to the 24th floor to get in position to evacuate workers. On the last trip up a bomb went off. We think there was bombs set in the building. I had just asked another firefighter to stay with me, which was a good thing because we were trapped inside the elevator and he had the tools to get out." - People (09/12/01) [Wayback Machine]   ¬º Edward Cachia, Firefighter "As my officer and I were looking at the south tower, it just gave. It actually gave at a lower floor, not the floor where the plane hit, because we originally had thought there was like an internal detonation explosives because it went in succession, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then the tower came down." - NY Times, World Trade Center Task Force Interview   ¬º Karin Deshore, Fire Captain "I went outside to see what I could do, when I saw the second building of the World Trade Center, still unbeknown to me the first one had collapse. Somewhere around the middle of the World Trade Center there was this orange and red flash coming out.  Initially it was just one flash.  Then this flash just kept popping all the way around the building and that building had started to explode.  The popping sound, and with each popping sound it was initially an orange and then red flash came out of the building and then it would just go all around the building on both sides as far as could see.  These popping sounds and the explosions were getting bigger, going both up and down and then all around the building. I went inside and I told everybody that the other building or there was an explosion occurring up there and I said I think we have another major explosion. So here these explosions are getting bigger and louder and bigger and louder and I told everybody if this building totally explodes, still unaware that the other building had collapsed, I'm going in the water." - SF Gate (11/07/01)   ¬º Tom Elliott, Aon Corp. "Tom Elliott was at work in his office at the Aon Corp., an insurance brokerage firm, on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center's other, south tower. Most Aon employees did not straggle in until 9 a.m., but he liked to arrive around 8:30 and have a quiet cup of coffee while he checked his e-mail. He was just typing in a response when a bright flash of light startled him, and a rumble shook the structure. Flames appeared to be crawling up the outside of the building, along with dark smoke and debris, burning paper and ash. Mr. Elliott could feel heat coming through the windows. As far as he knew, it was his building, not the other tower, that was aflame. Oddly, no alarms were going off. The building emergency system was broadcasting no warning. Then, as they reached the 70th floor, they heard an announcement: The building was secure. No one needed to evacuate. They had descended three more floors when United Airlines Flight 175 slammed into their own south tower like an arrow from a giant crossbow. It was 9:03 a.m. Although its spectacularly televised impact was above Elliott, at first he and those around him thought an explosion had come from below. An incredible noise - he calls it an "exploding sound" - shook the building, and a tornado of hot air and smoke and ceiling tiles and bits of drywall came flying up the stairwell. As they descended, a few other survivors stumbled into the corridor. A construction painter, his white T-shirt covered in blood, was helped downstairs by others. But the stairwell was still far from jammed with evacuees. Elliott assumed his was one of the final groups descending. They saw only two firemen going up. They told them there had been an explosion near the 60th floor." - CS Monitor, A Changed World Part 1: The Attack (09/17/01)   ¬º Stephen Gregory, Commissioner, Bureau of Communications "Q. Do you recall at any time, particularly when you were on West Street, any companies whose vehicles may have been parked near where you were? A. No. I know I was with an officer from Ladder 146, a Lieutenant Evangelista, who ultimately called me up a couple of days later just to find out how I was. We both for whatever reason -- again, I don't know how valid this is with everything that was going on at that particular point in time, but for some reason I thought that when I looked in the direction of the Trade Center before it came down, before No. 2 came down, that I saw low-level flashes. In my conversation with Lieutenant Evangelista, never mentioning this to him, he questioned me and asked me if I saw low-level flashes in front of the building, and I agreed with him because I thought -- at that time I didn't know what it was. I mean, it could have been as a result of the building collapsing, things exploding, but I saw a flash flash flash and then it looked like the building came down. Q. Was that on the lower level of the building or up where the fire was? A. No, the lower level of the building. You know like when they demolish a building, how when they blow up a building, when it falls down? That's what I thought I saw. And I didn't broach the topic to him, but he asked me. He said I don't know if I'm crazy, but I just wanted to ask you because you were standing right next to me. He said did you see anything by the building? And I said what do you mean by see anything? He said did you see any flashes? I said, yes, well, I thought it was just me. He said no, I saw them, too. I don't know if that means anything. I mean, I equate it to the building cowing down and pushing things down, it could have been electrical explosions, it could have been whatever. But it's just strange that two people sort of say the same thing and neither one of us talked to each other about it. I mean, I don't know this guy from a hole in the wall. I was just standing next to him. I never met the man before in my life. He knew who was I guess by my name on my coat and he called me up, you know, how are you doing? How's everything? And, oh, by the way did you... It was just a little strange. Q. On the television pictures it appeared as well, before the first collapse, that there was an explosion up on the upper floors. A. I know about the explosion on the upper floors. This was like eye level. I didn't have to go like this. Because I was looking this way. I'm not going to say it was on the first floor or the second floor, but somewhere in that area I saw to me what appeared to be flashes. I don't know how far down this was already. I mean, we had heard the noise but, you know, I don't know." - NY Times (08/12/05)   ¬º Nadine Keller "I saw everything from my balcony in Soho. The first plane tried to veer off the tower but slammed straight into it, followed by the second plane," Nadine Keller of New York City wrote in an e-mail to BBC News Online. "There was smoke everywhere. I heard the bomb and saw both buildings crumble like biscuits," Ms Keller said." - BBC, Eyewitnesses tell of horror (09/11/01)   ¬º Joseph Lovero, EMT "Joseph Lovero was a trained EMT who volunteered to ride into New York with the Battalion 3 chief while the towers were still standing. Official: Battalion 3 to dispatch, we've just had another explosion. Official: Battalion 3 to dispatch, we've had additional explosion. Dispatcher: Received battalion command. Additional explosion. A handful of Jersey City firemen, with a civilian dispatcher, managed to survive, grouping near the still-standing north tower. All, but for Joseph Lovero, his body was found near that of his chief." - WNBC, Exclusive: 911 Tapes Tell Horror Of 9/11 (Part 2) (06/17/02)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Edmund McNally, Fiduciary Trust - He spoke with his wife Liz after the plane struck the north tower. He then called back twice after his own building had been struck. This is her account of that call: "That's when he said to me, "Liz, this was a terrorist attack. I can hear explosions below me.'' He said stuff about the data center. That's why I think he was on the 97th floor, because the data center was on the 97th floor. Then he said the floor was buckled. And he said it was getting really hot and hard to breath." - NY Times, Accounts From the South Tower, 97TH FLOOR     ¬º Teresa Veliz, facilities manager - Teresa Veliz, the facilities manager for a software development company, was on the 47th floor of the North Tower when Flight 11 hit. First, like many witnesses, she describes the building shaking twice: "I got off [the elevator], turned the corner and opened the door to the ladies' room. I said good morning to a lady sitting at a mirror when the whole building shook. I thought it was an earthquake. Then I heard those banging noises on the other side of the wall. It sounded like someone had cut the elevator cables. It just fell and fell and fell. I began to cry. "Oh, my God, I just got off that elevator!" I said. "That could have been me." I prayed those other people had gotten off on the 48th floor before the elevator dropped. But I didn't have much time to be upset because the building shook again, this time even more violently. The lady at the mirror grabbed onto me and held on for dear life." Veliz went down a staircase with a coworker to the concourse level. In the mall, they got onto an up-escalator as the South Tower collapsed, causing a rush of wind which knocked them down. In the pitch black, Veliz and her coworker followed someone carrying a flashlight: "The flashlight led us into Borders bookstore, up an escalator and out to Church Street. There were explosions going off everywhere. I was convinced that there were bombs planted all over the place and someone was sitting at a control panel pushing detonator buttons. I was afraid to go down Church Street toward Broadway, but I had to do it. I ended up on Vesey Street. There was another explosion. And another. I didn't know where to run."  - September 11: An Oral History, pp 9-15 [Reprinted:  The Memory Hole]   ¬º Kim White (2). 32, an administrative assistant at Thebeast, a financial tech company on the 80th floor of 1 World Trade Center, was talking with an office temp when the first plane struck. "All of a sudden the building shook, then it started to sway. We didn't know what was going on. I ran towards the reception area. It was completely collapsed, but the receptionist was able to crawl out from under it. People started to panic. We got all our people on the floor into the stairwell, and then people began to calm down. At that time we all thought it was a fire. Someone was joking, "I hope it wasn't another bomb." Everyone was trying to keep things up-tempo. We got down as far as the 74th floor, and someone there pulled us into their office. They had a TV on, and we saw that a plane had crashed into the building. Then there was another explosion, so we left again by the stairwell." - People (09/12/01)   ¬º 'Everyone was screaming, crying, running. It's like a war zone' "In New York, police and fire officials were carrying out the first wave of evacuations when the first of the World Trade Centre towers collapsed. Some eyewitnesses reported hearing another explosion just before the structure crumbled. Police said that it looked almost like a "planned implosion" designed to catch bystanders watching from the street. As the tower crumbled in on itself, throwing a vast mushroom cloud of choking grey ash, smoke and debris across the densely packed streets of south Manhattan, the air was filled by a terrifying sucking sound akin to the roar of a rocket engine, caused by the sheer volume of air displaced by the collapse." - Guardian (09/12/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Firemen recall "detonations" in South Tower: fireman 2: We made it outside, we made it about a block. fireman 1: We made it at least 2 blocks. fireman 2: 2 blocks. fireman 1: and we started runnin' fireman 2: poch-poch-poch-poch-poch-poch-poch fireman 1: Floor by floor it started poppin' out .. fireman 2: It was as if as if they had detonated, det.. fireman 1: yea detonated yea fireman 2: as if they had planned to take down a building, boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom ... fireman 1: All the way down, I was watchin it, and runnin' - 9/11 - The Filmmakers' Commemorative Edition (2002) (download)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Member of the FDNY   "We were trying to get some of the people out, but then there was secondary explosions and then subsequent collapses." - 11 News (download)       <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º FDNY Firefighter   "As we were getting our gear on and making our way to the stairway, there was a heavy duty explosion." - CBS (download)       <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º MSNBC Reporter Ann Thompson   "At 10:30 I tried to leave the building, but as I got outside I heard a second explosion and another rumble and more smoke and more dust. I ran inside the building and the chandelier shook and again black smoke filled the air. Within another five minutes we were covered again with more soot and more dust. And then a fire marshal came in and said we had to leave, because if there was a third explosion this building might not last." - MSNBC (download)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º NBC reporter Pat Dawson   "The chief of safety of the Fire Department of New York City told me he received word of a possibility of a secondary device -- that is another bomb going off.  He tries to get his men out as quickly as he could, but he said that there was another explosion which took place and according to his theory, he thinks that there were actually devices that were planted in the building." - NBC (download)     <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Eyewitness in studio interview   "I was about five blocks away when I heard explosions... three thuds and turned around to see the building that we just got out of... tip over and fall in on itself." - Studio interview (download)       <![if !vml]><![endif]>¬º Injured WTC witness   "...and then all of a sudden it started like... it sounded like gunfire... you know, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang and then all of a sudden three big explosions." - News clip:  'America Responds' (download)       <![if !vml]><![endif]> ¬º NBC reporter Rick Sanchez (voice)   "...that would put us a block and a half away from the site of where the explosion was. That area has just been evacuated because police have found what they describe as a suspicious device and they fear that it might be something that could lead to another explosion.  Obviously there's a real sense of caution here on the part of police. I spoke with some police officials moments ago, Chris, and they told me they have reason to believe that one of the explosions at the World Trade Center aside from the ones that may have been caused by the impact of the plane with the building, may have been caused by a van that was parked in the building that may have had some type of explosive device in it, so their fear is that there may have been explosive devices planted either in the building, or in the adjacent area and that's why they are being so cautious." - MSNBC (09/11/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]> ¬º BBC Stephen Evans   "There was another big, big explosion.  In the other tower, flames coming out and this billowing grey smoke.  People still not panicking, people not quite understanding what was going on.  Then somebody said that they saw an airliner go into one of those towers.  Then, I don't know how later than that, we had that big explosion from much, much lower.  I don't know what on earth caused that."     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (10:28 am) - The North WTC Tower collapses -- in 8 seconds -- even though it was hit before the South Tower. "The North Tower collapsed at 10:28:25 A.M., killing all civilians alive on upper floors, an undetermined number below, and scores of first responders." - 9/11 Commission "Table 1.  WTC Seismic Events, Time:  10:28:31, Signal Duration:  8 seconds, Remark:  second collapse" - Vibrationdata.com (See also:  8:46 am - The North WTC tower is hit allegedly by Flight 11)   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - In an ABC live broadcast with Peter Jennings, Mayor Rudy Giuliani says he was across the street from the WTC 7 in their make-shift command center and then says he was told the WTC was "going to collapse." èI went down to the scene and we set up headquarters at 75 Barclay Street, which was right there with the police commissioner, the fire commissioner, the head of emergency management, and we were operating out of there when we were told that the World Trade Center was going to collapse. And it did collapse before we could actually get out of the building, so we were trapped in the building for 10, 15 minutes, and finally found an exit and got out, walked north, and took a lot of people with us.ÃÆ - ABC (09/11/01) [Watch video at:  prisonplanet.com; Download at:  whatreallyhappened.com] Press Conference With Mayor Rudolph Giuliani And Governor George Pataki "Q: Mr. Mayor, you were one of the first people down there. Can you describe the scene in your own words, what you saw down there? MAYOR GIULIANI: I don't know that I'm really able to describe it. It was the most horrific scene I've ever seen in my whole life. We saw the World Trade Center in flames, a big, gaping hole all the way on the top of it. We could see people jumping from the top of the building. And then we went into Barkley Street, 75 Barkley Street, I think it was, and we were there when the building collapsed. And it collapsed in part on 75 Barkley Street. So we were trapped in the building for maybe 10 or 15 minutes trying to get out different exits. We finally went through a basement and came out 100 Park Place. Q: Mr. Mayor, you mentioned you were on Barkley Street. What's the radius of damage that's been affected? How many of the side streets around the World Center -- MAYOR GIULIANI: I don't think we know yet. The whole area of lower Manhattan has been very much affected by it." - US News Library (09/11/01)   - Map of 75 Barclay St   (See also:  9/11 - Giuliani thinks the first crash into the WTC was an attack; July 7, 2005 - Giuliani was near the London Blasts.)     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (afternoon) - At a press conference with Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Governor George Pataki, reporters ask about bombs and second explosions in the twin towers. Press Conference With Mayor Rudolph Giuliani And Governor George Pataki Q: Do you know anything about the cause of the explosions that brought the two buildings down yet? Was it caused by the planes or by something else? Was there a second explosion? MAYOR GIULIANI: We believe that it was caused by the after- effects of the planes hitting the buildings. We don't know of an additional explosion after that. Q: Mr. Mayor, could you tell us, do you expect any further attacks on New York? Is there anything to indicate that there could be more bombs, more planes out there? I know originally there was a report that eight planes had been hijacked. Four have only been accounted for. What about the remaining four? And is there any possibility that there could be bombs on the ground planted by -- MAYOR GIULIANI: We have no specific information to that effect. Obviously, the city is now closed. The airspace around the city is closed, and we are on heightened alert. But we have no specific information suggesting any further attack. Q: Mr. Mayor, I've heard report of a gas explosion related to this (explosion ?). Are you aware of that? There was a gas leak or possible explosion of gas (from the building ?). MAYOR GIULIANI: We don't believe -- we're not -- we don't believe that's the case, no." - US News Library (09/11/01)   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Immediately after the WTC's second tower fell, Jeb Bush declares a state of emergency in Florida with no termination date even though no acts of terrorism occur in his state. EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER  01-262 "WHEREAS, on September 11, 2001 a combination of persons unknown carried out a series of terrorist acts resulting in the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City and an explosion at the Pentagon, costing the lives of many persons and resulting in injuries to many more; and WHEREAS, the scale of the destruction and the coordination, orchestration, and timing evident in these acts of terrorism suggest that they may be part of a larger pattern of acts of terrorism; and Section 1. - Because of the foregoing conditions, I hereby declare that a state of emergency exists in the State of Florida.  Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida (09/11/01)" - MyFlorida.com Florida under martial law?  Rumors persist despite official denial from Jeb Bush administration "WHO KNEW? Jeb Bush signed Florida TWO YEAR emergency order 4 days BEFORE ATTACK Did we know that the governor "immediately" after the Trade Center's second tower fell had issued an executive order, with no termination date, declaring a state of emergency? Did we know that the governor had made the interim head of the Division of Emergency Management into a czar of anti-terrorist operations, giving him the power to seize land and personal property and order people evacuated from their homes? Were we aware that Bush had mobilized the National Guard just four days earlier? Bush, through Executive Order 01-261, had activated units of the Florida National Guard on Sept. 7, four days before the kamikaze assault on the Trade Center. His second executive order, EO 01-262, did in fact delegate awesome powers to a non-elected official, the interim head of the Division of Emergency Management, the agency responsible for implementing Florida's Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. Moreover, the governor issued it shortly after the attacks, strongly suggesting he had been apprised of events ahead of time and was ready to sign the order with a stroke of his pen as soon as he received an appropriate signal. In reviewing the history of this EO, with its awesome grants of authority, what was noteworthy was not the speed with which Bush's aides were able to produce it for his signature, but the fact that similar executive orders ñ each declaring a state of emergency and with identical grants of authority ñ had been issued over half a dozen times in the past three years, with Florida residents apparently oblivious to the fact." - WorldNetDaily (10/25/01) (See also:  September 7, 2001 - Jeb Bush signs a two year Florida executive emergency order four days before the attacks.)     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Frank A. De Martini, Manager of WTC Construction and Project Management who said he believed that the WTC twin towers could withstand multiple crashes from a jetliner, is killed at the North WTC tower on the 88th floor.   Frank De Martini: Defending the Brownstone "Frank De Martini had a passion for old cars, motorcycles, sailing and everything Italian. He also loved restoring Brooklyn brownstones, and was fascinated with the World Trade Center. Mr. De Martini, an architect, started working at the twin towers when he was hired to assess the damage from the 1993 bombing. He stayed on, becoming the construction manager, the man to see when you wanted to move a wall or rearrange the plumbing. Mr. De Martini's wife, Nicole, also worked in the towers, and their children, Sabrina, 10, and Dominic, 8, could often be seen splashing around in the pool at the complex's Marriott Hotel. Compact and athletic, Mr. De Martini, 49, once used a baseball bat to chase away an intruder who had picked the wrong brownstone. "He was really very fearless," said Michael Prager, a longtime friend. When the north tower was struck, Nicole De Martini was just leaving her husband's office on the 88th floor. Finding a stairway that was still intact, he ushered her to safety. But he refused to follow just then because others needed help. "He saw himself very much as a protector," Mr. Prager said." - NY Times (12/01/01) "Name: Frank A. De Martini Age: 49 Residence: New York, NY, United States Occupation: construction manager, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Location: World Trade Center" - CNN:  Sept 11 Memorial (See also:  January 25, 2001 - Frank De Martini believes twin towers could sustain multiple hits from a jetliner)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Over a billion dollars in gold and silver were stored in a vault  under the WTC 4.   Attacks Buried Millions Under WTC "Underneath the crushed concrete and twisted steel girders of the World Trade Center lie about $200 million in gold and silver owned by a Canadian bank. Officials at the Toronto-based Bank of Nova Scotia have no idea when they will be able to recover the gold and silver but aren't worried that someone might try to steal it. "All of ground zero is extremely secure,'' said bank spokeswoman Diane Flanagan. The gold and silver was in a vault at 4 World Trade Center, which was reduced to rubble just like the twin towers that collapsed after the Sept. 11 attack. It was not immediately clear in what form the precious metals were in, such as ingots or coins. "We have every reason to believe it is safe and intact,'' Flanagan said. "And we have every reason to believe it is fully recoverable.'' Besides the legions of police officers who prevent onlookers from approaching the trade center site, the bank has hired its own security contingent to protect the assets. Flanagan wouldn't say how many security officers are on duty at the site for the bank, or what precautions have been put in place. The eight vault employees who kept watch over the gold and silver before the attacks escaped unharmed. The gold and silver is insured and is part of a larger cache controlled by the bank's bullion and precious metals subsidiary, Scotia Mocatta Depository Corp." - Journal Sentinel/AP (10/06/01)   Millions in gold and silver recovered from WTC - CTV (10/31/01)   Cache of gold found at WTC; Two truckloads retrieved through a tunnel in rubble "Workers at Ground Zero unearthed last night a buried treasure of gold, hidden for weeks under the ruins of the World Trade Center. This is not a shocker, as it was rumored that as much as $160 Billion in bullion was stored under the Trade Center." - NY Daily News (10/31/01) [Reprinted at:  sierratimes.com; rense.com]   Crushed towers give up cache of gold ingots "RECOVERY workers at Ground Zero have discovered hundreds of gold ingots, part of a billion dollar cache which was lost when the twin towers fell. The collapsed buildings contained a number of vaults and strongrooms, but the police were not saying who owned the gold. The Comex metals trading division of the New York Mercantile Exchange kept 3,800 gold bars ó weighing 12 tonnes and worth more than $100 million (¬£70 million) ó in vaults in the buildingís basement. Comex also held almost 800,000 ounces of gold there on behalf of others with a value of about $220 million. It also held more than 102 million ounces of silver, worth $430 million. The Bank of Nova Scotia, which kept gold in the Comex vault, reported $200 million of gold lost in the wreckage. Comex also held precious metals for Chase Manhattan Bank, the Bank of New York and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking." - Times Online (11/01/01)  [Archived at:  911research.wtc7.net]    Thanksgiving at Ground Zero "Unknown to most people at the time, $650 million in gold and silver was being kept in a special vault four floors beneath Four World Trade Center. The gold and silver were recently recovered." - Delta Farm Press (11/19/01)   (See also:  February 26, 1993 - Police first believed '93 WTC attack was an attempted gold robbery; October 30, 2001 - Recovery workers discover hundreds of gold bars in a delivery tunnel under WTC 5 that was being transported by a 10-wheel truck)     • 9/11 - Suspicious vehicle fires and things blowing up.   Oral Histories from Sept. 11 Compiled by the New York Fire Department - NY Times   ¬º Paul Curran  Fire Patrolman (F.D.N.Y.) 12/18/01 "At that time I went back to the north tower again, and they were stretching a line. A lot of car fires erupted. All of a sudden cars were blowing up everywhere. I went back and I helped a guy stretch a line. The guy was all by himself. I helped him stretch a line and started putting water on the car fires. I remember distinctly walking past -- I saw 118 Truck. 118 Truck was parked right on West Street right past Vesey. Q. Everybody tells me all these vehicles were on fire. What do you attribute all these vehicles being on fire to? A. I believe it must have been from the debris falling and the heat just started hitting the cars and starting cars on fire. There were an awful lot of cars burning, an awful lot. It had to be radiated heat or just stuff falling on cars and setting them on fire. There were numerous cars burning, numerous."   ¬º Patricia Ondrovic  E.M.T. (E.M.S.) 10/11/01  (See also:   9/11 Rescuer Saw Explosions Inside WTC 6 Lobby) "My partner and I grabbed our stretcher, went to put it in the back of our vehicle, and at that time, I think it was the lobby of the building behind us blew out. I ran into the lobby cause I had no idea what had happened and the cops that were in there were telling everybody get out, get out, get out. Where are you gonna go? Stuffs blowing up. As I was running up Vesey, the first car blew up on me on the corner of Vessey and the West Side Highway. That set my turnout coat on fire, that set my hair on fire, and that set my feet on fire. I kept running. I got news for you, those turn out coats need to be called burn out coats, cause this thing caught up in flames. So there were still cars parked on the street that were completely independent of that. Three cars blew up on me, stuff was being thrown. I went home all bruised that day. Thank God it was only bruises. I just ran into this park along with a bunch of other people, and stuff was still blowing up... Stuff is still blowing up behind me, as I'm running. I can hear stuff exploding. I could hear rumbling, the street under me was moving like I was in an earthquake. I saw my ex-partner, and I said get in this thing and drive it to Westchester. I told him get the hell out of the city. Get everyone was can get in this, I said shit's still blowing up down there."   ¬º Freddy Burgos  E.M.T. (E.M.S.) 10/31/01 "When the first building came down, after the dust lifted from that one, in front of me, the other ambulances, most of them not Fire Department, private or some other ambulances, burning."     ¬º Richard Carletti  Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.)   1/2/02 "To our right, there was a parking lot right on West and Liberty. There were about seven cars on fire. We came back around in front of Stuyvesant High School. They were setting up a command post there. I mean, you could listen to the monitors. Basically they wanted engines was booster tanks to come down and extinguish the car fires then going."   ¬º Ronald Cifu  Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) 12/28/01 "Even after the collapse when we were starting to relay water to the car fires and stuff like that..."   ¬º Ronald Coyne  E.M.T. (E.M.S.) 12/28/01 "...I saw the building start to topple...I tried to run as fast as I could...and by the time it took me to break the back window of the SUV, my safety coat was already on fire.  My socks were on fire. I was just covered with burns and bruises, and I couldn't breathe at all."   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (1:47 pm) - White House spokesman Ari Fleischer claims that President Bush received no warnings about the attacks.   Press Briefing to the Pool By Ari Fleischer Aboard Air Force One 1:47 P.M. EDT "Q Had there been any warnings that the President knew of? MR. FLEISCHER: No warnings." - White House (09/11/01)   "In my view, this has been an intelligence failure," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., adding that the Senate Intelligence Committee had no indication the attacks were coming." - The Post (09/11/01) (See also:  August 6, 2001 - Bush is warned in a CIA memo of possible terrorist attacks and plane hijackings in the U.S. from Osama bin Laden)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Ex-FBI agent John O'Neill is feared dead on his second day on the job at the WTC. "John OíNeill retired last month as the FBI's counterterrorism head to become chief of security at the World Trade Center, where he is believed to have died on Tuesday helping with rescue efforts. He was 49. O'Neill was a three-decade FBI veteran. He led the bureau's investigation of the October 12, 2000, terrorist bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen and was involved in the terrorism trials led by Mary Jo White, U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Flagg and other investigators speculated that OíNeill ran back into the damaged structure, as did many in the command structure of New York's fire, police and rescue community. O'Neill's FBI career was not without controversy. During his investigation of the USS Cole attack, U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine is said to have complained the FBI was overly aggressive. At one point, the agency pulled O'Neill and his team out of Yemen amid fears of terrorist attacks on the investigators. As O'Neill retired from the FBI last month, he was said to be under investigation for leaving a briefcase with classified documents in a Tampa, Florida, hotel last year. The documents were recovered." - CNN (09/12/01) "An expert in counterterrorism known for his aggressive tactics is among those missing in the collapse of the World Trade Center following Tuesday's terrorist attacks. After first escaping the Twin Towers, John O'Neill reportedly reentered the building to assist others. He has not been seen since. O'Neill, 49, became chief of security at the World Trade Center last month following a 25-year career with the FBI. While with the FBI, O'Neill was in charge of national security in New York, and he may have died at the hands of terrorists he had trailed in the role. "That's the irony here, that he would perish in this way," said Bucknam, who was an adviser to former FBI director Louis Freeh and now is managing director of the Kroll Associates security consultants. "He ate, drank and slept fighting terrorists. Apart from the human loss, it's a real loss of talent." Among the terrorist investigations that O'Neill led or participated in were: the 2000 bombing of the Navy destroyer USS Cole in Yemen, the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In 1995, FBI agents working under O'Neill captured Ramzi Yousef, a suspected lieutenant of bin Laden, who later was among those convicted for the World Trade Center bombing. O'Neill was considered a top-notch investigator and was known for his pugnacity. The aggressive tactics he and his team employed in Yemen following the USS Cole bombing, along with death threats against the team, prompted U.S. Ambassador Barbara Bodine to bar O'Neill from that country. That dispute involved a turf fight between the State Department, which sought to preserve relations with Yemen, and the FBI, represented by O'Neill, who wanted to confront the Yemenis for limiting access to suspects in the case. Although most descriptions of O'Neill are positive, he left the FBI under fire: He was being investigated for losing a briefcase of classified information while at a meeting in a Tampa, Fla., hotel. The briefcase - apparently stolen by thieves suspected in a series of hotel robberies - was retrieved intact within hours. However, O'Neill's handling of classified material was in question." - Newsday (09/14/01) (See also:  1997 - John O'Neill forecasts the possibility of an organized attack and said that terrorists were already operating in the U.S.; August 2001 - John O'Neill becomes chief of security at the WTC; September 10, 2001 - John O'Neill starts his first day of work at the WTC; September 21, 2001 - The body of John O'Neill is recovered from the WTC)   • 9/11 (1:24 pm) - A Korean Air 747 flying in Alaska accidentally issues a hijack alert and was in danger of being shot down. "A string of miscommunications Sept. 11 led to a jarring incident over Alaska that convinced controllers the military might shoot down a Korean Air jet. Pilots on Korean Air Flight 85 mistakenly issued a hijack alert at 1:24 p.m. ET as they neared Alaska on the way to Anchorage. Military officials, who had ordered two F-15 fighters to tail the jet, told Anchorage air traffic controllers that they would shoot it down if it did not turn away from populated areas, several sources told USA TODAY." - USA Today (08/13/02)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - CNN video report says there has been an Agence France Presse report saying a group with the word "Palestine" in the name has claimed responsibility for the attacks, that an associate close to Osama bin Laden denies the group was involved, and also mentions that claims of responsibility for attacks such as 9/11, come from all sorts of people who have "nothing to do with it."   (Killtown's transcription) David Ensor: "Aaron, I'm talking to U.S. officials who are obviously working on who is responsible for this.  Their working hypothesis is that this is overseas terrorism - not domestic.  They say they cannot rule out additional attacks yet to come.  In terms of claims of responsibility so far, there is an Agence France Presse (AFP) report, in which a group with the word "Palestine" in the name claims responsibility and there is also a report quoting personnel close to Osama bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi--accused terrorist, denying that that group was involved.  But again U.S. officials say they can't add or shed any light on whether these reports are correct or incorrect.  Usually when this kind of attack occurs, you have claims of responsibility from all sorts of people who have nothing to do with it." - CNN video   Minute by Minute with the Broadcast News "CBS reports from the Pentagon that the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine has claimed responsibility for the acts. 9 am NBC reports a spokesman for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine denies responsibility. Tom Brokaw notes that in situations like this, there are always èclaims and counter-claims.ÃÆ - Poynter Online (09/11/01)   (See also:  9/11 - Caught Israeli spy who was filming WTC burning, says 'We are not your problem...Palestinians are the problem')     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Video coverage shows Palestinians rejoicing over news of the 9/11 attacks, but later the celebrations were found out to have been staged.   Anti-U.S. Displays Worry Palestinians "The Palestinians have a major public relations problem. First, there were the pictures of cheering Palestinians in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Then, over the weekend, a few Muslim fundamentalists in the Gaza Strip raised a huge poster of Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the U.S. attacks. Palestinian authorities have dealt with these displays in the way they know best: They confiscated journalists' pictures and pretended the incidents didn't happen. Images of young Palestinians rejoicing at American death, or honoring the suspected orchestrator of such carnage, make the Palestinians look bad at an enormously sensitive time and play into the hands of Israel, the official said. The videotapes and camera film were eventually returned to the Western journalists, the official said. This could not be confirmed immediately. Film was also seized last week from photographers at Palestinian celebrations in Nablus, and the journalists were threatened." - LA Times (09/16/01) [Archived:  Wayback Machine]   Thousands of Palestinians again celebrate attacks, videotape suppressed "On Friday and Saturday, thousands of Palestinians again paraded through cities in the West Bank and Gaza, celebrating the attacks on the United States. Some Palestinian policeman reportedly joined the celebrations, while other Palestinian security officials confiscated videotape shot by journalists at the rally. International news agencies continue to refrain from broadcasting video footage showing Palestinians, including members of Palestinian security forces, celebrating after this week's terrorist attacks in the United States due to severe threats and warnings issued by Palestinian Authority officials and representatives." - Israeli Insider (09/16/01)   The power of the TV pictures: What is the truth? "Only few hours after the assassination attempts on New York and Washington showed the television stations world-wide pictures of Palestinians, who cheered the incomprehensible act. Now it, a part of these pictures means possibly posed, the remainder is old. Children are jubilant, a woman with black head cloth and eyeglasses tear joyfully the arms highly, a man applaud and sign other passanten here: A road scene, filmed in Jerusalem at the 11. September, on the day of the assassination attempts in New York and Washington. Pictures, which went around the world. Pictures, which shook many humans. Hunger after information and filmmaterial was unstillbar on this day - in such a way also these recordings of the TV transmitters sent, underlaid with the words, these Palestinians would again and again celebrate the notices in the USA. But now, after the notices, the Pool of broadcasting corporations Politmagazin "panorama" reports ten days the fact that there is possibly another truth about these pictures that the scene is perhaps even posed. The jubilant Palestinians of two press agencies were filmed: Reuters and Associated press (AP). The viewers got few seconds from the material in the past week only to to see. Altogether however about four minutes accumulated with the TV stations. The panorama talking document urine Annette Krueger Spitta regarded the entire volumes of the two agencies more exactly. "that is finally explosive material". It determined discrepancies. The finished cut message films in the past week had the impression aroused, there celebrated many humans on the road. Participated no total photographs, which showed the whole road, but only small groups of humans. On the supplied material however very probably were total ones - they showed clearly that only one handful of Palestinians was jubilant, many different passed simply indifferently. "the woman with the head cloth said later, she was jubilant into the camera, because one promised its cake", so Krueger Spitta. The Palaestinenserin explained, it was frightened, when it saw, in which context their rejoicing was shown. It abhors the acts in New York and Washington. What is the truth?" - Der Spiegel (09/21/01)   - CNN video of Palestinians cheering - youtube   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (2:40 pm) - Donald Rumsfeld began planning strike plans against Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. "CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq ó even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks. That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 ñ notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin. With the intelligence all pointing toward bin Laden, Rumsfeld ordered the military to begin working on strike plans. And at 2:40 p.m., the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H." ñ meaning Saddam Hussein ñ "at same time. Not only UBL" ñ the initials used to identify Osama bin Laden. Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. But if these notes are accurate, that didn't matter to Rumsfeld. "Go massive," the notes quote him as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not." - CBS (09/04/02) (See also:  September 17, 2003 - Bush: No Link Between Iraq, Sept. 11 Attacks; March 19, 2004 - Ex-Advisor Says Bush Eyed Bombing of Iraq on 9/11)     • 9/11 (3:00 pm) - Ground Zero rescuers are heard saying the WTC 7 was going to "blow up" and will be "coming down soon" while others mentioned they were told around 3 p.m. that it was going to collapse and others were waiting around for it to fall.   ¬º Unidentified rescuer 1 - "Keep your eye on that building. It will be coming down soon." - CNN video (@ 2:20)   ¬º Unidentified rescuer 2 - "The building's about to blow up. Moving back... We are walking back. There is a building, about to blow up." - CNN video (@ 2:25)   ¬º Captain Chris Boyle - "And so after Visconti came down and said nobody goes in 7, we said all right, weíll head back to the command post. So we got water to 22, but then thatís when they said all right, number 7 is coming down, shut everything down." - Firehouse Magazine (08/02)   ¬º Firefighter Marcel Claes - "We were kept away from building 7 because of the potential of collapse." - Firehouse Magazine (04/02)   ¬º Deputy Chief Peter Hayden - "By now, this is going on into the afternoon, and we were concerned about additional collapse, not only of the Marriott, because there was a good portion of the Marriott still standing, but also we were pretty sure that 7 World Trade Center would collapse. Early on, we saw a bulge in the southwest corner between floors 10 and 13, and we had put a transit on that and we were pretty sure she was going to collapse. You actually could see there was a visible bulge, it ran up about three floors. It came down about 5 oíclock in the afternoon, but by about 2 oíclock in the afternoon we realized this thing was going to collapse. We were concerned about the collapse of a 47-story building there. We pulled everybody back probably by 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon. We said, this building is going to come down, get back. It came down about 5 oíclock or so, but we had everybody backed away by then. At that point in time, it seemed like a somewhat smaller event, but under any normal circumstances, thatís a major event, a 47-story building collapsing." - Firehouse Magazine (04/02)   ¬º Firefighter Scott Holowach - "We ended up back up on Vesey Street and West Street and just hanging out until tower 7 came down. After tower 7 came down, we went right to work over at tower 7 to put the fires out." - New York Times [Local]   ¬º Battalion Chief John Norman - "I started to go down Vesey toward West, but there was a lot of debris blocking the way and they were telling me no, you donít want to go down there ñ theyíre worried about that building collapsing. I looked at 7 World Trade Center. There was smoke showing, but not a lot and Iím saying that isnít going to fall. Yes, thatís why we couldnít walk down Vesey. But I never expected it to fall the way it did as quickly as it did, 7. Now weíre still worried about 7. We have guys trying to make their way up into the pile, and theyíre telling us that 7 is going to fall down ñ and that was one of the directions from the command post, to make sure we clear the collapse zone from 7 and this is a 600-foot-tall building, so we had to clear a 600-foot radius from that building." - Firehouse Magazine (05/02)   ¬º Paramedic Steven Pilla - "Then it was about 5:00, because I was getting hungry. We were eating oatmeal cookies and watered-down Gatorade from the Salvation Army and the Red Cross...We walked back. We didn't do any further because building number seven was coming down. That was another problem, to wait for building seven to come down, because that was unsecure. It was about 5:30 that building came down." - New York Times [Local]   ¬º Lieutenant William Ryan - "At that time he said, "7 has got fire on several floors." Then we found out, I guess around 3:00 o'clock, that they thought 7 was going to collapse. So, of course, we've got guys all in this pile over here and the main concern was get everybody out, and I guess it took us over an hour and a half, two hours to get everybody out of there. So it took us a while and we ended up backing everybody out, and that's when 7 collapsed. Then, basically, after 7 collapsed, I went over and told the Chief that -- by then they had companies with handie-talkies, masks. Basically, we fell back for 7 to collapse, and then we waited a while and it got a lot more organized, I would guess.   I was at the ferry when I called, and I ended up calling her again at about 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon from a position over here. I went in there to take a leak and I just looked around. I guess when we fell back for 7 to collapse I called her." - New York Times [Local]   ¬º Firefighter Frank Sweeney - "Once they got us back together and organized somewhat, they sent us back down to Vesey, where we stood and waited for Seven World Trade Center to come down." - New York Times [Local]   ¬º Battalion Chief Tom Vallebuona - "We thought 7 World Trade Center was going to fall and push the side of the World Trade Center that was still standing, and then it was going to go into 90 and I thought the scaffold was going to fall and cover the block and kill another 30 people." - Firehouse Magazine (08/02)   ¬º Deputy Chief Nick Visconti - "At some point, Frank Fellini said, now weíve got hundreds of guys out there, hundreds and hundreds, and thatís on the West Street side alone. He said to me, Nick, youíve got to get those people out of there. I thought to myself, out of where? Frank, what do you want, Chief? He answered, 7 World Trade Center, imminent collapse, weíve got to get those people out of there. I explained to them that we were worried about 7, that it was going to come down and we didnít want to get anybody trapped in the collapse. One comment was, oh, that building is never coming down, that didnít get hit by a plane, why isnít somebody in there putting the fire out? I walked out and I got to Vesey and West, where I reported to Frank. He said, weíre moving the command post over this way, that buildingís coming down." - Firehouse Magazine (08/02)   (See also:  9/11 (5:20 pm) - The 47-story WTC 7 mysteriously collapses even though no plane crashed into it and it's collapse hardly gets any media attention; Killtown's: Was the WTC 7 pulled?)     • 9/11 - BBC correspondent Jane Standley announces that the WTC 7 collapsed before it did.   "The 47 storey Salomon Brothers building close to the World Trade Centre has also collapsed." - BBC World (09/11/01) [Video:  youtube]     • 9/11 - CNN correspondent Aaron Brown announces that the WTC 7 has either collapsed, or is collapsing before it did.   "BUILDING 7 AT WORLD TRADE CTR. ON FIRE, MAY COLLAPSE" - CNN (09/11/01) [Video:  youtube]     <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (5:20 pm) - The 47-story WTC 7 mysteriously collapses even though no plane crashed into it and it's collapse hardly gets any media attention. "5:20 p.m.: The 47-story Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex collapses." - CNN "Almost lost in the chaos of the collapse of the World Trade Center is a mystery that under normal circumstances would probably have captured the attention of the city and the world. That mystery is the collapse of a nearby 47-story...Building 7 didn't get much attention in the media." - New York Times (11/29/01) (See also:  9/11 (3:00 pm) - Rescuers were told WTC 7 was going to collapse; November 30, 2001 - Experts blame fire for the mysterious collapse of WTC 7; October 19, 2004 - A 56-story Venezuela skyscraper burns for over 17 hours, but does not collapse; Killtown's:  Was the WTC 7 pulled?) • 9/11 - A NYU medical student was watching the WTC 7 that was on fire and hears a clap of thunder, sees a shockwave rippling through the building, saw windows from it bust out, then sees the bottom floor cave out followed by the rest of the building. Reporter: "I'm here with an emergency worker. He's a first year NYU medical student. He was down there; he was trying to help people. His name is Darryl." Darryl: "Yeah I was just standing there, ya know... We were watching the building [WTC 7] actually 'cuz it was on fire... the bottom floors of the building were on fire and... we heard this sound that sounded like a clap of thunder... turned around - we were shocked to see that the building was, ah well it looked like there was a shockwave ripping through the building and the windows all busted out... it was horrifying... about a second later the bottom floor caved out and the building followed after that... we saw the building crash down all the way to the ground... we were in shock." - 1010 WINS NYC (09/11/01) [@ 1:22 into the video] <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Larry Silverstein, the WTC leaseholder, said he decided that the smartest thing to do to the WTC 7 was to "pull it" when a NYFD commander told him that he wasn't sure they were going to be able to contain the fire in the building and said after they made the decision to "pull" the WTC 7, they "watched the building collapse."  The term "pull" was used to describe the demolition of the WTC 6 months later. "I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, "We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it." And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse," said Larry Silverstein, the WTC Leaseholder. - PBS (09/10/02) [Reprinted at: Infowars.com] "Hello? Oh, we're getting ready to pull building six." "We had to be very careful how we demolished building six. We were worried about the building six coming down and then damaging the story walls, so we wanted that particular building to fall within a certain area," said Luis Mendes, NYC Department of Design and Construction. - PBS (09/10/02) (See also:  July 2001 - Silverstein signed a 99-year lease for the WTC just six weeks before the attacks; 9/11 (3:00 pm) - Rescuers were told WTC 7 was going to collapse; 9/11 (5:20 pm) - The 47-story WTC 7 mysteriously collapses even though no plane crashed into it and it's collapse hardly gets any media attention; June 2, 2002 - Silverstein profits $478 million from WTC 7 collapsing; Killtown's:  Was the WTC 7 pulled?) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - A "secret" CIA office was housed in the WTC 7. Secret C.I.A. Site in New York Was Destroyed on Sept. 11 "The Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine New York station was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, seriously disrupting United States intelligence operations while bringing the war on terrorism dangerously close to home for America's spy agency, government officials say. The C.I.A.'s undercover New York station was in the 47-story building at 7 World Trade Center, one of the smaller office towers destroyed in the aftermath of the collapse of the twin towers that morning. All of the agency's employees at the site were safely evacuated soon after the hijacked planes hit the twin towers, the officials said. A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment. The agency's New York station was behind the false front of another federal organization, which intelligence officials requested that The Times not identify. The station was, among other things, a base of operations to spy on and recruit foreign diplomats stationed at the United Nations, while debriefing selected American business executives and others willing to talk to the C.I.A. after returning from overseas. But United States intelligence officials emphasize that there is no evidence that the hijackers knew that the undercover station was in the World Trade Center complex. The agency is prohibited from conducting domestic espionage operations against Americans, but the agency maintains stations in a number of major United States cities, where C.I.A. case officers try to meet and recruit students and other foreigners to return to their countries and spy for the United States. The New York station, which has been led by its first female station chief for the last year, is believed to have been the largest and most important C.I.A. domestic station outside the Washington area. The station has for years played an important role in espionage operations against Russian intelligence officers, many of whom work undercover as diplomats at the United Nations. Agency officers in New York often work with the F.B.I. to recruit and then help manage foreign agents spying for the United States. The bureau's New York office, at 26 Federal Plaza, was unaffected by the terrorist attack." - New York Times (11/04/01) CIA office near World Trade Center destroyed in attacks "A CIA office operating at 7 World Trade Center was destroyed when the building came down after planes crashed into the twin towers, a U.S. official has confirmed to CNN. The official said the destroyed CIA office was engaged in counterterrorist and counterintelligence operations. "We're relocated, and we're in operation," said the official. Officials looked for documents to make sure none had scattered, and that they have "no reason to believe" any materials got into the hands of the "wrong people," the source said. The official would not discuss precisely what type of activities were conducted at the undercover office. The New York Times reported that the office "was, among other things, a base of operations to spy on and recruit foreign diplomats stationed at the United Nations, while de-briefing selected American business executives and others willing to talk to the CIA after returning from overseas." The official said no CIA employees were killed in the collapse of the building. 7 World Trade Center was one of a number of smaller buildings in the area that were destroyed after the twin towers collapsed." -CNN (11/04/05)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Debris from the WTC 7 was removed without investigators having the chance to examine the wreckage at the scene to help determine the cause of failure.   Modern Marvels: Engineering Disasters 13 "Jonathan Barnett, PhD:  Normally when you have a structural failure, you carefully go through the debris field looking at each item -- photographing every beam as it collapsed and every column where it is in the ground and you pick them up very carefully and you look at each element.  We were unable to do that in the case of tower 7. Narrator:  The wreckage from tower 7 was mingled with the debris from the other destroyed or damaged buildings.  It was removed from the site, so rescue and recovery efforts could continue." - History Channel / Modern Marvels  [Video:  911podcasts.com]       <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - White House staff are given the powerful anthrax antibiotic Cipro, a full month before the first cases of anthrax were reported.   White House Mail Machine Has Anthrax "President Bush said confidently Tuesday that "I don't have anthrax" after biohazard testing at the White House and the discovery of anthrax on a mail-opening machine at a screening facility six miles away. Asked if he was tested for the germ that has killed three people already this month, or if he was taking precautionary antibiotics, Bush replied simply: "I don't have anthrax." At least some White House personnel were given Cipro six weeks ago. White House officials won't discuss who might be receiving the anthrax-treating antibiotic now. On the night of the Sept. 11 attacks, the White House Medical Office dispensed Cipro to staff accompanying Vice President Dick Cheney as he was secreted off to the safety of Camp David, and told them it was "a precaution," according to one person directly involved." - Washington Post (10/23/01) "Evidence obtained through Judicial Watch and confirmed by multiple press reports suggest that White House staff had been given doses of the powerful antibiotic Cipro at the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks, one month before anthrax was detected on Capitol Hill." - Judicial Watch "Oct. 4: Anthrax strikes a Florida man who is hospitalized according to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson making the announcement to reporters at the White House." - September11News.com (See also:  December 2002 - Controlled Demolition, Inc is demolishing the facility at Fort Detrick that made weapons-grade anthrax)   <![if !vml]><![endif]><![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - When Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister of Israel and elite special forces member for the IDF, was asked what the 9/11 attacks meant for relations between the United States and Israel, he replied, "It's very good."   "Israeli leaders, who have chafed at occasional American criticism of their measures against Palestinians, said the day's attacks would awaken the United States to the threat of global terrorism. Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, "It's very good." Then he edited himself: "Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy." He predicted that the attack would "strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror." - New York Times (09/12/01) [Reprinted at:  Dirty Harriet]   "Sayeret Matkal is the elite special forces unit of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF).  Is main roles are counter terror, deep reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. The unit was kept top-secret during its initial years. Fighters and commanders were selectively hand-picked, based on personal acquaintances and family members of existing members (two of Netanyahu's brothers also served in the unit, for example). Despite being a top-secret and relatively small army unit, former Sayeret Matkal veterans have a disproportionate influence on the army and public service. - Benjamin Netanyahu - unit team leader, later Israeli Prime Minister - Jonathan Netanyahu - unit commander, killed in Operation Thunderbolt (Entebbe, Uganda). Benjamin Netanyahu's older brother." - Wikipedia (See also:  9/11 - Workers at Israeli company get text warnings about attacks 2 hours prior; 9/11 - Elite Israeli military commando who understands Arabic allegedly shot on Flight 11; 9/11 - Israeli spies caught cheering while filming themselves with the WTC burning in the background; July 7, 2005 - Netanyahu was near the London blasts.) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Explosions rock the capital city of Kabul in Afghanistan in which The Northern Alliance claims responsibility and the U.S. denies involvement. 7:28:16 AM "Helicopter gunships belonging to opposition troops fired rockets in the vicinity of the Kabul airport early today, hours after the devastating terrorist attacks in the United States, according to Taliban soldiers and eyewitnesses. The United States quickly denied any involvement in the violence in Afghanistan, which has been shielding Osama bin Laden, a suspected terrorism mastermind linked by some US officials to yesterdayís attacks in New York and Washington. Kabul shuddered with the first explosions at around 2.30am. (10.30pm UK time Tuesday). They came in rapid succession, seconds apart. Smoke billowed skyward. An acrid smell of smoke lingered near the airport, where Taliban soldiers erected a barricade. Talibanís spokesman in southern Kandahar, its headquarters, said there was no attack. He said the explosions were the result of a fire at an ammunition dump in the northern suburb of Khair Khana and that the sound of aircraft were Taliban pilots moving fighter aircraft to safety. The Taliban operate helicopter gunships and fighter jets. However, Taliban soldiers stopped reporters going toward Khair Khana neighbourhood, saying there was no explosion. It was unclear from Muttmainís statement why it was necessary to move the aircraft to safety. In Washington, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the explosions reported in Kabul were not retaliatory attacks by the United States. ôôThe United States is not responsible,íí she said. Her comments were echoed by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a Pentagon briefing in Washington. ôôIíve seen those reports,íí he said of the Kabul explosions. ôôIn no way is the United States government connected to those explosions.íí - TCM Breaking News (09/12/01) 11:58:00 PM "The Northern Alliance have claimed responsibility for the attacks on Kabul, Afghanistan. They also said they will continue to attack the ruling Afghan Taliban." - TCM Breaking News (09/11/01) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - Taliban rulers condemn attacks on US and says Bin Laden didn't have the means to carry out such well-orchestrated attacks. 6:46:49 PM "Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers condemned the devastating terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Tuesday and rejected suggestions that Osama bin Laden could be behind them. "We never support terrorism. We too are targets of terrorism," Abdul Hai Muttmain, the Taliban's spokesman in the southern city of Kandahar, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. But Muttmain, who is the spokesman for the Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and one of the most senior Taliban officials, dismissed allegations that bin Laden could be behind the attacks in the United States. "Such a big conspiracy, to have infiltrated in such a major way is impossible for Osama," said Muttmain. He said bin Laden does not have the facilities to orchestrate such a major assault within the United States." - TCM Breaking News (09/11/01) 8:15:42 PM "Afghanistanís Taliban rulers have rejected claims that bin Laden was behind todayís attacks on New York and Washington. They say bin Laden did not have the means to carry out such well-orchestrated attacks." - TCM Breaking News (09/11/01) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 (6:15 p.m.) - Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge surveys the crater allegedly created by Flight 93 crashing into the ground from a National Guard helicopter. Day of Terror: Outside tiny Shanksville, a fourth deadly stroke "Yesterday, the priority of the FBI and state troopers was to protect the scene. Gov. Tom Ridge arrived about 6:15 p.m., flying over the crash scene in a National Guard helicopter before being briefed on the ground by state police." - Post-gazette.com (09/12/01) • 9/11 - A "knife-like weapon" are found on two different Delta planes and another weapon is found on an undisclosed plane in which officials think that these weapons may have been planted there by accomplices working in secure areas of airports making it look like an "inside job". "US officials are compiling what one called "growing" evidence that other hijackings may have been planned for September 11. Officials from both the government and the airline industry tell TIME Magazine that a knife-like weapon was found on each of two separate Delta Airlines aircraft later that day, although neither plane took off due to the nationwide grounding after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on hijacked United and American airlines planes. Government sources would not describe in detail the nature of the weapons found on the Delta flights last week, but one official disclosed that another weapon was discovered on at least on other aircraft, owned by a fourth airline. The government official refused to name that carrier. Investigators are not yet certain how these weapons came to be on board the aircraft. But they increasingly believe that the weapons may have been prepositioned by accomplices for use by others. As one US official told TIME, "These look like inside jobs." The new evidence raises the worrisome possibility that the hijackers may have had accomplices deep within the 'secure' areas of airports ó that may include the shops and restaurants in the terminal behind the metal detectors, or amongst the thousands of people who work in catering, fueling or cleaning aircraft; or anyone who might have access to the airplane before takeoff." - Time (09/22/01) • 9/11 - Egyptian Had Aircraft 'Pilot Radio' In Hotel Room Near WTC On 9/11 "An Egyptian man appeared in court in Manhattan last night charged with lying to investigators about a radio designed to communicate with airplane pilots found in a hotel room near the twin towers where he was staying on 11 September. Court papers said that Abdallah Higazy entered the US on 27 August on a student visa and checked into the Millennium Hilton Hotel next to the World Trade Centre. He was not due to leave the hotel until 25 September. His room was on the 51st floor and had a direct view of the towers. The complaint said that Mr Higazy had the radio hidden with other belongings in the small combination safe in the room. The type of radio involved, a transceiver, can be used for air-to- air and ground-to-air communications and is often used by pilots for talking to one another. All the guests at the Millennium were evacuated soon after the two planes crashed into the towers. The radio was found by hotel security staff some time later. They then informed the FBI. FBI agent Christopher Bruno said in the court papers that Mr Higazy returned to the hotel on 17 December to retrieve his things. It was then that he and other FBI agents intervened and questioned him. Agent Bruno said that when an agent showed the pilot radio to Mr Higazy, he "stated that the radio was not his; that he had never seen it before; that he did not know what it was; that he could not even guess what it was; and that it could not have been found in his room". Mr Higazy was held by the FBI as a material witness to the terrorist attack. But the authorities later decided to charge him with perjury, accusing him of lying about the radio. While he claimed to be ignorant about the radio, Mr Higazy told investigators that he had served in the Egyptian Air Corps and thus had some expertise in aviation communications." - Independent UK (01/12/02)  [Reprinted at:  Rense.com] <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - By the end of the day, the U.S. is saying that Osama bin Laden is behind the attacks. "One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were unspecified indications that Osama bin Laden's organization was responsible. But finally assessing responsibility was likely months if not years down the road, and in the meantime, there was no attempt to minimize the impact." - The Post (09/11/01) "The hunt for terrorists is under way. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and other lawmakers who have been briefed by intelligence officials told ABCNEWS that all signs point to the involvement of Osama bin Laden, who is already indicted on charges he organized the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa." - ABC (09/11/01) [Archived:  Wayback Machine] <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - President Bush's younger brother, Marvin Bush, was in NYC near Wall Street. "We later learned that Marvin had been in New York on a subway under Wall Street, on his way to a meeting.  The train came to a stop and they had no idea what had happened.  Eventually they were evacuated, single-file, onto a platform and then out of the subway.  They were told either to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge or walk uptown; but get out of there.  Marvin said smoke and debris were everywhere.  He walked 70 blocks back to his hotel, stopping in front of an electronics store to watch TV footage of what had happened.  Marvin told us the people of New York were very supportive, offering water and encouragement along the way.  Needless to say, we were pretty shook up when we learned how close Marvin was to the disaster, and grateful he was safe." - Reflections:  Life After the White House, by Barbara Bush - Amazon [Reprinted at:  WhatReallyHappened.com] "Marvin Pierce Bush - Born October 22, 1956, in Midland, Texas - Earned B.A., University of Virginia - Married Margaret Molster in 1981. They have two children, Marshall and Walker - Entered money management business and eventually co-founded Winston Partners Group, a money management fund firm, in McLean, Virginia. The firm manages $300 million in hedge funds and private equity investments for high-net-worth individuals and non-profits." - CNN "Marvin P. Bush Co-Founder and Managing Partner Mr. Bush manages Winston Partners' Hedge Fund Group. Prior to founding Winston Partners, Mr. Bush spent twelve years in the investment business with Moseley, Hallgarten, Estabrook and Weeden, Inc., Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc., and John Stewart Darrell & Company. While at Shearson, his focus was on evaluation, selection, and monitoring of asset management firms. Mr. Bush serves on the Board of Directors of Kerrco, Inc. Mr. Bush sits on the NCAA Leadership Advisory Board of Directors and is a member of the Advisory Board of the George Bush Presidential Library. He is member of the Advisory Board of HCC Insurance Holdings and the Board of the College Foundation for the University of Virginia. He is a past National Spokesman for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America and has served on the Board of Managers at the University of Virginia. Mr. Bush earned his B.A. from the University of Virginia." - Winston Partners "HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. - Board of Directors:  Marvin P. Bush" - HCC (See also:  September 11, 1997 - Stratesec, Inc. goes public; 9/11 - President Bush's cousin escaped death from the WTC thanks to a schedule change; February 1, 2003 - Bush-Linked Company Handled Security for the WTC, Dulles and United)   <![if !vml]><![endif]>• 9/11 - President Bush's cousin, Jim Pierce, escaped death from the WTC thanks to a "schedule change" the night before.   President's cousin escaped death thanks to schedule change "President Bush's cousin should have been in the World Trade Centre when it was attacked. Jim Pierce, managing director of AON Corporations, had arranged a business conference on the 105th floor of the South Tower where its New York offices were based. But his group was too large so they decided to move across the street to the Millennium Hotel." - Ananova (09/18/01) [Wayback Machine]   "I also learned later that my nephew Jim Pierce narrowly escaped injury or possible death. He was scheduled to attend a meeting on the 102nd floor of the South Tower, which was the second building hit. However, the night before, the meeting was moved to an adjacent building because the group had outgrown the conference room. Jim later learned that twelve people were in the room where he was supposed to be; eleven died." - Reflections: Life After the White House, by Barbara Bush - Amazon [Reprinted at:  WhatReallyHappened.com] (See also:  9/11 - President Bush's brother Marvin was in NYC) • 9/11 - A joint FBI/CIA anti-terrorist task force that specifically prepared for this type of disaster was on a training exercise on the opposite side of the country. "The attack was so unexpected that a joint FBI/CIA anti-terrorist task force that specifically prepared for this type of disaster was on a training exercise in Monterey, Calif. As of late Tuesday, with airports closed around the country, the task force still hadn't found a way to fly back to Washington." - USA Today (09/11/01) • 9/11 - Explosives Planted In Towers, N.M. Tech Expert Says "Televised images of the attacks on the World Trade Center suggest that explosives devices caused the collapse of both towers, a New Mexico Tech explosion expert said Tuesday. The collapse of the buildings appears "too methodical" to be a chance result of airplanes colliding with the structures, said Van Romero, vice president for research at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. "My opinion is, based on the videotapes, that after the airplanes hit the World Trade Center there were some explosive devices inside the buildings that caused the towers to collapse," Romero said. Romero is a former director of the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center at Tech, which studies explosive materials and the effects of explosions on buildings, aircraft and other structures. Romero said he based his opinion on video aired on national television broadcasts. Romero said the collapse of the structures resembled those of controlled implosions used to demolish old structures. "It would be difficult for something from the plane to trigger an event like that," Romero said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C. Romero said he and another Tech administrator were on a Washington-area subway when an airplane struck the Pentagon. He said he and Denny Peterson, vice president for administration and finance, were en route to an office building near the Pentagon to discuss defense-funded research programs at Tech. If explosions did cause the towers to collapse, the detonations could have been caused by a small amount of explosive, he said. "It could have been a relatively small amount of explosives placed in strategic points," Romero said. The explosives likely would have been put in more than two points in each of the towers, he said. The detonation of bombs within the towers is consistent with a common terrorist strategy, Romero said. "One of the things terrorist events are noted for is a diversionary attack and secondary device," Romero said. Attackers detonate an initial, diversionary explosion that attracts emergency personnel to the scene, then detonate a second explosion, he said. Romero said that if his scenario is correct, the diversionary attack would have been the collision of the planes into the towers. Tech President Dan Lopez said Tuesday that Tech had not been asked to take part in the investigation into the attacks. Tech often assists in forensic investigations into terrorist attacks, often by setting off similar explosions and studying the effects." - Albuquerque Journal (09/11/01) [Reprinted with:  WayBack Machine - Scroll down] (See also:  September 21, 2001 - N.M. Tech expert retracts his statement that explosives were planted in the WTC)   • 9/11 - By the end of the day, 21 aircraft throughout the U.S. at some point were under suspicion by NORAD of being hijacked. "NEADS' Sr. Airman Stacia Rountree, an identification technician, said, "We had three aircraft down and the possibility of others hijacked. We had to think outside the box," making up procedures on the fly. Before the day ended, 21 aircraft across the U.S. had been handled as "tracks of interest." - Aviation Week (06/03/02) • 9/11 - A Counter-terrorist expert commenting about the attacks:  "Not one of us in government or counter-terrorist experts outside government believed that anyone was capable of launching an attack with this degree of lethality and coordination." "In one horrible moment, the need for homeland defense has gone from being a theoretical risk to a grim reality," said Tony Cordesman, a military and Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Not one of us in government or counter-terrorist experts outside government believed that anyone was capable of launching an attack with this degree of lethality and coordination," Cordesman said." - USA Today (09/11/01) • 9/11 - Show business notables who cheated death on September 11 included:  action superstar Jackie Chan; creator of FOX TV's Family Guy Seth MacFarlane; and Real World New Orleans cast member Julie Stoffer. "Entertainment website Mr. Showbiz offered the skinny on a number of notables who cheated death on September 11, including Jackie Chan, who was excused from an early morning film shoot on the roof of the World Trade Center due to a late script; Seth MacFarlane, creator of FOX TV's Family Guy, who missed the doomed American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston due to a typo on his itinerary; and Real World New Orleans cast member Julie Stoffer, who ditched out of the Boston-to-L.A. flight at the last minute after a fight with her boyfriend. Congrats to all of these lucky, lucky people." - TheStranger.com (09/18/01) <![if !vml]><![endif]>• DEXPAN - Non-Explosive Demolition Agent.  For Controlled Demolition, Building Remodeling, Reinforced Concrete Cutting, Rock Breaking, Granite and Marble Quarrying, Mining, ExcavatingÃñ >> Amazing Expansive Capability to break Reinforced Concrete, Rock, Granite, Marble or any material you are working with. >> Easy to use, just mix with water then fill into holes. >> Non-Explosive, much safer than explosives, does the job with NO noise, NO vibration, NO flying rocks, NO toxic gases. >> Works Efficient and Cost Effective, no Special License, Training and Equipment needed. >> Earth friendly product, MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) is available. - Archer Company USA • 9/11 - Symbolism phenomenon with the number "11" and the date of the attacks. Date of the attack: 9/11 = 9 + 1 + 1 = 11. Trade Towers resembled ôElevení. The World Trade Center was sold 11 weeks before the attack. 110 (11) floors two each trade tower AA (American Airlines) is numerically 11  American Airlines Flight 11, carrying 81 passengers and 11  September 11th is the 254th day of the year: 2 + 5 + 4 = 11. After September 11th there are 111 days left to the end of the year. Twin Towers - standing side by side, looks like the number 11. The first plane to hit the towers was Flight 11. State of New York - The 11th State added to the Union. New York was the 11th state to endorse the Constitution. New York City - 11 Letters. The Pentagon - 11 Letters Afghanistan - 11 Letters. Flight 11 -  81 on board - 8 + 1 = 9 Flight 175 - 65 on board - 6 + 5 = 11 Flight 93 - 63 on board -  6 + 3 = 9 - Anomalous Reality - See also:  Number 11 Mysteriously Dominates the Events of the September 11 - September11News.com • 9/11 - Alleged warning codes of 9/11 related names typed out using Microsoft Wingding fonts. "Shortly after the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon urban legends and hoaxes sprang to life via the Internet. One such myth was a presumed warning or code in Wing Ding and Web Ding fonts when names related to 9-11 were typed out. 'Q33NY' and 'Q11NY' was said to have been an 'arrival code' or internal flight number of the two airliners, respectively, that was crashed into the World Trade Center. Wingdings 1:  Q33NY = Q33NY Wingdings 1:  Q11NY = Q11NY The problem is, this 'arrival code' does not correspond to either of the identifications of the ill-fated flights. The actual flight numbers of the airplanes, AA011 (American Airlines 11) and UAL175 (United Airlines 175), don't correspond to 'Q33NY.' The FAA registration numbers of the aircraft aren't 'Q33NY' either, they were: N334AA (American Airlines flight 11) N612UA (United Airlines flight 175) N644AA (American Airlines flight 77) N591UA (United Airlines flight 93) This urban legend was soon exposed as a hoax. However, there still remains many other uncanny coincidences between wing dings and web dings and their corresponding words. For example, Webdings:  NYC = NYC Wingdings:  NYC = NYC Wingdings:  OSAMA BIN LADEN = OSAMA BIN LADEN Wingdings:  NEW YORK = NEW YORK - Anomalous Reality Pre 2001 • 2001 • 9/11 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006