One must wonder why the U.S. military failed to intercept any of the hijacked planes on 9/11. This is one of the big questions about 9/11. How this has been answered, and the fact that the answer has changed over time, shows a lot about the government’s actions on 9/11.
This subject is covered in depth and with excellent clarity by Dr. David Ray Griffin, PhD, in his books The New Pearl Harbor and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. It says here that nobody shows the flaws in the official story with the clarity, completeness, and precision of Dr. Griffin.
The military had one version of the events, put forth by the Generals, over the course of September 11-14. As people studied this version of when the military found out about each plane being hijacked, it appeared that the military would have had time to intercept the hijacked planes. The first plane was known to be hijacked at 8:24 a.m. Something (probably not a Boeing, see Pentagon) crashed into the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m. That’s an hour and 14 minutes when our air defense was totally absent, in an obvious national emergency which became even more obvious and urgent at 8:46 a.m. when the first plane hit.
Then after 2 ½ years the 9/11 Commission published its final report. This report created a third timeline which contradicted both of the earlier ones. It included the concept of a mystery plane, that the military was mistakenly chasing flight 11 out over the Atlantic Ocean because they didn’t know that it had already crashed into the World Trade Center. All of that was new; the military had never claimed it.
To put this in context one must understand that the 9/11 Commission was very sure that the generals were lying to them. See the section on the 9/11 Commission. This was reported by the Washington Post in 2006. The 9/11 Commission was so fed up with the military’s lies that they even considered referring the matter to the Justice Department for an investigation.
It is standard operating procedure for the U.S. military to intercept any plane that is suspected, not necessarily known, to be hijacked, as soon as possible. This apparently happened 67 times or so in 2001 prior to 9/11. A plane is assumed to be hijacked if it does any of the following: loses radio contact with air traffic controllers, turns off its transponder, or goes significantly off course. It takes the military only a few minutes to intercept a plane, depending of course on where it is, but Andrews Air Force Base is nearby and planes stationed there could have been sent up to intercept the hijacked commercial flights.
In testimony before the 9/11 Commission, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta described what he witnessed in the Presidential Emergency Operating Center right before the Pentagon was hit. This video is highly revealing as it fits with the idea that the military intentionally did nothing, rather than intercept the hijacked planes. Mineta described a young man who came into the room several times to notify Cheney that the plane was 50 miles out, then 30 miles out, then 10 miles out. He asked the Vice President, “Does the order still stand?” Cheney replied, “Of course the order still stands. Have you heard anything to the contrary?” Considering that the aircraft that hit the Pentagon was not intercepted, it seems reasonable to interpret this order as being an order to “stand down”, that is to do nothing, to not intercept it. Watch the video and judge for yourself.
Although youTube has taken it down there used to be a video, in the summer of 2009, that showed Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton criticizing the 9/11 Commission report and the NORAD claims about when it found out the various flights were hijacked. He used very strong words, such as “lies”, and “not true”, and unbelievable negligence. This may be available elsewhere. youTube claimed that there were multiple 3rd party claims of copyright infringement. Perhaps CSPAN or the networks have it. We don’t know.
Shortly after this Sen. Dayton closed his Washington, D.C. office, sent his entire staff home, said he would not seek re-election to the Senate and told his constituents that it was not safe for them to come to Washington. It’s very chilling. Why? Could there be a connection between what he did in this video to expose the national security state and the truth about 9/11 and his sudden change of heart about life in the Senate? It’s possible that after making these comments the national security state, (aka the Secret Government) which was responsible for 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq applied some persuasion to Sen. Dayton. Persuasion in the form of a deadly threat to him, his family, and other loved ones. That is a guess, pure speculation. But it is consistent with the behavior of others in Congress who have dared to question the national security state over 9/11 and these wars (see also Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Rep. Peter DeFazio, and New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli).
Built into the military’s excuse / explanation for their inaction on 9/11 is the assumption that the military has absolutely no idea what’s going on in U.S. airspace until and unless the FAA specifically notifies them. Even around the White House and the Pentagon. Is this even plausible? The FAA works around the clock every day of the year handling takeoff, flight, and landing of literally tens of thousands of commercial airline flights. All of America’s air travel. They clearly have a job to do. The US military, including the air force, has a budget of hundreds of billions of dollars, the most sophisticated high technology equipment in the world, highly trained pilots, and years of experience. Why would the U.S. Air Force NOT have its own radar system? Don’t they have radar. You have to wonder.
In connection with this, Laura Brown of the FAA listened to “non-forthcoming testimony” by FAA higher ups before the 9/11 Commission and then later sent out an email to the media explaining that within minutes of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center (which occurred at 8:46 a.m.) the FAA set up a phone bridge (like a conference call) with FAA headquarters and the military. On the phone bridge FAA provided continuous real time (contemporary) information on the status of all the flights known to be hijacked.
Interestingly, as Dr. Griffin describes in his books, the military took the step of setting up their own conference call. This may have been a diversion; a plan arranged in advance which could be used to explain why they were not on the FAA initiated conference call. It’s one more area of 9/11 that should have been investigated by wasn’t.
