THE BIG BAMBOOZLE
911 & THE 'WAR' ON TERROR
BY PHILIP MARSHALL
911 & THE 'WAR' ON TERROR
BY PHILIP MARSHALL
26
Not A Drill, This Is The Real World
At 8:34 a.m., Atta again thought he was talking to the passengers, but instead broadcast to
Boston Center. “Nobody move please. We are going back to the airport. Nobody make any stupid
moves.” At the same time, Boston Center was making its first contact with the United States military
with the sole purpose of launching the F-15's at Otis Air Force base in Falmouth, Massachusetts, on
Cape Cod, 154 miles northeast of Manhattan. The jets were called to battle stations after Boston
Center made it clear that this was no drill, this was real world. [1]
The call went from Boston Center to the military on-duty battle commander for NORAD’s
Northeast region, Colonel Robert Marr at Rome, New York. Colonel Marr immediately called Otis to
order battle stations for the F-15's. Colonel Marr then called General Larry K. Arnold, at NORAD’s
Continental Region**, headquartered at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, to get authority to
scramble the F-15's. General Arnold gave the go-ahead and said he’d work on getting the shoot-down
authorization. He testified to the 9/11 Commission that he told Marr, “Go ahead and scramble them,
we’ll get the authorities later.” [2]
After the first airplane hit the north tower, evidence indicates that U.S. military commanders
made the correct assessment by quickly labeling hijacked commercial airliners as “hostile.” Fighter
jets at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod were immediately scrambled after the military was notified.
The pilots and their F-15's were airborne within 20 minutes of A.T.C notification. [3]
The use of airliners as weapons may have come as a shock to most Americans, but the scenario
had been practiced by the U.S. military on several occasions. And if there is one communication
system that is superior to the airline industry’s, it is that of the command chain within the U.S. military
that leads directly to the Commander-in-Chief**.
27
American Heroes
At 8:38 a.m., Betty Ong read off the seat numbers of the hijackers. She reported that they were
all Middle Eastern, that one spoke no English and one spoke excellent English. They were in the
cockpit, she said, and she didn’t know how they got in there.
Remarkably, at 8:39 a.m., UA175, which had yet to be hijacked, crossed paths with AA11 just
west of the Connecticut-New York border. Atta was at the controls of AA11 and the UA pilots were
informed of the crossing traffic and that ATC wasn’t sure of his intentions. The United pilots reported
seeing the traffic passing below them, without realizing that the plane was on a course for the north
tower or they themselves were minutes from their own deaths.
At 8:41, in Fort Worth, American Airlines Operations was well aware that American 11 had
been declared a hijacking, that the plane was heading for New York City and that it was descending.
There were numerous clear channels of excellent information being delivered. Communication is not
a problem in the aviation world.
At 8:44 Amy Sweeney stayed on the air phone to Forth Worth. “Something is wrong … We are
in a rapid descent … We are all over the place … We are flying low … I see water … I see buildings
… We are flying very, very low … We are flying way too low!”
At 8:46, Amy Sweeney’s last words:
“Oh my GOD, we are way too low.”
At 8:46, American 11 slammed into the north tower. America’s hell had begun. The unsuspecting
people in the World Trade Center would join Betty Ong, Amy Sweeney and the rest of the AA11
passengers and crew among the first of the almost 3,000 massacred that morning.
28
Condi Rice Is Such A Dingbat
By 8:50 a.m., every network was broadcasting a live shot of the fire at the north tower of the
World Trade Center. Among the millions of viewers was the President of the United States, watching
from the presidential limousine, which was equipped with a direct line to every agency in
Washington. Surely the president could see the dense smoke pouring from all sides of the nation’s
tallest building and a gaping hole that covered three stories of the building. Windows had blown out
of all sides of the north tower as billowing black clouds rose into the brilliant blue sky.
Air Force F-15's first appeared over Cape Cod on the radar recordings at 8:53 a.m.
Unfortunately, American 11 had already slammed the north tower. Meanwhile, United 175 was in the
process of another murderous takeover at 31,000 feet over New Jersey. The Otis F-15's would not
reach Manhattan in time.
By 8:55, there had been a flurry of communications through multiple systems: from hijacked
American 11 to North Carolina to Fort Worth, from Boston A.T.C to American Operations in Fort
Worth, from Fort Worth to Washington and Boston, from Boston A.T.C to NORAD in Rome, New York
to FAA Headquarters in Washington to Otis on Cape Cod to Washington to Florida and back to
Washington. A separate call was made from Washington to Florida; this one came from the National
Security Adviser** to the presidential limo, which was in Sarasota.
FAA Headquarters in Washington had been fully aware since 8:34 through multiple channels of
communication that American 11, a Boeing 767 out of Logan, had been hijacked. Calls to the National
Security Adviser** came from the official avenue of information at the FAA. The FAA call to the
White House was solely because an airliner had been hijacked.
As described in The Commission, a stonewall was set up at the White House** to avoid any
explanation of the incompetent military response on 9/11. There were plenty of points toward a scary
super-terrorist that was lurking behind a dark cloud of sketchy new threats while nearly three years
would pass before Condoleezza Rice**, the National Security Adviser on 9/11, would finally testify
before the 9/11 Commission in 2004.
Dr. Rice testified that at 8:55, when she telephoned the President, after the Air Force had
scrambled fighters and the World Trade Center was ablaze, she had informed the President that “a
twin engine plane had crashed into the north tower” and “that’s all we know.” But, as we have seen,
there was no mystery – among dozens at the FAA and in the federal communications loop – as to what
had happened: American Airlines Flight 11, a heavy Boeing 767, had been hijacked and purposely
crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. By dodging questions we are left with one
innocent explanation, that she simply forgot to tell the president that that twin engine airplane burning
in the W.T.C was American 11 and forgot to tell him that fighters had scrambled from Otis to chase it
down. Oops, I am so not remembering exactly what I told him. Is it time for lunch yet?
29
Just Give Me A Moment
General Larry K. Arnold was on duty on September 11, 2001, entrusted with scrambling Air
Force fighter jets worldwide from the NORAD command center in Florida. He testified before the
9/11 Commission that after he launched the Otis F-15's he immediately began trying to reach the
President. He had a direct line to the presidential limousine, but somehow never got through, a
catastrophic failure in the world of military communications. Luckily, the president’s national security adviser** was in her office at the White House when the general called. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld** was already at his office in the Pentagon. Phones were ringing all over Washington.
Meanwhile, two F-15's were shooting south from Otis, but would be too late to stop either AA11
or UA175. The hijackers’ tactical plan had already delivered a stunning defeat to the United States
military.
They were far from done.
After an on time departure at 8:19 from Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., American 77 had
jetted west, directly away from the Pentagon. Every minute, every second was critical in beating the
USAF fighters to the targets. From the perspective of the hijackers, the sooner they could turn the
plane back east, the better. The race was on.
The pilot/hijacker, Hani Hanjour, one of three we followed earlier in San Diego and his four
Saudi muscle hijackers would fail to initiate the cockpit attack to match Atta’s (on American 11)
performance at just 15 minutes after takeoff. The tactical plan for near-simultaneous hits needed the
Boeing 757 turning back east by 8:44 and into the west wall of the Pentagon no later than 9:15. But
each minute heading west after 8:40 would double the time required on the return. This would foil the
plan for near simultaneous hits on the targets and would surely expose the plane to U.S. fighter jet
interception.
At 8:33, AA77 had leveled off at an initial cruise altitude of 29,000 just 105 miles west of the
Pentagon, still within an acceptable takeover window, and began cruising at eight miles per minute
away from the target. At 8:44, two minutes before American 11 slammed the north tower and just as
United 93 took off from Newark, Washington Center (Air Traffic Control) handed American 77 off to
the next controlled airspace to the west under the watch of Indianapolis Center. If he had turned
around then, the impact on the Pentagon would have been somewhere close to 9:05.
But that’s not what happened.
After a few routine exchanges with Indy Center, the flight was cleared for its flight plan altitude
of 35,000 feet while the distance from Washington began to click up swiftly to 200, 230, 250 miles to
the west. In the same minute that American 11 slammed the north tower, the cockpit door was opened
on American 77, but the flight was 250 miles west of the Pentagon and still heading west.
By the time Saudi Hani Hanjour was in the captain’s seat, he was 264 miles west of his target.
Surely, this would be too far away, considering that fighters were based at Andrews AFB, and that a
lethal missile defense system and sweeping radars protect Washington airspace. Surely, there would
be a swift response to an unidentified target flying at 500 miles per hour for over 35 minutes straight
for the nation’s capital while the country was under an air attack. Right? Isn’t this exactly why we
have agreed to pay for the world’s top military protection?
At 8:56, “American 77, Indy.”
At 8:56:32, “American 77, Indy.”
At 8:56:46, “American 77, Indy?”
At 8:56:53, “American 77, Indy, radio check, how do you read?”
At 8:55, 32 minutes after Boston Center had alerted the military on its hijacked 767, National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice** was on the phone with the President**, who was in the limo
outside an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida. He was far from New York, but had seen the live
pictures that producers at ABC and CNN had already aired of the major fire burning within the north
tower. It took three minutes from impact until the pictures showed up on television screens around the
world and only that long for network producers to surmise that this was indeed a major tragedy. The
caption on the screen read: “Disaster at the World Trade Center.”
Surely, the national emergency channels that run straight through the National Security Adviser**
and the Department of Defense** to the Commander-in-Chief** could match the TV networks’ time of
three minutes. Flight attendants Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney had both been successful in being
patched from a hijacked airliner, through a customer service agent in North Carolina, to American
Airlines operations in Texas within seven minutes of the first sign of trouble.
As for the tactical planners, undoubtedly they were holding their breath, waiting for results. The
next ten minutes needed to produce reports of three more impacts. One down, three to go. Soon the
new world, the Post-9/11 World, would be created.
The plan at the moment was for Marwan al-Shehhi on United 175 to be in a screaming dive
toward Manhattan before leveling out and crashing into the south tower. He would not disappoint
them. The plan was also to have Ziad Jarrah bearing down on the Capitol dome and the all-Saudi
crew diving at the west wall of the Pentagon.
The 9/11 Commission would later attempt to learn why the entire system of defense had failed,
from CIA** to FBI** to Air Force** to the Administration** to airline security. It was a total,
catastrophic defeat of American nation security, so, naturally, they asked the National Security Adviser** for insight. After much resistance and painful negotiation between the 9/11 Commission
and White House counselor Alberto Gonzales**, Rice** was finally placed under oath in testimony.April 8, 2004
If the matter had been left to Alberto Gonzales**, Dick Cheney** and the President**, they
would have been happy if everyone had just decided to forget the un-American idea of investigating
the greatest failure of American defense** and intelligence** in history. Trust them! The
administration** would look into it and tell us, through the White House press secretary**, exactly
what had happened and who was responsible.
Philip Shenon, a New York Times reporter who was covering the 9/11 investigations, wrote an
account of the stonewalling that transpired between the Bush-Cheney White House** and the 9/11
Commission. Shenon wrote that Alberto Gonzales** had outfoxed the commissioners by getting them
to agree that Rice** would testify once and only once for a total of three hours. In hindsight, the
commission needed something closer to three full days. Again, we see that those being investigated
were setting the ground rules for the investigation. The commissioners later wrote that her tactic was
obviously to “run out the clock” until the negotiated time was gone. A simple question would be
asked and Dr. Rice** would ramble on unrelated topics; and she began her testimony by reading a
ten-page, single-spaced statement that merely repeated what had been said before. [1]
Well into the stalling, Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste tried to stop the nonsense during the
subject of the no less than forty pre-attack warnings that had been issued directly to George W.
Bush** over the four months before the attack.
His specific line of questioning pertained to the August 6, 2001, presidential daily briefing
(P.D.B) entitled “Bin Laden Poised to Strike inside the United States” prepared by the CIA**. “If you
could please answer the question!”
Rice: “Well, first …”
Ben-Veniste: “Because I have limited time …”
Rice: “I understand, commissioner, but it’s important … ”
Ben-Veniste: “Did you tell the president?”
Rice: “It’s important that I also address … it’s also important, commissioner, that I address the
other issues that you have raised … so I will do it quickly, but if you’ll just give me a moment … ”
Ben-Veniste: “My only question is whether you told the president …”
Rice: “I understand, commissioner, but I will … if you will just give me moment, I will address
fully the question that you’ve asked …”
This was followed by a two-minute repeat of old facts. When White House-friendly
Republicans began asking questions, she would be allowed to ramble on without resistance. [2]
Let’s see, Mr. Bush had seen the W.T.C ablaze and he’s spoken with his National Security Adviser who had information from the FAA who knew that a hijacked 767 was now burning in the
nation’s tallest building and knew that USAF fighters had been scrambled. These actions are
consistent with him waiting for confirmation that the attack was over. He didn’t get that confirmation;instead he got an update that only one of the four had reached it’s target. This could not have been
good news.
While the N.Y.F.D donned oxygen tanks and masks and began climbing those 80 stories of
concrete stairs at 8:59, the President** closed his call with Dr. Rice**. Instead of a conference call
with Rumsfeld** at the Defense Department, he opted to walk into a second-grade classroom as if a
Boeing 767 wasn’t burning within a hell inside the World Trade Center. In hindsight, he was stalling.
It’s another one of those “hard to fathom” situations that checker this entire plot.
30
Wild West Show
Although the president of the United States** was now sitting in a second-grade classroom in
Sarasota, he held the key to the missiles beneath the wings of the F-15's that had been scrambled from
Otis. A 10-minute video shot from the back of the classroom captures the actions of America’s
Commander-in-Chief** in the nation’s most critical moments, just as the raiders were sweating the
outcome of their brilliant tactical planning. While UA175, UA93 and AA77 were attempting to defeat
the U.S. military, the Commander-in-Chief** strolled nonchalantly into the classroom.
After his “briefing” of the towering inferno at the World Trade Center, George W. Bush
prioritized a demonstration that American second-graders could actually read. To make certain, the
second-grade teacher had practiced nonstop for a week the same lesson over and over, so the
president could see, with his own eyes, that seven-and eight-year-old African-American students
could read and pronounce words. The president had flown in an entourage of the Secretary of
Education, the Lieutenant Governor of Florida, advisers Karl Rove**, Ari Fleischer** and Chief of
Staff Andrew Card** to bear witness to this event.
The seven-year-old's would probably have preferred a Wild West show or perhaps a puppet
show, but may have been optimistic when the star of this show entered the room with a west Texas
drawl, “Goo Moarnin!” Maybe it was going to be a Wild West show after all.
Oblivious to the CNN live shot he had just seen over the caption “Disaster at the World Trade
Center,” George Walker Bush introduced the tall black man with a suit as the Secretary of Education
and another figure within the flashes of pictures as the Lieutenant of something and the teacher sure
seemed uptight today as the seven-year-old's sat in their new clothes and at attention, ready to
perform. It was very clear that they must pronounce everything and a mistake might bring the end of
the world.
“Great to meet everybody,” Bush forced a smile. “I’m real excited to be here. Good to meet you
all.” He addressed the students, “I met your principal … Thank you for practicing … Really
important.”
Really important?
The president took control and asked the teacher to sit down and begin the demonstration. From
the very beginning of this classroom appearance, the president smiles briefly and nods and even
laughs aloud a few times, but there are cycles of fleeting, nervous facial expressions with eyes that
seem hollow and cold, before he returns to the forced smile and rigid posture. Understandable: He’s
just seen a terrifying scene of an airliner burning inside the W.T.C. That’s one consideration.
Another consideration is that he’s sweating out the riskiest political move in American history
and if his involvement is exposed by a failure to execute the Saudi tactical plan, an entirely different
type of execution would take place. His.
Under that scenario, we might expect a little fidgeting.
31
Positive Identification
At 8:37 a.m., United 175, a 300,000 pound Boeing 767 had just reached its cruise altitude after
departing Boston Logan. Flight planned to Los Angeles, the wide body held 40 tons of fuel or 12,000
gallons. Lets do some math: Considering that a Tomahawk missile weighs just 2,500 pounds total, a
300,000 pound 767 would be the world’s largest conventional missile—the equivalent of over 100
Tomahawks. [1]
“United 175, Boston.”
“United 175, go ahead, sir.”
“Roger, do you have traffic, uh, look at your twelve to one o’clock about ten miles southbound,
see if you can see an American 767 out there, please.”
“Roger, we have him, looks about 29 to 28 thousand.” This sighting provided positive
identification to A.T.C that the target they were following was indeed American 11.
“Okay, thank you. United 175, turn thirty degrees right, I want to keep you away from this
traffic.”
“Thirty degrees to the right, United 175 heavy.”
“Heavy” is added to all flight numbers of airplanes that weigh more than 250,000 pounds. This
is to alert pilots and controllers of an increased wake turbulence that a heavy airplane produces,
much like the wake of a large ship on the water.
This exchange also provided confirmation to the FAA that a hijacked American Airlines Boeing
767 holding 12,000 gallons of fuel was heading straight for Manhattan. Ironically, the United 175
pilots were providing critical intelligence about a situation that would lead to their own murders in
just fifteen more minutes.
At 8:38, while Betty Ong read off the seat numbers of the American 11 hijackers, United 175
cruised in the bliss of one of those glorious weather days when visibility allows a view from Central
Park to Philadelphia. This was about the time when the flight attendants would be bringing up the
crew meals. Captain Vic Saracini was probably getting anyone’s final view of one of the most
striking high-altitude landmarks on Earth, the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan, down to his left. He
couldn’t know that this very airplane would be inside the south tower in just 22 minutes.
At 8:39, “United 175, cleared direct Sparta … and contact New York Center on 127.17.
At 8:40, “Good morning New York Center, United 175 heavy at three one oh.” Three one oh is
31,000 feet.
At 8:41, in Fort Worth, American Airlines Operations was well aware that American 11 had
been declared a hijacking, that the plane was heading for New York City and that it was descending.
There were numerous clear channels of excellent information being delivered.
At 8:41, “New York, United 175 heavy.”
“One seventy five, go ahead.”
“Yeah, we figured to wait to go to you, center … we heard a suspicious transmission on our
departure out of Boston, sounded like someone keyed the mike and said uhh, everybody stay in your
seats.”
“Okay, I’ll pass that along over here.”
What the pilots couldn’t know was that, at that moment, Amy Sweeney was giving a play by play
account as American 11 rocketed into the north tower.
At 8:51:42, the New York Center controller saw a change in the transponder code of United 175.
“United 175, recycle your transponder, squawk code one four seven zero.”
At 8:51:52, “United 175, New York.”
At 8:52:09, “United 175, do you read New York?”
At 8:52:20, “United, United 175, do you read New York?”
At 8:53:52, “United 175, New York?”
At 8:54:33, “United 175, do you read New York?”
Meanwhile, at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, a young African American
teacher was all business. We can suppose that she felt the entire weight of the world on her
shoulders with the President of the United States watching her. A flying spitball wasn’t completely out
of the realm of possibility and she hadn’t slept well, restless with thoughts of all that could easily go
wrong with these energetic 7-year-old's. The class clown remained in her peripheral vision as her
hands trembled.
The whirring of the cameras was only part of this abnormal day, September 11, 2001. She
prayed that the children were going to perform in this heavy environment. “Now read this word from
the beginning … Get ready …” She pointed to the poster with a list of words and … “At.” The
children sang in unison.
“Yes! At.” She moved to the next word on the list that was mounted on the easel. “Read this
word, the fast way.” The emphasis was on ‘fast’.
“Ape!” They all responded perfectly, just as practiced. It was going very well
“Yes, ape.”
“Get ready to read all the words on this page without making a mistake …”
The president seemed to find a comfortable spot to focus as he stared down to the floor between
the students and the teacher’s chair, not smiling and not following along before catching himself and
snapping a slight smile. The teacher was in the zone. “Read this word the fast way,” she commanded.
“Cat!”
“Yes, cat … Get ready …”
“Can!”
“Yes, can … Get ready …”
The president seemed preoccupied. Fighters had been scrambled, but they were as useless as
spitballs without shoot-down authority. The teacher, to his left, barked out another order. “Get ready
to read these words the fast way …” She pointed with a pencil to the poster board. “Get ready …”
“Cane!”
“Yes, cane …”
Bush seemed to perk up and smiled over the students with a mouth smile.
The teacher: “Boys and girls, you’re going to read these words again…”
The president’s smile disappeared. He briefly looked to the students with a head nod.
“Remember,” said the teacher, “what you say when there’s an ‘e’ at the end of the word.” She
glanced again over to the president. But he clearly wasn’t paying much attention. “Get ready …”
“Can!”
“Yes, can … Get ready …”
The president stared back to the same spot on the floor without a smile. His posture had hardly
changed since he took the swivel chair next to the teacher. He nodded his head.
next
United 175
