by Home home
the headquarters, and they (the military
brass) were always there. They were
always on the net, and were always
listening in with everybody else..... from my
perspective there is no doubt in my mind
that the FAA security organization knew
what to do. There is no doubt in my mind
that the air traffic organization knew what
to do. They are the two key players in that
type of scenario.... this is very, very
important, in response to your question....
the NMCC was called. They were added to
this open communication net. In my 30
years of history, there was always
somebody listening to that net..... I truly do
not mean this to be defensive, but it is a fact
-- there were military people on duty at the
FAA Command Center on the morning of
9/11, as Mr. Sliney said. They were
participating in what was going on. There
were military people in the FAA's Air Traffic
Organization in a situation room. They were
participating in what was going on.”
This was another testimony which the Commission felt was
‘incorrect.’ Some have been quick to suggest that Belger was
defending himself and his own service with his testimony.
'Maybe so' say the conspiracists, but he is not alone in
attesting to a clear readiness to respond that fateful
morning.
The Commission reported that Boston ATCs were aware of
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the tell-tale signs of the possible hijacking of Flight 11 at
08.14. It tells us that the ATC “....reached out to the pilot on
the emergency frequency. Though there was no response, he
kept trying to contact the aircraft.”
At this point the ATC's would start instigating alert
protocols. They wouldn't assume it was a hijacking but
would definitely consider it a possibility. We also learn that
AA Flight 11 turned its transponder off at 08.21 (though
others placed this a minute earlier). This would have
necessitated full implementation of security safeguards.
Lt. Col. Dawne Deskins of the Air National Guard confirmed
the military had received hijacking information by 08:30.
Even this was longer than procedure recommended. Yet the
Commission insisted that NORAD weren't notified until
08.37. There is no evidence offered that accounts for this 23
minute delay between identification and alert. Two
potentially key testimonies could have perhaps shed some
light upon this otherwise inexplicable breakdown. However,
they raise more concerns than they resolve.
Former corporate lawyer Benedict Sliney was the Command
Center National Operations Manager (CCNOM) on 9/11.
Sliney was reportedly offered the position a second time by
Jack Kies (FAA Tactical Operations Manager,) having
previously declined it 6 months earlier.[43]
Before retraining as a lawyer, Sliney had accrued extensive
experience as an ATC, changing career direction in the 90s.
While an attorney, Sliney had represented numerous
financial investment firms, including Merrill Lynch in 2000.
Shortly after his successful representation of M.L he gave up
his lucrative legal career to return to Air Traffic Control,
choosing, despite Kies offer of the Command Center post, to
work at a less senior level for the first few months.
On 9/11 Sliney was outranked by others (notably Linda
Schuessler and John White) but their Commission
testimonies clearly placed the lead operational management
responsibility on Sliney's shoulders. Surprising then, say the
conspiracists, that Sliney barely warrants a mention in the
official report. Especially given that 9/11 was, coincidentally,
his very first day in the role of CCNOM.
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Perhaps, they contend, this was because Sliney said he was
notified of a hijack in progress sometime between 08.15 and
08.20. He could only have received this via front desk ATCs.
Therefore, they did discharge their responsibilities and
followed alert procedures, without the need of a ‘7500
squawk.’ Or maybe it was because Sliney didn't appear to
know who the FAA Hijack Coordinator was, or where to find
them. It was his first day on the job after all.
As it turned out, the FAA headquarters hijack coordinator
was Lt. Gen. Michael A. Canavan. A former Special Forces
soldier, Canavan had risen through the ranks to a senior
command posts within JSOC (Joint Special Operations
Command.) The Hijack Coordinator role was the key link
between the FAA and the military. Canavan was appointed
as Associate Administrator for Civil Aviation Security by FAA
Administrator Jane Garvey, only 9 months before 9/11.
Garvey was present in FAA headquarters on 9/11.
The 9/11 Commission made scant mention of the
importance of the Hijack Coordinator. Neither did it
reference the fact that Canavan held that vital position,
acknowledging instead only his JSOC role. So when Canavan
stated that he was in Puerto Rico and had missed
“everything that happened,” it seems odd that the
Commission didn't pursue him more vigorously. Nor try to
identify who was supposed to be the Hijack Coordinator that
morning.
Coincidentally, Canavan was not the only key senior figure
absent that day. Hugh Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, the highest ranking military official, was also absent
from his office on the morning of 9/11. As was the acting
Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff (in Shelton's absence)
Richard Myers, who continued to attend his scheduled
meeting even after being informed the second tower had
been hit.[44]
The most significant, in a string of high ranking absentees,
was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. According to the
stated procedure, he had the ultimate responsibility for
authorising a military response. Unfortunately no one could
get hold of him.[45]
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A Dangerous Ideology
Seeing as the President was reading poems to school
children in Florida at the time (remaining with the children
for more than 30 minutes after it was known the U.S. was
under an attack and that he could well have been a target
himself,) Rumsfeld, rather than Vice President Cheney, was
the effective military Commander in Chief.
The protocol for the Secretary of Defense to assume full
command of any military response, if the U.S. was under
attack, had been in place since 1997. This agreement was
amended, with Rumsfeld's signed approval, in June 2001.
Rumsfeld certainly knew what his responsibilities were. He
began the day with an 08.00 meeting with members of
Congress at the Pentagon. Coincidentally, as recounted by
Rumsfeld himself, his comments at that meeting were
spookily portentous:[45]
“.....sometime in the next two, four, six,
eight,
ten, twelve months there would be an
event that would occur in the world that
would be sufficiently shocking that it would
remind people again how important it is to
have a strong healthy defence department
that contributes to -- that underpins peace
and stability in our world.”
Rumsfeld stated that someone informed him of the 08.46
strike on the WTC by handing him a note. This was
reportedly sent from his special assistant Larry Di Rita.
Rather than consider any possible need to instigate
emergency protocols, Rumsfeld simply adjourned the
meeting and returned to his office prior to his normal,
scheduled CIA briefing.
The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Torie
Clarke, said that she and Larry Di Rita watched the second
WTC strike live on TV at 09.03. They knew immediately that
the U.S. was under attack and started the emergency
procedures. Just down the hall from Rumsfeld's office, the
Pentagon’s Executive Support Center (ESC) kicked into gear
and Clarke and Di Rita headed to Rumsfeld's office with
haste.
Having informed Rumsfeld they expected him to immediately
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A Dangerous Ideology
head to either to the ESC or the next door National Military
Command Center (NMCC) to coordinate the response.
However, he apparently decided to “make a few phone calls”
from his office and told them he planned to attend his
scheduled CIA briefing instead.
According to his Pentagon police bodyguard, Aubrey Davis,
Rumsfeld remained in his office until the Pentagon was hit
by Flight 77. Rumsfeld's testimony given to the 9/11
Commission doesn't clarify why he remained isolated in his
office, on the other side of the building, instead of assuming
his duties. What Rumsfeld did next was also contrary to the
procedure he had already been ignoring for more than an
hour. Rather than head to the NMCC, in spite of
protestations from Davis and others, Rumsfeld headed off to
the crash scene, in silence, without telling anyone where he
was going.
Here he was coincidentally filmed acting in the role of first
responder. If ‘saving lives’ was his concern, getting in the
way of professional first responders was just about the worst
thing he could have done. However, it was something his
public relations aid Tori Clarke was later keen to highlight:
“Secretary Rumsfeld was one of the first
people
out
there
after
it
happened.......There’s example after
example of heroism, of people who helped at
the crash site, trying to help victims and get
people to ambulances.”
While Rumsfeld was being filmed acting heroically, seeing as
no one knew what other attacks may be underway, his staff
were frantically trying to get hold of him because they
needed him to defend the nation. Assuming temporary
command of the NMCC, Captain Charles Leidig was among
them. He stressed Rumsfeld's crucial role.
“In an age when an enemy attack might
allow only a few minutes for detection and
reaction, control of American military power
became vested in the National Command
Authority.....the NCA is the ultimate source
of
military
orders,
uniquely
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A Dangerous Ideology
empowered......In time of war, therefore,
Rumsfeld was effectively the president’s
partner, the direct link to the fighting forces,
and all orders had to go through him.”
The first time Rumsfeld appears to have done anything
remotely useful was at 13:00 when he finally issued the
rules of engagement. Although, by then, it was irrelevant.
Conspiracy theorists are by no means the only people who
have emphasised that Rumsfeld failed miserably in his duty
to protect the American public during the 9/11 attacks. They
also point out that it is the globally distributed MSM images,
showing his gallant first responder efforts, that have largely
endured in the public's imagination.
On the morning of 9/11, the Commander in Chief (Bush),
his acting replacement in the defence command structure
(Rumsfeld), The Highest ranking military officer (Shelton), his
acting stand in (Myers) and the key Hijack Coordinator
(Canavan – who apparently had no acting stand in) were all
either absent from their posts or otherwise engaged. An
incredibly unfortunate string of coincidences, as it was the
precise moment their obligation to act was at its most
critical.
Another person, whose behaviour seemed unusual, claim the
conspiracists, was the Vice President Dick Cheney. The 9/11
Commission accepted Cheney's 'off the record' account that
he witnessed the second WTC strike on TV and was
evacuated by the Secret Service to the Presidential
Emergency Operations Center bunker (PEOC) at 09.37. This
coincided with CNN press reports of his movement timeline
printed in 2002, prior to the instigation of the investigatory
9/11 Commission.
However, among many of the testimonies which the
Commission ignored, or felt were 'incorrect,' was that of
Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta. Unlike Cheney,
he did give his testimony under oath to the Commission.
Mineta was also evacuated to the PEOC. However, his sworn
testimony directly contradicted Cheney's account.
Mineta placed Cheney in the PEOC at least as early as
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A Dangerous Ideology
09.20. He then offered his recollection of a conversation
Cheney had with one of his aids in the minutes leading up to
the Pentagon strike:
“During the time that the airplane was
coming into the Pentagon, there was a
young man who would come in and say 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?'”
Mineta said he assumed this was an order to shoot the plane
down. However, conspiracy theorists remind people, the
destruction of the aircraft was already the default position.
By the time of his testimony, Mineta knew full well it was not
an order to shoot AA Flight 77 down.
It is very unusual for an aid to question orders, especially
those issued by the Vice President of the United States. This
may explain Cheney's reportedly angry reaction. If Mineta's
testimony was accurate, why would the young man he
mentioned risk his career by repeatedly haranguing the Vice
President about the hijacked planes inexorable approach to
<
br /> the Pentagon? If the standing order was to shoot it down,
which it was, this would have been unnecessary.
Obviously its destruction, whilst in flight, didn't happen. Yet
Cheney apparently stated “the orders still stand.” So this was
not a shoot down order. Therefore, if the suspicions are
correct (& the logic seems OK) the order must have been 'not'
to shoot it down. To let it hit the Pentagon. MIHOP or
LIHOP? Take your pick, say conspiracists.
This could all be a result of the 'sods law probability.' Maybe
Mineta felt like making accusations against Cheney, under
oath, for a laugh. Who knows? Nearly every aspect of the
conspiracy narrative has been debated, debunked, re-
examined and fought over for nearly two decades.
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A Dangerous Ideology
The conspiracists say all of this is corroborated, checkable
evidence that suggests the possibility of foreknowledge and
potentially deliberate planning. The ultimate aim of which
was to continue the profitable expansion of the same
'military industrial intelligence complex' former President
Eisenhower warned everyone about in 1961.
Those who accept the official account say it proves doodly-
squat aside from unsubstantiated, politically motivated
conspiracy theories, determined to create a finger pointing
narrative for what was nothing more than disastrous
'clusterfuck' (to use military parlance.)
All I can report is the conspiracy theorists I have met
honestly believe the events surrounding 9/11 are
questionable. They claim there is further evidence which
supports their suspicions of a hidden 'Deep State' agenda at
the heart of the Bush administration.
Regardless of whether they are right, is their belief 'idiotic'
simply because it questions the official account most of us
accept? Or, given the evidence they claim, is their belief
reasonable? The only way any of us can decide is to look at it
ourselves and make up our own minds.
While the 9/11 debate is the verbal and intellectual
equivalent of a playground spat, there is at least one other
broad area of agreement. Both conspiracists and believers of
the official account agree the ATC's screens were unusually
cluttered and available interceptor numbers were below
normal levels. Mainstream analysis claims these ATC
complications were yet more unfortunate coincidences which
