Air defenses criticized in 9-11 attack on Pentagon

[True_Blue]

WASHINGTON - The commission investigating 9-11 is expected to offer sharp criticism of the Pentagon's domestic air-defense command in the panel's final report and will suggest that quicker military action that morning might have prevented a hijacked passenger jet from crashing into the Pentagon itself, according to commission officials.

The performance of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad, and its failure to protect the Pentagon and the World Trade Center will be a focus of the remaining public hearings of the 10-member commission, which is in the final weeks of its investigation.

Commission officials said interim reports that were expected to be released at the hearings would suggest that on Sept. 11, Norad had time to launch jet fighters that could have intercepted and possibly shot down American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., more than 50 minutes after the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center. The Pentagon attack killed 184 people, including 59 aboard the hijacked plane.

The commission is trying to establish a detailed timeline of how and when military pilots reporting to Norad were informed Sept. 11 that President Bush had given the extraordinary order allowing them to shoot down passenger planes.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/8517374.htm?1c

[stepnw1f]

1. Here It Is

This is the Billion Dollar question.

[oblivious]

2. This is the most critical part of the investigation

Why? Why did you stand down when the country was being attacked?

I'm Canadian, and was devastated to find out that a Canadian was in charge at NORAD when this happened. Yet whenever a Canadian paper interviews the guy they do a pathetic puff piece like ... "oh, it must have been so terrible, what an experience, what a hero you are (implied)... and I'm reading, reading, reading, looking for THE QUESTION - WHY, HOW... you incompetent, bumbling fool, how dare you show your face in public? Why do you still have a job? Tell us how you could have blundered so tragically and tell us what steps you have taken to prevent your incompetence from ever happening again.

But, of course, the real questions never get asked. Instead of going down as a goat, the guy somehow get's treated as a celebrity. That's so weird. Not one person gets fired or even demoted for this. Doesn't the public need to be reassured that steps have been taken to improve things?

[mistertrickster]

3. Agreed, somebody is finally figuring out that the nerve center of

the world's most powerful (400 billion and counting) military shouldn't be a sitting duck for a lumbering airliner.

Let's hope they figure out who didn't do their job and why . . .

I'd be surprised if it's just one guy at NORAD. Somebody scrambled jets from an airfield miles away when they had jets sitting there in Washington.

[Emillereid]

4. On 911 I kept screaming at my TV set --

where's the air force! Why aren't planes intercepting the hijacked planes? This was before the attack on the Pentagon -- they had lots of time! Where's the f**king DEFENSE! I mean after spending trillions of dollars on so-called defense the Pentagon couldn't even manage to defend itself. Couldn't some of that money bought a few anti-aircraft guns to mount on the roof of the Pentagon! I had an argument about this 3 days after 911 with a retired air force muck a muck -- it really bothered him -- he couldn't give me an answer except to assert that there must have been good reasons -- he immediately understood the implication of my questions were that the air force had deliberately stood down. Well, duh!

[jpak]

5. Rumsfeld failed to protect our Capital City from air attack

He should have been fired (along with Condi Rice) on September 12th.

The Pentagon was hit at 9:37 AM.

So what did Our Glorious War President do after he was informed by his Chief-of-Staff that "...America is under attack" at 9:06 AM??????

Can you say Criminal Negligence...

...or Dereliction of Duty?????