Learning from 9/11, Secret U.S. Watch Post Overhauled

[UpInArms]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=ourWorldNews&storyID=6158693

CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN, Colo. (Reuters) - Buried inside a mountain beneath 2,000 feet of rock, a top-secret watch post scans the skies around the clock to make sure America is never again caught off guard by an attack like Sept. 11's.

Designed as a Cold War sentinel against Soviet bombers, Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center near Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the military units it supported were unprepared for the 2001 attack.

With their eyes trained on threats from abroad, those units failed to stop -- or even mitigate -- the first attack on U.S. soil by a non-state, foreign enemy which slipped in undetected.

But since Sept. 11, a massive security overhaul has made Cheyenne Mountain together with the nearby headquarters of NORAD and the new U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) the nerve center of the military's anti-terrorism network, working hand-in-glove to thwart attacks on North America.

<snip>

"The morning of Sept. 11, there were over 3,000 aircraft flying over the continental United States and NORAD could track less than 20 percent of them," he said, referring to the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command in charge of detecting and countering airborne threats.

...more...

so why did Reuters put this in the "Life and Leisure" news section? :crazy:

[clydefrand]

1. Good question. Why did they?

[UpInArms]

2. here's a stupid question

If they were so "unable" to track airplanes prior to 9/11/03 - how in the world did they follow Payne Stewart's plane in 1999?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/july-dec99/crash_10-26.html

excerpt:

RAY SUAREZ: The twin-engine Learjet 35, which can carry eight passengers and a crew of two, left Orlando International Airport shortly after 9:00 yesterday morning. It was supposed to be a routine trip from Orlando to Dallas, but the pilots stopped responding to controllers soon after heading out. The jet's last radio contact came 25 minutes later, when the plane was just northwest of Gainesville, Florida. The FAA asked for help from the military. An Air Force F-16 was first to reach the jet, just after 11:00 AM. Although no contact had been established and the F-16 pilot reported no movement in the jet's cockpit, the aircraft continued its path, reaching over 48,000 feet at close to 1:00 PM. Less than 30 minutes later, after running out of fuel, the plane crashed just outside of Mina, South Dakota. Today the National Traffic Safety Board stressed how comprehensive and how difficult the investigation will be.

and

http://emperors-clothes.com/9-11backups/abclearjet.htm

Military Aircraft Tracked Jet
According to an Air Force summary, after contact was initially lost, two F-15s from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., were sent to track the Learjet. The F-15s pulled back and two F-16s in the air from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., moved in to track the aircraft.

After the Learjet reached the Midwest, the Eglin F- 16s pulled off and four F-16s and a midair refueling tanker from the Tulsa National Guard followed it.

Eventually, two F-16s from Fargo, N.D., moved in close to look into the windows to see if the pilot was slumped over and to help clear air space. Officials hoped that the F-16s could provide assistance to anyone on board who might have helped land the plane safely.

The pilots drew close and noticed no structural damage but were unable to see into the Learjet because its windows were frosted over, indicating the temperature inside was well below freezing.

The F-16 pilots said they saw the plane, apparently out of fuel, fall to the ground.

and

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5234996/

Indeed, even after the Soviet collapse, NORAD managed on many occasions to perform its domestic functions capably. In 1999, when professional golfer Payne Stewart and his entourage apparently asphyxiated on board a private jet heading north on automatic pilot in the middle of American airspace, NORAD managed to get two warplanes astride it within an hour to ensure it would not come down in a populated area.

Another red herring is the idea that NORAD simply did not have the aircraft and radars it needed to respond properly. It is generally agreed, from a military standpoint, that the two strikes on the trade center in New York were unstoppable. But it has bothered military analysts ever since that 39 minutes later an identical attack succeeded in destroying part of the Pentagon, the nerve center of the world’s most powerful military.

F-16 and F-15 warplanes based at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia were within easy reach of Washington, and yet it appears it was not until after 9:38 am., when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon, that Langley’s fighters went aloft.

“They should have been over Washington by that time,” says the Air Force official. “It did not happen that way.”

also see http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/stewart/stewfs13.htm for a timeline

[htuttle]

3. What have they been spending all that money on for the last 40 years?

Why does NORAD sound like they're working with Korean War era radar?