Great caller on C-SPAN just now RE: 911 responsibilities

[Sydnie]

Caller from Sedona Arizona just called and said this to Billie Vincent, former Director of the Office of Aviation Security/FAA --

"Want to tell the gentleman that he is doing a great job at filibustering and avoiding ques ions and I have two. First one is, how is it the Bush administration and FAA after six months and fifty two dire warnings including at least one that outlined Al Queda hijackers that were more interested in spectacular crashes than trading hostages domestically, put a brand new hijack coordinator, Mr Slimy (is that really his name or did I mishear this?), in his job on September 11, and who according to his own 911 commission testimony had no clue he was authorized to scramble air force fighter jets and even three years later, during his 911 testimony was still unaware of his roll in the event of a hijacking? Has Mr. Slimy been held accountable, as you said, or has he received a promotion along with other Bush administration officials who spent the summer of threat on vacation and failed their country on September 11? And the second question is who in the FAA is responsible for destroying evidence on air traffic control tapes recorded on September 11? You blame 911 on Clinton/Gore is a complete joke, no one believes it anymore, 911 happened on Bush's watch and there's no spin you can do to change that fact."

Vincent replied --
"Well, I agree with you on the later part, there's no spin, none intended because both administrations bear responsibility for 911 and the one that Bill Clinton failed miserably on would take a great deal of explanation which time probably doesn't permit. The Bush administration was clearly asleep at the wheel. They weren't listening to the information that had been extant for some time within the US government and Dick Clarke had amply articulated that and in an early letter to Condileeza Rice when they downgraded his position, obviously told her as well. So, I wouldn't in any way try to get into a discussion to change your mind on that particular point but I hold both of them responsible. Now, the erasure of the supposed tapes in the air traffic arena, I am unaware of that. As I said early, I spent twenty four years in air traffic control and as a matter of fact, one of those facilities involved in this peripherally, was the New York air traffic control center and I was chief of that facility and located in (name of town) long Island from late 1971 through late 1974 so I know the area very well, I know air traffic and having studied the data that's available on all of that I can go back and second guess it and see things that should have happened and should have been done that weren't done. But, when everything is said and done the air traffic controllers involved in that and the air traffic control system ..."

tivo ran out of pause time there... sorry.

What a blow hard he is and what a great question that was.

Hi five to that caller! Catch the rerun if you can later.

[The Doctor.]

1. Great questions...

Tapes were erased?

That's the first I heard of this.

[Spazito]

7. The NYT had an article on this...

F.A.A. Official Scrapped Tape of 9/11 Controllers' Statements
By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: May 6, 2004


WASHINGTON, May 6 — At least six air traffic controllers who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, made a tape recording that same day describing the events, but the tape was destroyed by a supervisor without anyone making a transcript or even listening to it, the Transportation Department said in a report today.

The taping began before noon on Sept. 11 at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, in Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, where about 16 people met in a basement conference room known as "the Bat Cave" and passed around a microphone, each recalling his or her version of the events a few hours earlier.

But officials at the center never told higher-ups of the tape's existence, and it was later destroyed by an F.A.A. official described in the report as a quality-assurance manager there. That manager crushed the cassette in his hand, shredded the tape and dropped the pieces into different trash cans around the building, according to a report made public today by the inspector general of the Transportation Department.

The tape had been made under an agreement with the union that it would be destroyed after it was superseded by written statements from the controllers, according to the inspector general's report. But the quality-assurance manager asserted that making the tape had itself been a violation of accident procedures at the Federal Aviation Administration, the report said.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/national/06CND-TAPE.h...

require registration (free)

[classof56]

2. Great questions. Lame answers. No surprise there.

Kudos to the caller. Heartening to know there are those out there who "get it". Thanks for posting!

Tired Old Cynic

[AntiCoup2K4]

3. "the one that Bill Clinton failed miserably on ..."

....would take a great deal of explanation which time probably doesn't permit."

TRANSLATION: Karl Rove didn't give me a script with that lie on it, so I would have to make up some weak bullshit on the spot.

How the HELL do they figure Bill Clinton is to blame for 52 specific warnings from April - September 2001???

[Sydnie]

4. I wondered the same thing myself

what did he mean by "the one"... what one? Clinton followed up and found the bombers of the WTC the first time. What "one" is he talking about?

Clinton was out of office and it was all blivet** by then. What could Clinton possibly have to do with it since it was blivet** and his people that got the 52 warnings? Perhaps we should blame Poppa too, after all, he still gets his daily briefings. Perhaps it was his fault for not doing something too!

[Al-CIAda]

5. Fantastic questions

...and why were the FAA employee witness tapes made later that day DESTROYED by cutting them up into pieces, then distributed in dumpsters?

[liberalla]

6. BIG Shout out to SedonaAZ !

... SedonaAZ is a member of the Randi Rhodes Message Board! She/he followed up by emailing Vincent a link with info on the destroyed tapes that he "knew nothing" about! Way to go!!!
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=148
:yourock:

[Garbo 2004]

8. Kudos to SedonaAZ! Excellent questions, well done! n/t

[Sydnie]

10. Please tell her for me that I heard her

and thought her thoughts we so well stated that I felt the need to share them with everyone here.

Kudos to her for her call and her question. They were spot on!

[libodem]

9. I think this is on the subject

I get offers for liberal magazines quite often.The Journal of Psychology sent me a cover letter "you'll discover facts like these that show who caused 9/11: 1. how Chaney set up his own Command Center the day before 9/11 and was controlling hijacking drills that morning. 2. How these hijacking drills that drew Air Force jets away were called "just a coincidence" by Bush. 3. How the Air Force was told to "stand down" and not to intercept the terrorist planes though they had scrambled automatically the previous 67 times. 4. how seismographs show it was a massive explosion in the basement of the WTC that brought down the buildings down. 5. How cameras show the WTCtowers were actually detonated, blowing outward, not just collapsing. 6. How photos show only a 13-foot hole in the Pentagon through which the 124-foot wide plane supposedly crashed. 7. How several pentagon employees said the "saw no evidence of any debris of a plane" after the crash. 8. How the FBI collected all the surveillance photographs within minutes after the crash and won't release them. 9. How some9/11 families are suing Bush for $7 billion citing testimony from those who helped cause the crashes. 10. How Rumsfeld said the terrorist crashes were a "blessing in disguise."

[MARALE]

13. Can you find a link for this? n/t

[proud patriot]

11. Great question

Sounds like a Randi Rhodes listener

[Sparkle]

12. I just streamed that segment and heard that caller.

That was a great call and of course the guy didn't know the answer. But I had already determined, after listening to this guy since the beginning, that he tends to put most of the blame on Clinton/Gore. Although he kept saying he blame both administrations equally, it was clear he put the brunt of the blame on Clinton/Gore and less on Bush/Cheney. And then you had this republican callers blaming every democrat they could think of but not mention of that sorry classless bum that's in the White House during 9/11.