On the morning of September 11, 2001, “Upon hearing the second message [from the cockpit of Flight 11], the [air traffic] controller concluded that Flight 11 had been hijacked. He consulted his supervisors; at 8:37 a.m., [the Federal Aviation Administration’s] Boston Center bypassed the prescribed protocol and contacted NORAD’s Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS). Two […]
Category: quotes
9/11/2001
“The earliest written confirmation of President Bush’s shoot-down order for any hijacked plane headed toward the capital came at 10:20 a.m. [on September 11, 2001] when White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, on Air Force One, recorded that the president had issued the directive. That was a full 17 minutes after Flight 93’s demise concluded […]
9/11/2001
Regarding reactions following the hijackings on September 11, 2001, “The 9/11 Commission’s report adds, ‘In sum, the protocols in place on 9/11 for the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] and NORAD to respond to a hijacking presumed that the hijacked aircraft would be readily identifiable and would not attempt to disappear; there would be time to […]
9/11/2001
On the morning of September 11, 2001, “Ten out of the 19 hijackers (including 9 out of 10 on the two American Airlines flights) were identified by the CAPPS [Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System] system.” This was an FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)-approved, automated system which was “created to identify passengers who should be subject to […]
9/11/2001
“…in the early morning of 9/11, the FBI intelligence agent who was searching for [9/11 hijackers Khalid al] Mihdhar and [Nawaf al] Hazmi forwarded a request to the Los Angeles field office. He had learned that Hazmi had arrived in Los Angeles in January 2000. He asked for assistance now in tracking Hazmi and Mihdhar. […]
9/11/2001
Following the attacks on September 11, 2001, the FBI “created an investigative operation, the Pentagon/Twin Towers Bombings Investigation, or PENTTBOM.” According to a report by the Office of the Inspector General on April 29, 2003, “One week after the attacks, the program had yielded ninety-six thousand leads. …Leads emerged from an unsavory stew of sources, […]
9/11/2001
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith “was flying back from Europe the day of the attacks [September 11, 2001] with a group of senior Pentagon officials. On the flight Feith broached the idea of overthrowing Saddam. General John Abizaid, the Arabic-speaking four-star general who two years later would assume responsibility for U.S. military operations […]
9/11/2001
Then-Vice President Dick Cheney recalled his actions from the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the White House, during the terrorist attacks on the morning of September 11, 2001: “Within minutes of the [second World Trade Center] tower collapsing, I was told that another plane headed in the direction of Washington had hit the ground on […]
9/11/2001
“At 8:46 a.m. [on September 11, 2001], before the F-15s from Otis Air Force Base [in Massachusetts] were even airborne, Flight 11 smashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The fighters took off at 8:53 a.m. on a preassigned vector, per standard operating procedure. In this case, they were sent to military […]
9/11/2001
On September 11, 2001, speaking from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, President Bush recorded his second video statement of the day. ” ‘Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward,’ said Bush, who appeared tense.” – Der Spiegel, Inside 9-11, Pages 148-149 […]