Chris Yates, the aviation security editor and analyst for Jane’s Defence Weekly, explained why there were no aircraft on alert at Andrews Air Force Base (the closest base to Washington, D.C.) when the hijackings took place on September 11, 2001. “There was no reason to [be on constant alert]…The U.S. homeland had never been attacked […]
Category: quotes
9/11/2001
“Al Qaeda was the only terrorist organization capable of such spectacular, well-coordinated attacks, [CIA Director George] Tenet said [to the National Security Council on the afternoon of September 11, 2001]. Intelligence monitoring had overheard a number of known bin Laden operatives congratulating each other after the attacks.” – Bob Woodward, Bush at War, Page 27 […]
9/11/2001
On September 11, 2001, “At 9:29, President Bush addressed the nation from the Booker Elementary School in Sarasota [Florida]. He said: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for America. …Today we’ve had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. I […]
9/11/2001
At 6:30 a.m. on September 11, 2001, “At Boston’s Logan Airport, an argument breaks out over a parking space involving five Middle Easterners and an unidentified man. When he reports the incident later, police discover a car rented by lead hijacker Mohammed Atta. It contains a pass allowing access to a restricted area of the […]
9/11/2001
Then-President George W. Bush recalled: “By the afternoon of 9/11 [2001], the intelligence community had discovered known al Qaeda operatives on the passenger manifests of the hijacked planes.” – George W. Bush, Decision Points, Page 134 […]
9/11/2001
Despite warnings such as the August 6, 2001, President’s Daily Briefing which claimed Osama bin Laden planned to attack the United States, President “Bush did not publicly mention al Qaeda between August 6 [2001] and September 11.” – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 31 […]
9/11/2001
At 9:32 a.m. [on September 11, 2001] the FAA’s [Federal Aviation Administration’s] Cleveland Center received a transmission from one of the hijackers on Flight 93: ‘Keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb on board.’…Nine minutes later, the center lost the plane’s transponder signal. Indecisiveness at the ATC [Air Traffic Control] Command Center, in Herndon [Virginia], […]
9/11/2001
FBI Director Louis Freeh wrote: “I regret that I was never able to convince Congress to fully fund our technological initiatives. I’m embarrassed that on the afternoon and evening of September 11, 2001, FBI agents had to send photos of the suspected terrorists via express mail service because they still lacked the computing power to […]
9/11/2001
“Six hours before the first crash in New York [on September 11, 2001], the Interfax news agency reported that the police in the Moscow area had been alerted ‘in connection with a large-scale operation to prevent terrorism.’ …the coincidence of the terrorist warning here suggested that Russia’s intelligence services might have been alerted to a […]
9/11/2001
On September 11, 2001, “The 19 hijackers were Marwan Al Shehhi, Fayez Ahmed, Mohald Al Shehri, Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Al Ghamdi on United Airlines Flight 175 which destroyed the World Trade Centre; Waleed M Al Shehri, Wail Al Shehri, Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz Alomari and Satam Al Suqami on American Airlines Flight 11, which also […]