Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon’s initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.
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For more than two years after the attacks, officials with NORAD and the FAA provided inaccurate information about the response to the hijackings in testimony and media appearances. Authorities suggested that U.S. air defenses had reacted quickly, that jets had been scrambled in response to the last two hijackings and that fighters were prepared to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93 if it threatened Washington.
In fact, the commission reported a year later, audiotapes from NORAD’s Northeast headquarters and other evidence showed clearly that the military never had any of the hijacked airliners in its sights and at one point chased a phantom aircraft — American Airlines Flight 11 — long after it had crashed into the World Trade Center.
Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold and Col. Alan Scott told the commission that NORAD had begun tracking United 93 at 9:16 a.m., but the commission determined that the airliner was not hijacked until 12 minutes later. The military was not aware of the flight until after it had crashed in Pennsylvania.
These and other discrepancies did not become clear until the commission, forced to use subpoenas, obtained audiotapes from the FAA and NORAD, officials said.
AmericaBlog comments so I don’t have to:
The purpose of this commission was to find out what went wrong so that next time we don’t lose another 3,000 Americans. And the Pentagon and the FAA may have lied to the commission, in violation of the law, and in violation of the entire intent of establishing the commission, to help ensure we never have another 9/11.
Jesus. What country do we live in anymore? And for those who say this is politics as usual, then maybe it’s time to change politics as usual. Time to stop defending and supporting and tolerating politicians who lie and even break the law, while jeopardizing national security. Maybe if we finally stand up to these politicians things will change.
Yup.