Memo: Pre-9/11 drill was nixed (boston heraLd)

[sniffa]

Five months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, military officials wanted to train for the possibility that hijacked planes would be slammed into the Pentagon but were told the scenario was ``too unrealistic.''

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) officials unsuccessfully pitched a training exercise in April 2001 for ``an event having a terrorist group hijack a commercial airliner and fly it into the Pentagon,'' according to an e-mail transcript obtained by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).

The document, verified as authentic last night by NORAD officials, says military higher-ups ``didn't want it because it would take attention away from their exercise objectives.'' The e-mail also says White House officials ``rejected it as too unrealistic.'' NORAD is responsible for defending the country's airspace by dispatching fighter jets to emergencies

http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=1744

[MaineDem]

1. WOW

How can Condi say no one ever dreamed of the possibility? Good grief!!!

[kainah]

27. * repeated it last night in the press conference

He said no one could imagine planes crashing into buildings & then backtracked a bit & then within a minute or two mentioned Genoa. It was a very stunning series of comments.

[dusty64]

28. More perjury.

How many lies have we caught them in now? Will anything become of it? Is there still a part of the media that is still free that might actually make a big deal of the lies and perjury?

[matcom]

2. BAM!!!!

and in a RW newspaper nontheless

HEY CONDI!!!

better call Martha for some cell-decorating tips and QUICK!

[sniffa]

5. rw paper

i read it everyday and i'm astounded by the opinion section. page after page of bad news for bush... and then op/ed about how great a job he's doing.

[moof]

3. " unrealistic " ???!!!

Didn't one of the Pentagon commentators once say that the window of rummy's office looks right down one of the main runways from Dulles ?

[KDLarsen]

4. ...

... sounds more like it's one of the runways at Raygun National.

[spooked]

6. There was a CRASH SIMULATION planned for the morning of 911!!

Check out this Pentagon site before it disappears!!
Click on the photo to see all of the photos related to a Pentagon "crash" simulation.
http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/Contingency_Planning.html

Check out this thread!
NORAD was running a simulation of a plane crashing into a building on the MORNING OF 911!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1385648

On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing into a Building
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/cia-simulation.htm

Looks like someone's trying to Cover Their A** with that Boston Herald article!

Someone has done an "impassioned" analysis of all Condi's LIES at the hearing, and it covers the crash simulation at the Pentagon, halfway down the page. (warning...strong language)
http://www.americaoverthrown.com/rice.html

[pretzel4gore]

9. hi 5!

and thanks for links! :-)

[DeepModem Mom]

11. CIA and/or NORAD was running a drill on 9/11?

[spooked]

13. YES!! It was running that morning! Operation Vigilant Guardian

"Vigilant Guardian" (NORAD exercise on 911/2001)

from "The Failure to Defend the Skies on 911" http://www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/main/essayairdefense.html

Lt. Col. Dawne Deskins figured it would be a long day.
Sept. 11 was Day II of "Vigilant Guardian," an exercise that would pose an imaginary crisis to North American Air Defense outposts nationwide. The simulation would run all week, and Deskins, starting her 12-hour shift in the Operations Center as the NORAD unit's airborne control and warning officer, might find herself on the spot.
Day I of the simulation had moved slowly. She hoped the exercise gathered steam. It made a long day go faster.
8:40 A.M.: REAL WORLD
In the Ops Center, three rows of radar scopes face a high wall of wide-screen monitors. Supervisors pace behind technicians who peer at the instruments. Here it is always quiet, always dark, except for the green radar glow.
At 8:40, Deskins noticed senior technician Jeremy Powell waving his hand. Boston Center was on the line, he said. It had a hijacked airplane.
"It must be part of the exercise," Deskins thought.
At first, everybody did. Then Deskins saw the glowing direct phone line to the Federal Aviation Administration.
- "Amid Crisis Simulation, 'We Were Suddenly No-Kidding Under Attack'"
by Hart Seely, Newhouse News Service, January 25, 2002
http://www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/2002/newhousenews012502.html

[frylock]

14. i keep waiting for that contingency planning site to get scrubbed..

I've been sending out that link for 2 years now. That pic of the model airplane in the Pentagon courtyard is not good.

[Corgigal]

7. Well well

Even NORAD is trying to set it straight with us the viewing public.
Maybe somewhere in the NORAD organization we have at least one person who is getting sick of the lies. I hope whoever they are tells us more.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. This is really curious -- we have documentation...

that a drill took place 9/11. Why is NORAD saying they rejected a proposal to stage such a drill? What do you think might be going on, and why?

[harrison]

8. Here we go again. Another document. I suppose this will get

lost in the shuffle, but you wonder if the NORAD folks are trying to cover themselves.

[Athame]

10. There have been NUMEROUS threads here on DU

showing pictures of a mock-up of the Pentagon with a plane crashed through to the center and the story of the exercise being held in May of 2001. What is this memo? Chaffe.

[bluedog]

12. Contingency planning Pentagon MASCAL exercise simulates

Washington, D.C., Nov. 3, 2000 — The fire and smoke from the downed passenger aircraft billows from the Pentagon courtyard. Defense Protective Services Police seal the crash sight. Army medics, nurses and doctors scramble to organize aid. An Arlington Fire Department chief dispatches his equipment to the affected areas.

Don Abbott, of Command Emergency Response Training, walks over to the Pentagon and extinguishes the flames. The Pentagon was a model and the "plane crash" was a simulated one.

The Pentagon Mass Casualty Exercise, as the crash was called, was just one of several scenarios that emergency response teams were exposed to Oct. 24-26 in the Office of the Secretaries of Defense conference room.

On Oct. 24, there was a mock terrorist incident at the Pentagon Metro stop and a construction accident to name just some of the scenarios that were practiced to better prepare local agencies for real incidents.

http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/Contingency_Planning.html

more and more lies................this should be brought out to the public........notice date: Nov 2000

[gbwarming]

16. A NORAD excercise would be different- MASCAL was a local, ground emergency

This NORAD info is interesting and _completly_ different. I can't imagine why the white house would have any input on what excercises NORAD chooses.

[spooked]

17. It was the CIA running the simulation that morning!

http://www.nlsi.net/hs-alc-info.htm

John Fulton - Intelligence Networking & Analysis

On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team at the CIA were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day. Information is the most powerful tool available in the homeland security effort. At the core of every initiative currently underway to protect our country and its citizens is the challenge of getting the right information to the right people at the right time. How can so much information from around the world be captured and processed in meaningful and timely ways? Mr. Fulton shares his insights into the intelligence community, and shares a vision of how today's information systems will be developed into even better counter-terrorism tools of tomorrow.

John Fulton’s 25 years in the intelligence community has contributed to his recognition as an expert in risk & threat response analysis, scenario gaming, and strategic planning. He is on staff for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), currently serving as Chief of the Strategic War Gaming Division of the National Reconnaissance Office, and as a member of U.S. Joint Forces Command's Project Alpha - a prestigious "think tank" for advanced concepts related to such issues as homeland security. He formerly served as the mission director for our nation's satellite imagery program as well as replacing Army Astronaut Same Gemar as the Director of the National Security Space Master Plan for the U.S. Department of Defense and Intelligence Space Communities under the auspices of the Deputy UnderSecretary of Defense (Space).

His counter-terrorism and homeland security responsibilities include advising the Director Central Intelligence Staff for Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshall's Office, and collaboration with the National Security Council.

In the private sector Fulton has developed a number of patents related to positioning, "smart GPS " applications, communications, and audio/video technology. He oversees the development of public & personal safety applications of these capabilities through SafeSTAR projects, and contributes to the strategic planning and conceptual design of the SafeSTAR Homeland Security Command Center.

http://www.nlsi.net/hs-alc-info.htm

This first came out from the publicity info. for a Homeland Security Event in Chicago in 2002, featuring Giuliani as a speaker. The info. about John Fulton, one of the featured speakers, is found toward the end of the page.

[DeepModem Mom]

18. NORAD says rejected drill idea; CIA ran a drill on 9/11 --

Trying to clarify, as info comes in.

[MetaTrope]

19. Now, how can anybody believe LIHOP after this?

:smoke:

[0007]

25. What `ya mean?

[MetaTrope]

26. Sarcasm

Worth a kick, as this seems to me far more damning of the White House than the August 6 briefing...active obstruction rather than passive disregard.

[proud patriot]

20. Well I'll be ,,, Thank You boston Herald

:D

[JohnOneillsMemory]

21. September 11, 1994...small plane crashes into Clinton White House.

and there was a review of the security policies protecting the airspace in DC.

This is an old old old idea and the 'who'd-a-thunk-it' defense is laughable on the face of it.

[lumpy]

22. Rice's testimony re. air attacks sticks in my mind

as does this statement in the article : The e-mail also says White House officials "rejected it as too unrealistic". Turns out the possibilty was very realistic. This is too much to bear, the play was written, the dress rehearsal was cancelled but the play went on much to the astonishment of the audience.

[opihimoimoi]

23. The sheer Peterism of these Pubs boggle the mind.

They were told and they gambled nothing was going to happen unless we got the flight # and the names of the terrorists. These guys should not have been in the positions to guard us.

Add the blame game, denial, and utter disregard for us citizens and you what we voted for, a nimcompoop.

[0007]

24. The crime cabal sez plot way too unrealistic as Carl & junior die laughing

No way! Planes would be used as missiles

[Wendigo]

29. Have any other papers reported on this?

Or has it gone down the memory hole?