9-11 Probe Continues To Bypass Executive Branch Testimony

posted by ewing2001 on Monday October 13, @07:13AM

Tomorrow's next Round of the 9/11 Commission should include this question:
Why did Myers remain in Max Cleland’s office until all four planes had crashed?

9-11 Probe Continues To Bypass Executive Branch Testimony

Tomflocco.com -October 13, 2003

Commission Has Not Compelled Three Individuals Having Most Power To Affect Immediate Action On 9-11 To Explain Their Failure To Defend America.
All Three Remained In Offices And An Elementary Classroom While Four Planes Crashed.
This, Despite Having 25 Minutes Advance Notice From Secret Service, Pentagon, And Air Traffic Controllers Prior To First Crash--But Also A Full Summer Of Frantic But Now Classified Briefings About “Planes Used As Weapons To Crash Into Buildings,” Thus Permitting White House To Shield Its Prior-Knowledge.

PHILADELPHIA -- October 13, 2003 (TomFlocco.com) -- Tomorrow’s public hearing on Capitol Hill, held by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, will focus upon how intelligence affects the War on Terrorism. However, the ten-member commission is continuing to hear expert witness testimony mostly from former government officials rather than compelling public testimony from current high-ranking individuals in the executive branch to defend their lack of decisive action on September 11, 2001.

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Since the dramatic testimony and hallway media interviews held last May 22-23 involving military generals and the Transportation Department, the Commission has restrained itself from compelling President George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers to explain their highly questionable actions on the day of the attacks. The timeline of events is astonishing, in and of itself.

The first commandeered plane, American flight 11, was considered hijacked at 8:13 am [33 minutes prior to crashing into the North Tower at 8:46], having failed to follow flight instructions from air traffic controllers, after which it turned 100 degrees south toward New York City at 8:20 am. At that time, according to our conversation with a Department of Transportation source, phone bridges were established linking Secret Service, Defense Department, NORAD, and Transportation Department officials--and others. Thus, President Bush’s Secret Service detail in Florida was well aware of a hijacking some 25 minutes before any of the planes impacted the World Trade Center, Pentagon, or the field in Pennsylvania. And Bush himself publicly told reporters at 8:35 am that he "would have more to say later on."

And given the now-classified June through August, 2001 intelligence intercepts and briefings about terrorists commandeering planes and crashing them into buildings, the President should have initiated immediate action at 9:05 am instead of continuing to read to elementary children for at least 28 more minutes while America was under attack.

At 8:41 am, pilot contact was lost with United 175 [22 minutes before crashing into the South Tower at 9:03 am--but 50 minutes since the first hijack warning.] And at 8:56 am, pilot contact was lost with American 77 [47 minutes before crashing into the Pentagon at 9:43 am--but 90 minutes since the first hijack warning.] Thus, by the time President Bush received the famous whisper from his Chief of Staff Andrew Card at about 9:06 am that “America is under attack,” both planes had impacted the World Trade Center and a third was already considered hijacked and heading toward the Pentagon. This, while having received three months of briefings about the same subject: planes used as weapons to be crashed into American buildings.

At 9:27 am, reports indicate that United 93 was hijacked while the President was still reading and talking with teachers and children at the Florida elementary school--even after the White House press corps had already rushed out of the classroom to cover the attacks. [39 minutes before crashing into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:06 am--but 1 hour and 53 minutes since the first hijack warning at 8:13 am]

Rumsfeld and Meyers remain in offices during 9-11 attacks According to a WBZ Boston radio station interview (9-15-2001), Victoria Clarke, Deputy Secretary of Defense, revealed that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld remained in his office “making phone calls” from 8:20 am--when the Defense Department was notified of the first hijacking--until American 77 impacted the Pentagon at 9:43 am, one hour and 23 minutes later:

“Immediately the crisis management process started up. [Sometime after 8:20 am] A couple of us had gone into the secretary's office, Secretary Rumsfeld's office, to alert him to that, tell him that the crisis management process was starting up. He wanted to make a few phone calls. So a few of us headed across the hallway to an area called the National Military Command Center. He (Rumsfeld) stayed in his office....”

“The secretary was in his office, really not that far away from the side of the building that got hit by the plane. He and another person immediately ran down the hallway and went outside and helped some of the people, some of the casualties getting off the stretchers, etc.” (Deputy Secretary of Defense Victoria Clarke) [Thus Rumsfeld stayed away from the National Military Command Center for nearly an hour and a half during the actual attacks until three planes had crashed.]

According to wide reports, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers [highest-ranking U.S. general on American soil at the time] was told about the first plane crashing as he entered the office of then-Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) to discuss his upcoming confirmation hearing. Strangely, Myers remained in Cleland’s office until all four planes had crashed; and incredibly, his meeting was not interrupted in spite of the attacks. [And there are no known reports of his having entered the National Military Command Center for nearly two hours during the attacks.]

Moreover, a source wishing to remain unidentified said that Meyers was heard loudly yelling and cursing in Cleland’s office during the attacks; but strangely, he still remained ensconced in the Georgia Senator’s office until all the planes had crashed, seemingly not initiating immediate and decisive leadership over nearly a two hour period of time. This, with fighter jets capable of flying 1,500+ miles per hour at his immediate disposal. [Interestingly, Max Cleland is now a member of the Commission, having access to all subpoenaed documents, sealed testimony, and future flow of the “investigation.”]

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9/11 Commission -The next Round and
9/11 Families: "Zelikow should remove himself" from Commission

Next Independent Commission public hearings