Asking the Wrong Question


Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 16:14:12 -0400
Subject: CNN.com--Cheney: Future attack on U.S. 'almost certain'--May 19, 2002
From: John Judge



     Cheney: Future attack on U.S. 'almost certain'
     CNN, 19 May 2002
     http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/05/19/cheney.terrorism/index.html



     Backed into a corner, they threaten us with "intelligence" of an
     attack that is so vague that it doesn't justify a public warning,
     but so certain that it is only a matter of time. Investigations
     must not interfere with the war, they say. The point is, they are
     answering the wrong question. They began by denying that it was
     possible to have predicted or imagined such an attack on the
     United States. This ignores the following:

        * Attacks on those very buildings in NYC had happened by that
          very network in 1993, and bin Laden was high on their radar
          screen according to them.

        * The use of planes as weapons was not unkown. An attempt on
          the Eiffel Tower was foiled; an attack on a building in
          Russia on behalf of the Chechnyans was carried out; both
          involved bin Laden's network in the 90s. I was personally
          told in 1996 by the director of security at the Pentagon
          building that they had radar on the roof tracking for plane
          attacks. President Bush was relocated and special security
          measures were taken at the economic summit in Genoa to
          prevent a plane attack. A plane had already attacked the
          White House when Clinton was there.

        * There were warnings to US intelligence in advance of 9-11
          from German, Israeli, British and other intelligence agencies
          of an impending attack, including details about hijacking,
          using planes as weapons, and the timing of the event. There
          were US military base alerts the day before. There was a
          warning to Mayor Willie Brown in San Francisco not to fly
          that day from his security team.


     They have spent $13 trillion tax dollars since the end of WWII on
     this military/intelligence complex, and it cannot protect its own
     headquarters? It can track every electronic communication on
     earth, crack the codes of the Al Quaeda in advance of 9-11, locate
     bin Laden's cell phone, but it can't decipher what it all means?


     And beyond that question is the more pertinent one hardly anyone
     is asking.

        * Bush clearly and undeniably had advance knowledge of a
          terrorist attack on US soil using planes as weapons by 9:05
          am on September 11.

        * NORAD had it by 8:45 in an unprecedented simultaneous
          hijacking of four planes.

        * The Pentagon had it, as did everyone in DC by 9:05 as well.

        * The Pentagon began to evacuate the building, as did the White
          House and Capitol.

        * EVERYONE had advance knowledge of Flight 77 coming towards DC
          for 40 minutes.


     Yet, there was a complete defensive stand-down. Interceptors from
     distant Langley AFB took off late and flew at subsonic speeds to
     arrive 5 minutes too late. Planes from nearby Anacostia Naval Air
     Station, Andrews Air Force Base, and the 73rd Air Wing at Atlantic
     City, NJ never took off. Scramblers in the air already at 9:05
     from Otis AFB turned to target Flight 77 and were called off,
     despite a formal shoot-down order from Bush/Cheney "moments after"
     the 9:05 crash -- which had ended any speculation of accident or
     coincidence or hijacking motives.

     By that moment they UNDENIABLY knew in advance what was coming and
     where it was headed. Local news announced that DC was the
     destination. Surface-to-air missiles at the White House and
     Pentagon remained sheathed in their silos. Despite the planes
     having turned off communications with ground control towers and
     their identifying transponders (which also shuts off their own
     near-range radar screens to avoid mid-air collisions), they were
     clearly visible to all external radars, they were being tracked by
     NORAD and DC towers, and they were somehow being navigated
     directly to their target.

     HOW WERE THEY ALLOWED TO COME INTO THE MOST RESTRICTED AIR SPACE
     IN THE WORLD WITH NO CHALLENGE OR DEFENSE? That is the question
     that answers both when Bush knew in advance and begs any rational
     response.

     The White House and Pentagon officials have been lying since day
     one about both advance intelligence knowledge that could have
     foiled the operation, and about their own ability to prevent, at
     least, the attack on the Pentagon. Let them answer that.

     John Judge