Rice: We were only worried about "traditional" hijackings prior to 9/11

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/05/20020516-13.html

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 16, 2002

National Security Advisor Holds Press Briefing
Press Briefing by National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice
The James S. Brady Briefing Room

<snip>Q Why didn't the American public know about these facts before they got on planes in the summer and fall of last year?

DR. RICE: It is always, as you've learned since September 11th, a question of how good the information is and whether or not putting the information out is a responsible thing to do. I've emphasized that this was the most generalized kind of information. There was no time, there was no place, there was no method of attack. It simply said, these are people who train and seem to talk possibly about hijackings -- that you would have risked shutting down the American civil aviation system with such generalized information. I think you would have had to think five, six, seven times about that very, very hard.

Steps were taken, and I'm sure security steps were taken. But you have to realize that when you're dealing with something this general, there's a limit to the amount that you can do.

Q What security steps --

DR. RICE: Again, the FAA asked security personnel, ground personnel to have a heightened state of alert because there were tensions in the Middle East --

Q -- in any security --

DR. RICE: There were tensions in the Middle East that were leading to terrorists who had sympathies with those Middle East events. There were various trials going on, and it was the association with all that was going on that said, look, these are people who talk from time to time about -- and train for hijacking; you should take a look at your security procedures and try to respond. But this was very generalized information.

Q Specifically, after this August 6th analytic report briefing that the President had, what did he do? What did other people in the administration do? What did he make of it? What action was taken? And why didn't he ever tell the American people about it?

DR. RICE: Well, the action was being taken, because, if you notice, what is briefed to him in kind of a summary way -- and I should say, he had said to his briefer, I'd like you from time to time to give me summaries of what you know about potential attacks. And this was an analytic piece that tried to bring together several threads -- in 1997, they talked about this; in 1998, they talked about that; it's been known that maybe they want to try and release the blind Sheikh -- I mean, that was the character of it. And so the actions were being taken in response to the generalized information that was being reported here, too. And the President was aware that there were ongoing efforts that were being taken.

Q -- any specific information just prior to August 6th that raised concerns about hijacking of U.S. planes?

DR. RICE: Again, this was generalized information that put together the fact that there were terrorist groups who were unhappy about things that were going on in the Middle East, as well as al Qaeda operatives, which we'd been watching for a long time -- that there was more chatter than usual, and that we knew that they were people who might try a hijacking. But, you know, again, that terrorism and hijacking might be associated is not rocket science.

Q Why shouldn't this be seen as an intelligence failure, that you were unable to predict something happening here?

DR. RICE: Steve, I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile. All of this reporting about hijacking was about traditional hijacking. You take a plane -- people were worried they might blow one up, but they were mostly worried that they might try to take a plane and use it for release of the blind Sheikh or some of their own people.

But I think that there's always a fine balance, but even in retrospect, even in hindsight, there was nothing in what was briefed to the President that would suggest that you would go out and say to the American people, look, I just read that terrorists might hijack and aircraft. They talk about hijacking an aircraft once in a while, but have no specifics about when, where, under what circumstances.

David.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml

Ashcroft stops flying commercial jets

July 26, 2001

(CBS) Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

"There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines," an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it.

A senior official at the CIA said he was unaware of specific threats against any Cabinet member, and Ashcroft himself, in a speech in California, seemed unsure of the nature of the threat.

"I don't do threat assessments myself and I rely on those whose responsibility it is in the law enforcement community, particularly the FBI. And I try to stay within the guidelines that they've suggested I should stay within for those purposes," Ashcroft said.

Asked if he knew anything about the threat or who might have made it, the attorney general replied, "Frankly, I don't. That's the answer."

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Not much of an analyst, is she?

If they had been so concerned about traditional hijackings 9/11 would have never happend.

HELLLLLOOOOOO!

Using an airliner as a cruise missile had already been attempted by some Islamic radical hijackers in Europe several years before September 11th, 2001. Google for Air France and hijackings; I don't recall the dates offhand.

Clearly Buckaroo Bush's Duck Soup Posse hadn't been doing its security homework.

show depicting the airliner as missile thing either.

Condi just didn't know. I mean it was so low class of the terrorist not to send her the flight and seat numbers.

They didn't even send Condi their passport numbers.

the other day.

I was kind of stunned when one of the characters said something about how now the Cold War was over the MIC needed a new enemy to fight, so all they needed to do was slam a plane into Manhattan and blame some tinpot dictator...

Bush slept on an aircraft carrier they were so skeered of aerial attacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_8969

The hijackers reportedly intended to fly the plane into Eiffel tower.

...you're an A-hole!

and should have been replaced immediately with someone who COULD foresee it.

African-Americans DO NOT appreciate talent-less, half-stepping African Americans who use affirmative action to get where they want to and then prove themselves unqualified.

Please, white folks, get this clear in your mind. Black people have the same...T-H-E S-A-M-E standards that you do...did I spell it out for you the right way?

Maybe you didn't get it because unqualified white people like Brownie and Duhhhhbya make it up the ladder every goddam day.

But I am here to tell you that black people do NOT like seeing African Americans exploit their color to get up the ladder and prove themselves stupid, unqualified and token. Like Condoleeza Rice.

a racial component?

Old time religion, family values, and traditional hijackers.

told over and over again was likely to happen. pretty fucking stupid excuse.
in actuality they did expect it. they didnt care enough to worry about it, not a priority for them.

shoe bomber. oh fuck, now everyone has to take off their shoes. lame ass, all for show, useless assholes.

rice isnt stupid. she is sociopathic.

... the White House and anywhere the President travels for decades, huh? She's such a goddamend, fucking liar - but worse, in her arrogance she treats everyone else like we're fools!! She's totally disgusting.

a hijacking between one man and one woman.

...in the works.

"traditional hijacking."

BULL SHIT

August Sixth.

and tell him not to fly on Sept. 11th?

Why didn't she tell the rest of the United States?

the possibility of hijacking planes and using them as missles. Yet former National Security Advisor Rice apparently was unaware of any such plans or potential possibilities, although it was previously widely reported in the press.

Of course, those plans came to light and were made public under the Clinton administration so I guess there was no reason for the Bush administration to pay any mind to those reports. :sarcasm:

Summer 2001 I saw an AP report regarding the chatter of an impending attack on the US, possibly even here within the US, that caught my attention as a mere member of the public. It was alarming, unlike any other reporting I'd recalled seeing. But the Bush admininstration slumbered on, appparently incapable of "imagining" anything of the kind could happen here, despite the reports they were receiving. I think it was later reported that Ashcroft at one point got so tired of hearing about the chatter and potential for an impending terrorist attack that he told his staff he no longer wanted to hear about terrorism. But for unspecified security reasons he sure wasn't putting his ass on a commercial airliner during the summer of 2001.

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/ustreas/usss/t1pubrpt.html

CHAPTER TWO: SUMMARY STATEMENT OF FACTS



THE SEPTEMBER 12, 1994 PLANE CRASH

On Sunday, September 11, 1994, after spending an evening with his brother consuming alcohol and smoking crack cocaine, Frank Eugene Corder asked his brother to drop him off in the vicinity of Aldino Airport in Churchville, Maryland. Corder walked to the airport and found the keys to a Cessna P150 airplane that had been returned to the airport earlier that day after having been rented by another individual. Although Corder was not a licensed pilot, he had taken several lessons in the aircraft and had flown it several times during the summer of 1993. snip

Corder's flight path from York can be discerned from FAA radar records. He flew south for a short distance and then west. At 1:44 a.m., the National Airport tower began receiving transmissions that showed that Corder was approximately 6.5 miles north of the White House, flying at an altitude of 2700 feet. The aircraft descended approximately 1000 feet over the next three minutes. At 1:47 a.m., the airplane turned directly south. It passed over Washington Circle and entered the prohibited airspace that surrounds the White House at approximately 1:48 a.m. The protected airspace, designated as P-56, is a no-fly zone that generally encompasses the White House and the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol. The plane flew toward the Mall descending rapidly.

Corder then passed over the Ellipse and dove directly toward the White House at a steep angle of descent. His plane crashed onto the White House lawn just south of the Executive Mansion at approximately 1:49 a.m. The aircraft skidded across the ground, struck a magnolia tree just west of the South Portico steps, and hit the southwest corner of the first floor of the Mansion. The President and First Family were not in the Mansion at the time of the crash. They were residing at Blair House while the White House was undergoing renovations. There was minimal damage to the Mansion.

Corder died from multiple, massive blunt-force injuries. Based on the physical evidence, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the crash was intentional rather than a failed attempt at a controlled landing. The airplane's velocity on impact clearly exceeded a safe landing speed. Moreover, the airplane's wing flaps were up and its throttle position was "full forward," neither of which is characteristic of an aircraft in a landing posture. At the time of the crash, Corder was thirty-eight years old. He abused alcohol and cocaine, and faced a wide array of financial, marital, and legal problems. Both cocaine and alcohol were found in Corder's blood after the crash. The D.C. Medical Examiner ruled Corder's death a suicide. The Review did not discover information inconsistent with this conclusion.

Although Corder had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the policies of the Clinton administration and expressed antipathy to President Clinton, there is no evidence that the purpose of the flight was to harm the President or any other Secret Service protectee. Prior to this incident, Corder had not come to the attention of the Secret Service as a potential threat to its protectees. It appears that by crashing onto the White House lawn, Corder was attempting to fulfill an ambition he had expressed to friends to kill himself "in a big way" by flying an airplane into the White House or the dome of the Capitol.

where a pilot on an Egyptian airline was alleged to have committed suicide by plane crash.

There had also been an Air France hijacking attempt around the Christmas holidays in the late 1990's. The hijackers had not only demanded fuel but additional explosives. The French, far more clever than US "conservative" propagandists and apparatchikkii, realized that the hijackers planned to turn the hijacked airliner into a guided cruise missile, and stormed the plane.

For that matter, Tom Clancy, a favorite writer of right-wingers, had postulated a disgruntled airline pilot crashing his airliner into the US Capitol in his thriller Debt of Honor. Debt of Honor was published in the mid-1990's.

Clearly Buckaroo Bush and the neo-con cabal he was listening to were all too busy with their plans for invading Iraq and feeling too smug about their supposed superiority over Bill Clinton to be bothered with either thinking of such possibilities or preparing for countermeasures before September 11th, 2001.

If I have said it once I have said it 1000 times. A traditional hijacking would have affected those crew members and those passengers, what are they chooped liver? A potential hijacking, "traditional" or any other f*&^%$# kind that has been threatened is just that, a "f*&^%$" threat. The airlines should have been put on higher alert like they were over the millineium, these dumb assess did NOTHING. These Mother F*^%$#s could have prevented this tragedy. I'm sorry for my ranting anger but as an airline employee this is pure arrogant bulls&^%.

It has pissed me off from day one that their excuse was to use the phrase traditional hijacking, every hijacking is a disaster, in at least it shows our vulnerablility and lack of preparedness which emboldens others to use airlines, their crews and passengers as pawns in terrorism. It was a worthless line of reasoning then and it still is, when is the media going to call them on this.

n/t

Bush asleep at the wheel resulting in the needless deaths of countless people.

According to Cynthia McKinney, while Bush was at Crawford ignoring the August 6
"Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" memo, he had 24-hour fighter cover
over the ranch.

http://www.counterpunch.org/mckinney0918.html

an executive order to start the process of martial law in fla!!

http://sun6.dms.state.fl.us/eog_new/eog/orders/2001/september/eo2001-261-09-07-01.html

in Genoa Italy BEFORE 9/11.

There are upwards of 16,000 troops and police on duty - some reports say more than 20,000. The centre of the ancient city has been declared a "red zone" and sealed off with steel barriers. The airport, rail stations and the seaport have been closed to civilian traffic. There are missile batteries at the airport to counter any terrorist threat.Around 700 would-be protesters have been turfed out of Genoa, including several Britons.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theissues/article/0,,524209,00.html

;)

I'd be jumping up and down and screaming if I were giving this interview.

bush 911 victims funeral

What the hell is so funny?

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" - Barbara "Old-Crass-Ass" Bush

babs is THRILLED - Poppy is so proud

They appear even more grief stricken then everyone else in that pic. I can't help but wonder if they knew...Bill was, afterall, pressured by PNAC to invade Iraq.

Just wow. "Every picture tells a story, don't it.."

Cry at weddings, laugh at funerals.

possibility that she is the illegitimate daughter of the personage pictured below.






Joseph Cannon ran the story a couple of months ago:

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/04/george-w-bush-barbara-bush-and.html

while I was reading, I couldn't help but think of "Rosemary's Baby," Did you have a similar experience? :scared:

I would like to see more, if not all of them.

The hijackers took control of the airplanes like any other criminal wanting to take a plane by force through fear and intimidation. It became "untraditional" when the planes did not turn towards Cuba you lying bitch.

Standard procedure should have been followed as soon as the first transponder was shut off, as soon as the first plane changed course. Where were the fighter jets!

"New Pearl Harbor" to make themselves and their "contibutors" richer, that is: Trillion$ richer).

"NORAD had drills of jets as weapons
By Steven Komarow and Tom Squitieri, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm
WASHINGTON — In the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted exercises simulating what the White House says was unimaginable at the time: hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass casualties.

One of the imagined targets was the World Trade Center."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm




"PNAC 101
From Demopedia
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/PNAC_101
RISE OF THE NEOCONS
George W. Bush constantly reminds the nation about the threat of terrorism that began with 9/11 but he leaves out a few important details that you should know........."
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/PNAC_101

PNAC - Project for the New American Century
Edited on Wed Feb-15-06 07:30 AM by Roland99
Overview
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x223

"Even though the United States government denies that they did not know that an attack such as 9/11 was coming, U.S. officials and the media magically announced within hours of the attacks that it was 19 Muslim "terrorists" (along with their names and pictures) that 'hijacked' the doomed flights and were also agents of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda "network".

'99 Report Warned Of Suicide Hijacking
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/17/attack/main509471.shtml

CIA Director George Tenet warned Congressmen of “an imminent attack on the United States of this nature.”
From National Public Radio’s on-the-scene reporting during the attacks: “I spoke with Congressman Ike Skelton—a Democrat from Missouri and a member of the Armed Services Committee—who said that just recently the Director of the CIA warned that there could be an attack—an imminent attack—on the United States of this nature. So this is not entirely unexpected.” Listen to the audio clip: http://www.thememoryhole.org/tenet-911.mp3

On September 10, 2001, San Francisco’s mayor was warned against flying to New York the next morning.
Around 10:00 PM on September 10--not exactly business hours--San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was advised to use extreme caution if flying the next morning to New York City. Brown refuses to say exactly who gave him the prescient warning, citing only “my security people at the airport.” Source: San Francisco Chronicle.

On September 10, 2001, high-ranking Pentagon officials canceled travel plans for the morning of September 11.

From Newsweek: “On Sept. 10, Newsweek has learned, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns.”

Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial aircraft in July 2001.

Attorneys General fly in commercial airplanes. Janet Reno did. John Ashcroft did. That is, he did up until July 2001. When asked why Ashcroft had suddenly started flying in leased private jets, an FBI spokesman said, “There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines.” The FBI, the Justice Department, and Ashcroft himself all refused to say what the threat was. Source: CBS News.

source:

http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id2672/pg1/

USA Today - NORAD had drills of jets as weapons

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm

CBS - Prior Knowledge (1 minute video clip)

http://terrorize.dk/911/news/911.cbs.cia.knew.too.wmv

Report: FBI Informant Knew 9/11 Hijackers - The Associated Press:

http://newsmine.org/archive/9-11/questions/fbi-informant-knew-911-hijackers.txt

"A Closer Look" - Ignored Warnings (3 minute video clip):

http://terrorize.dk/911/news/911.news.ignored.warnings.rm



CrimindiLie$a was out to buy shoo$... grrrrrrrrrr

n/t

They got themselves out of town, out of harm's way.

I used to post this endlessly. They knew, they flew.

Usually, they're taking planes OUT of US airspace, right?

(where company includes the agencies created by the W gang),

But the traditional intel agencies were concerned about non-traditional attacks - remember the August 6, 2001 Daily Presidential Briefing about Osama being intent on attacking inside the US? I guess you don't remember.
Though perhaps we should make a distinction between the higher and the lower echelon within the agencies, since investigations into suspected terrorist money trails were blocked from up high.

she as well as the president ought to be sitting in a prison!!

fly..a now retired flight crew of one of the airlines involved!

:eyes:

For a traditional hijacking. In any case where the airplane is suspected of being hijacked, or potential danger to our country, NORAD always has fighter jets on standby, ready to take to the air at literally a minute's notice in order to intercept and investigate the suspect airplace.

No better example of this is when Payne Stewart went down. Literally with in a few minutes after Stewart's Learjet deviated from the given path, two fighter jets were in the air and had intercepted the Learjet. They then proceeded to accompany the plane cross country, handing it off to another pair of fighter over the Midwest. These fighters watched it run out of fuel and go down.

Yet breaking with a standing order nearly forty years old, on 911 NORAD fighter jets didn't show up on the scene until well after the damage was done, despite having an hour's notice or more that the planes were hijacked and off course. Who countermanded this standing order(And it would have to have been somebody high up in the military or political food chain)? Why were the jets and their pilots prevented from doing their job? Why was our country left unprotected during its hour of need?

This is just but one set of questions that continue to dog 911. And sadly, much like other unsolved mysteries about the Kennedys' and King assasination, we will probably never know the truth.