Pentagon Denies Rumsfeld Authorized Plane Take Down (moved from ATSNN), page 1

posted on May, 25 2005 @ 01:17 PM

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The Pentagon has denied reports that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized NORAD to shoot down a plane that strayed into restricted airspace over the White House in early May, prompting an emergency evacuation. Previously, the Washington Post had quoted two anonymous top level officials stating that Rumsfeld had authorized the action.

news.yahoo.com
"The secretary of defense never did any of the things he was alleged to have done," he said. "The secretary, in particular, never gave the authority that was alleged by the sources in that story."

The Washington Post, citing two senior federal officials as sources, said Rumsfeld gave military officials authority to shoot down the plane, if necessary. One of the officials said it came with "15 or 20" seconds of being downed before heeding warnings to turn away from the city.

DiRita said Rumsfeld was informed about what was going on and available in case any decisions had to be made, but did not authorize the military to shoot the plane down.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

What's the lesson here? Any time a media outlet cites anonymous sources, you had best take what they say with a large grain, or rock of salt.

Here is the Washington Post article.
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[edit on 2005/5/25 by wecomeinpeace]

Jehosephat

posted on May, 25 2005 @ 01:55 PM

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Offical word is that he didn't, the unoffical word says he did.

Sounds like good ol petagon politics to me

subz

posted on May, 25 2005 @ 02:01 PM

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Doesnt NORAD have the authority to shoot down planes without authorization from the President or Sec Def?

wecomeinpeace

posted on May, 25 2005 @ 02:15 PM

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And here's a picture of Rummy describing how the plane flew.

VRRRROOOOOOOMMMM...PP-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P...NEEYYYOOWWWWW~~