"Complete 911 Timeline Military Exercises Up to 9-11", page 1

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"September 8, 2001: High Level Air Force Discussions Call for Dismantling NORAD’s Alert Sites The future of “continental air sovereignty” over America is in doubt. Discussions at the Air Force’s highest levels call for the dismantling of NORAD’s seven “alert” sites around the US and its command and control structure. [Filson, 2004, pp. 149] Earlier in the summer of 2001, “a reduction in air defenses had been gaining currency in recent months among task forces assigned by [Defense Secretary] Rumsfeld to put together recommendations for a reassessment of the military.”(see Summer 2001)
Entity Tags: US Department of the Air Force, North American Aerospace Defense Command
Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline
Category Tags: Counterterrorism Before 9/11, Military Exercises

September 9-11, 2001: NORAD Begins Northern Vigilance Military Operation NORAD begins Operation Northern Vigilance. For this military operation, it deploys fighters to Alaska and Northern Canada to monitor a Russian air force exercise in the Russian Arctic and North Pacific Ocean, scheduled for September 10 to September 14. The Russian exercise involves its bombers staging a mock attack against NATO planes that are supposedly planning an assault on Russia. [BBC, 2001, pp. 161; NORAD, 9/9/2001; Washington Times, 9/11/2001] The NORAD fighters are due to stay in Alaska and Canada until the end of the Russian exercise. At some time between 10:32 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. on 9/11, Russian President Vladimir Putin will call the White House to say the Russians are voluntarily halting their exercise. [Washington Post, 1/27/2002] It is unknown from which bases NORAD sends fighters for Operation Northern Vigilance, and how many US military personnel are involved. However, in December 2000, it took similar action—called Operation Northern Denial—in response to a “smaller scale” Russian “long-range aviation activity in northern Russia and the Arctic.” More than 350 American and Canadian military personnel were involved on that occasion. [Canadian Chief of Defense Staff, 5/30/2001, pp. 6 ; NORAD, 9/9/2001]
Entity Tags: Bush administration, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Operation Northern Vigilance, Vladimir Putin
Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline
Category Tags: Military Exercises

Before September 11, 2001: US Government Prepares for Hijackings, Some of Them Involving Multiple-Planes Based on interviews with FBI officials, the New Yorker reports that, for several years prior to 9/11, the US government plans for “simulated terrorist attacks, including scenarios [involving] multiple-plane hijackings.” This presumably refers to more than just the Amalgam Virgo 02 exercise (see July 2001), which is based on the scenario of two planes being simultaneously hijacked. [New Yorker, 9/24/2001] Similarly, NORAD will state that before 9/11, it normally conducted four major exercises each year at headquarters level. Most of them included a hijack scenario, and some of them were apparently quite similar to the 9/11 attacks (see Between 1991 and 2001) (see 1999-September 11, 2001). [USA Today, 4/18/2004; CNN, 4/19/2004] John Arquilla, an associate professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, later says that while “No one knew specifically that 20 people would hijack four airliners and use them for suicide attacks against major buildings… the idea of such an attack was well known, [and] had been war gamed as a possibility in exercises before Sept. 11.” [Monterey County Herald, 7/18/2002]
Entity Tags: North American Aerospace Defense Command, United States
Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline
Category Tags: Military Exercises"