Why didn't Cheney have the Pentagon evacuated?

According to the testimony under oath by Norman Mineta at the 9/11 Commission hearing a young man would come into the Presidential Emergency Operating Center at the White House and say to VP Cheney:

The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out.' And when it got down to, 'The plane is 10 miles out,' the young man also said to the vice president, 'Do the orders still stand?' And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, 'Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?

The flight Mineta was referring to was "the flight that came into the Pentagon"

www.9-11commission.gov...




We can merely speculate about what those orders actually were (ie to have the plane shot down or not have the plane shot down)

According to witnesses at the Pentagon, they received absolutely no warning until the plane actually struck the Pentagon.
Is it not unforgivable that Cheney did nothing instead of ensuring the alarm was raised at the Pentagon so that more lives could potentially have been saved?

Surely this is criminal negligence as Cheney was well aware that the US was not only already under attack but that a plane was 50, 30, 10 miles from the Pentagon (which incidentally is under P-56 prohibited airspace)

Whether you believe that the government was complicit in the 9/11 attacks or not, why on earth didn't Cheney have the Pentagon evacuated?

I've seen no indication that the target was known to be the Pentagon and 10 miles out amounts to less than 2 minutes at the speed of the plane.
Should all of Washington been evacuated?

reply to post by cams


Because Mineta is talking about Flight 93.

Surely this is criminal negligence as Cheney was well aware that the US was not only already under attack but that a plane was 50, 30, 10 miles from the Pentagon (which incidentally is under P-56 prohibited airspace)

Whether you believe that the government was complicit in the 9/11 attacks or not, why on earth didn't Cheney have the Pentagon evacuated?

P-56 airspace doesn't quite cover the Pentagon.

No one knew that the Pentagon was the target.

Just one of those things...no one was ready for a bunch of crazy Arabs baring down on DC.

no weird conspiracy or anything- just like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ..it was a surprise. That’s all.

Mineta was definitely referring to the Pentagon. In fact he not only mentions it once, he qualifies it a second time when asked by Hamilton...

MR. MINETA: No, I was not. I was made aware of it during the time that the airplane coming into the Pentagon. There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, "The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to, "The plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" Well, at the time I didn't know what all that meant. And --

MR. HAMILTON: The flight you're referring to is the --

MR. MINETA: The flight that came into the Pentagon

MR. HAMILTON: The Pentagon, yeah

www.9-11commission.gov...

They didn’t know at the time that the flight was heading for the Pentagon. In hind sight, as in this interview, we now know the final result. It could have hit a number of targets at that point.

still does not explain what those orders were. they were tracking a plane. ten miles out and they were following it. they knew it was there, so why did they not stop it? what were the orders!?

What “the orders” were is irrelevant to the question the OP is asking. At the time of the conversation the target was not known to be the Pentagon.

At the time of the interview that these quotes were taken from, the target was known.

The Pentagon shouldn’t have been evacuated any more then any of the other dozens of possible targets.

While it is debatable whether anyone knew the Pentagon was a a target or not, people on this thread are successfully trying to hide THIS fact:

It had been at least 45 minutes since both the towers were struck. Cheney KNEW it would be hitting SOMETHING.

You would believe after New York was hit, our national captial would of
been ready with planes in the skies to defend the Capital. Theres two main targets in DC. The whitehouse and the Pentagon. So, dont give me theres many targets in DC to hit.

Originally posted by driveshaft08
You would believe after New York was hit, our national captial would of
been ready with planes in the skies to defend the Capital. Theres two main targets in DC. The whitehouse and the Pentagon. So, dont give me theres many targets in DC to hit.

What about the Capital building and Congress? Aren't they a target?

What about Andrews AFB? Sure, they aren't in downtown DC, but they are close. Could they a target?

So, I added two more possible targets just off the top of my head.

Should all of them been evacuated? Who was going to man systems in the Pentagon? Was everyone just to hang out in the parking lot, smoking and joking, instead of doing their jobs?

reply to post by sir_chancealot

It had been at least 45 minutes since both the towers were struck. Cheney KNEW it would be hitting SOMETHING.

Actually, it was only 35 minutes. No one knew where flight 77 was until around 9:30 a.m., with the exception of the hijackers.

Air traffic controller Daniel O'Brien was the first to notice flight 77 approaching Washington.

"Our supervisor picked up our line to the White House and started relaying to them the information [that] we have an unidentified, very fast-moving aircraft inbound toward your vicinity, 8 miles west," O'Brien said. Link

Norman Mineta overheard the FAA projecting Flight 93's approach to Washington, the same as these guys did:

At about 10:15 a.m. on September 11, the WFO Command Center was notified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that another airliner, United Airlines Flight #93, was hijacked after taking off from Newark, NJ, and was flying on a course from western Pennsylvania toward the Washington Metropolitan Area. The FAA estimated it would reach Washington, DC, in 20 minutes. The Command Center relayed the information to Special Agent Combs at the ACFD ICP who alerted Chief Schwartz. Special Agent Combs located a Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority (WMAA) firefighter equipped with a radio and confirmed the information about Flight #93. Chief Schwartz ordered a complete area evacuation, directing the response force to relative safety beneath nearby highway overpasses. Special Agent Combs stayed at Chief Schwartz’ side, giving him updates as the FAA tracked the course of Flight #93. The last update came when the airliner was 4 minutes away from the Pentagon. Five minutes later, Special Agent Combs reported to Chief Schwartz that Flight #93 had crashed into Camp David in Maryland. In fact, it crashed in a field near Shanksville, PA. Chief Schwartz sounded the all clear. page C46

According to witnesses at the Pentagon, they received absolutely no warning until the plane actually struck the Pentagon.

Why didn't evacuate Pentagon

1) No knowledge it would be hit - Nobody knew that Flight 77 was
hijacked until appeared on radar just outside WASH DC. Air traffic
had assumed it had crashed. Even if could have picked it up
sooner tell me how could figure out where it was going until last
few minutes when committed itself

2) Not enough time - explain how can clear building size of Pentagon
in 5 minutes? Supposed it was evacuated you now have thousands of
people standing in the open right outside - aka a target rich environment

OK: here's what we know. Assuming the testimony is accurate, we can deduce the following:

* It was known there was an aircraft
* It was known it was going to hit something in a known location - 50 miles out... 30 miles out... relative to what point???? The North Pole?! You get my point.

So... the "orders" must have been *not* to shoot it down. The orders still stood, and it crashed into a building.

Does it need to be any clearer what happened???

I guess the United States doesnt have a Air Force to defend our Country.Or radars to see planes. And people to do there jobs right.

He didn't evacuate because he knew HE was safe. It is obvious that the whole thing had been planned months if not years prior. They needed a big reason to start a big war............ can't believe they duped us again.

The media machine must be dis-assembled.

peace

wasn't he over at the local hagen daz getting some ice cream? lol

You know, everyone has theories... the scariest theory is the one I have,

No one is in charge of anything, secret societies and new world orders and world leaders have about as much actual control of anything as a mom over a kid throwing a tanturm, there is so much red tape in the world it's hard to know what is going on and govt is so big the president himself might not have awnsers to some of the same questions we do...

It's all just chaos

Why was Cheney in charge in the first place?

Was it normal to have a vice president in charge of the military?

I dunno, I gues Bush knows him, I mean heck if the guy can unload a rifle into his friends face for mouthing off or whatever that poor sob did to make Cheeny mad, why not give him all the guns lol

reply to post by Boone 870


Sometimes it blows my mind some of the things that are posted here...Im curious boone if a hijacked jet is headed towards the dc area and it is known ahead of time that they are going to crash the plane ...where or what other targets would there be in dc other than the white house , and the pentagon???

Please humor me? And be specific I worked in dc for 7 years.