Car Bomb Explodes Outside Pentagon: A 9-11 Diversion?

The other article talks about the physical effects on the aircraft at impact. That should answer your question.

ECK, you've been asked to back up your initial claim with links or other data that a car bomb at the Pentagon was reported before the plane struck the Pentagon.

Others have shown evidence to the contrary, and evidence that reports of a car bomb at the State Department were later corrected & retracted by the media.

If all you're going on is your memory of the events... well, that's not evidence. That's remembered info muddled by two and a half years of time passing and hate.

-B.

oh wait...we cant find any internet links....time to shut down the coversation...

I remember it aswell...It was probably set off to scare people out of the pentagon to reduce casualties...after all these were government personal and not innocent people like in the trade towers..

Lets keep this debate going just for spite

I, too, see this as a useful debate. Afterall, what else is this site for? Discussion and debate. This is a valid thread that people have contributed to and viewed. To shut it down would sort of support my contention, would it not? The state apperatus pushing their version would like nothing better than to see a discussion of this nature shut down. No one has flamed anyone, and ideas have been bandied about. That is useful when trying to sort out all of the extraneous details. Do you not agree, Banshee?

To be fair Banshee my only involvment in this thread is I remember the reports of the car bomb as clear as day, they were on BBC and CNN. After I never saw it mentioned again but I may have missed reports of a retraction of these claims, so I just wanted that clearing up.

Do you have links to reports retracting the car bomb story? If you do that would be great. Thanks.

Have at it.
Archive of news reportings on 9-11 10:06am EST - 1ish EST

Remember that most information on that day was via TV & radio. I don't know of any online archive of 9-11 news as it happened other than this.

Sarcasm duly noted, BTW.

-B.

Oh, I resent that Banshee, you don't know me very well do you? I was being serious, I was just asking for a link and thanking you in advance.
I'm a nice guy for Christ's sake, I guess it just doesn't pay to have manners these days.

[Edited on 11-3-2004 by John Nada]

Remember that most information on that day was via TV & radio. I don't know of any online archive of 9-11 news **as it happened** other than this.

Here's some of what I've found...

As If Reality Wasn't Bad Enough

Dan Rather spread alarmist rumors on September 11

By Jim Naureckas

In a national emergency like the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the first thing required from the news media is accurate information. Unfortunately, TV journalists too often delivered misinformation instead. One who did so repeatedly was CBS News' Dan Rather.
www.fair.org...

This site is no good:

TCM Breaking News - 2001/09/11: Car bombing outside of State ...
TCM Archives > TCM Breaking News > 2001/09/11
> Car bombing outside of State Department. ...
archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2001/09/11/story23319.asp - 25k - Cached - Similar pages

Been scrubbed, maybe?

An article from Slate.msn.com:

Bruland passes on a rumor that a car bomb has exploded at the State Department. We race over to Foggy Bottom and find utter quiet. A State Department cop says of the bomb rumor, "That's unconfirmed, sir." We walk the perimeter of the building, and find no sign of a bomb or any other chaos. Yet when we return to the Slate bureau at 12:05 p.m., National Public Radio is reporting that a bomb has indeed exploded near Foggy Bottom. Perhaps there was a bomb elsewhere, or there was no bomb at all. It's impossible to know anything this morning.
slate.msn.com...

Excellent diversion, huh?

Colin Powell to Nato en route back to Washington:

"You may have gotten an earlier report that there was a car bomb outside the State Department, but that is not the case."
www.nato.int...

Nato was worried about it. No small thing.

Pentagon attacked

by Ron Fournier
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon was struck by aircraft, a car bomb exploded outside the State Department and agents patrolled outside the White House with automatic weapons Tuesday as an apparent coordinated terrorist attack spread fear and chaos in the nation's capital.
www.savannahnow.com...

"The day didn't just end at [the Pennsylvania crash of United Airlines Flight] 93," said Army Brig. Gen. W. Montague Winfield, who was at the Pentagon that day. "We were responding to possible hijackings. … We had a car bomb reported at the State Department."

"It ran on the crawler on the TV that a car bomb had exploded outside the State Department," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said. "I went out and looked with diplomatic security and didn't see anything, called my colleagues around town and, on the video conference screen, told them there was nothing to it."
abcnews.go.com...

From Poynter:

8:41 NBC cuts to correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, who reports from the Pentagon that the building just shook and he sees construction workers scattering from the area. “It appears to be a small blast. Windows rattled. The building shook.” He promises more details as soon as he can gather them. “Please be careful,” urges Katie Couric.


8:42 ABC’s Clair Shipman reports smoke coming from behind the Old Executive Office Building. There is video of the smoke, from a camera position near Lafayette Park. No definitive word on what we are seeing.

NBC’s Miklaszewski is back with word that the Pentagon is being cleared. “This appears to be a highly sophisticated, coordinated attack.”

CBS reports from the Pentagon that the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine has claimed responsibility for the acts.

8:44 ABC reports a fire at the Pentagon and evacuation of personnel.

9:32 ABC reports that an American Airlines headed from Dulles to LA was hijacked, with 60 passengers and crew on board. Jennings reads an AP report of an car bomb outside the State Department.
www.poynter.org...


There are many reports. All of a car bomb outside the State Department, not the Pentagon. At least I havn't seen any on that. So, I was wrong on that part. Apologies.

The bottom line, though, is that if Colin Powell had to re-assure Nato that there was no bomb at State, it was taken very seriously. I do believe it was an attempt to divert attention away from the big target: whatever it was that went into the Pentagon.

[Edited on 19-09-2003 by EastCoastKid]

Thanks for finding those, ECK.
There was a lot of confusion that morning and a lot of incorrect reports.
I wouldn't call that diversion, though.
When you report news and are faced with a breaking story of this magnitude, all you can do is go on what you've got. Witnesses will report seeing smoke somewhere, and you get that word out because people want to know. After confirming the information, some of it will prove to be false in some way.

The same thing plays out in any breaking news situation. Trust me.

-B.

I don't doubt that for one second Banshee, but there was never a retraction of the story which is what's always bugged me about it. I heard it on 3 seperate news sources including CNN and BBC, but after even years passed I just let it go as I assumed that it had been retracted.
However, ever since ECK mentioned it I've looked into it and found no retractions from ANY of the 3 sources. Sure, these things play sometimes but out of 3 one of them was bound to have retracted the story, they nearly always do, trust me.

I think we can be certain this bomb didn't take place, but I'm certainly going to look into it now as it's got my attention.

You're right, John Nada. They simply swept the story under the rug. It does bear further looking into.

I'm well aware of what the media pulls, Banshee. You have no idea how well I know.

And diversions do happen. When needed. When you are not trained in the art, you do not recognize it. That's the "beauty" of it.



[Edited on 19-09-2003 by EastCoastKid]

you are right they did report that they also had a witness on the ground not sure if it was live or by phone who said they were clearing people away because they thought there was a bomb

"Within the hour, an aircraft crashed on a helicopter landing pad near the Pentagon, a car bomb exploded outside the State Department, and the West Wing of the White House was evacuated amid threats of terrorism. And another explosion rocked New York about an hour after the crash."

www.staugustine.com...


[06:42] how long ago did all of this styart ?
[06:42] lphabuck> confirmed bomb blew up at pentagon heliport

[06:44] alphabuck...where did you hear confirmed bomb at Pentagon?
[06:44] haronelle> Wender - right - Israelis can't simply complain about terrorist acts - they have to act to solve the underlying problem.
[06:44] juleee....near NY...I think
[06:44] KenBz, the behaviour of the US is hardly analogous to that of Israel
[06:44] pentagon being evacuated
[06:44] * CarlSwanson would hate to be one of the men on the roof of the White House, watching everyone else being evacuated
[06:44] *** Quits: juleee (QUIT: User exited )
[06:44] lphabuck> pixy...live video on messybc
[06:44] shooby, I don't mind being reprimanded, but at least try to impress me with the typing, too. Okey doke?
[06:44] PixyStix its on nbc


www.newsgarden.org...

I also remember hearing that on my way to work.

Once I heard them say an airplane had flown into the building, I just assumed that's what had made the noise and explosion and they had just got it wrong on the first report.

Yeah man, your mom is part of the conspiracy to cover up... ummmm.... what exactly would the cover up be? I think wee should get your mom on here and interrogate her for answers!!!

I do remember hearing something about a car bomb. I also remember thinking to myself "They just crashed airplanes into buildings, why are they using car bombs, those are like firecrackers compared to this?"

However, I also remember hearing about an explosion in London and the Capitol being smashed to bits. We were in my AP Gov class, oddly enough, and we actually drew a map of where all the attacks were taking palce on the chalkboard. It was like a war room. I distinctly remember a classmate erasing the Capitol Building on the map when it was later corrected.

That was a very tense time. People were going on anything they could get.

Perhaps a little late to reply to this, but I'm newly registered.

I have to disagree with this statement. First off, are you saying that the entire tail section was burned up in the ensuing fire, but the tires did not? Secondly, I've provided links that show that the tail section usually survives intact (or at least recognizable as the tail section):


www.planecrashinfo.com...

www.planecrashinfo.com...

www.planecrashinfo.com...

www.planecrashinfo.com...

www.planecrashinfo.com...

I'm not saying that I believe an airliner didn't hit the Pentagon, but just saying that there seems to be no debris of substance to be 100% certain.