reply to post by Boone 870
Thanks for the link. It is interesting, although disturbing in that the Air Base closest to the capital and the home of Air Force One, did not have
fighter wings dedicated to air defense. Especially as it should be kitted to the max, since it should be base 1 for defending the civilian and
military headquarters of the U.S. Of course, as I mentioned before, Andrews fighters were mostly in North carolina on some exercise, it was the
Langley jets that were called in.
Anyways, the point I was generally trying to make was not that I believe there was an official "stand down" order of any sort. Like i said, I
believe the FAA and NORAD tried the best they could under the circumstances, still shackled by outdated SOPs and defense procedures. I do not believe
the military or civilian aviation authorities were deliberately refusing to act. As soon as they got the orders, they flew and reacted based on the
information they were given. Which was often confused, garbled, or incomplete. The slow response was totally NOT NORAD or the FAA or the military's
fault. They do not make failed policies and proceedures, they only try to enforce them the best the can.
My point is that I suspect a deliberate dragging of feet/delaying of action at the much higher levels of command, in otherwords, the executive branch.
The BIG wigs, the civies who can make a five star general nervous. In otherwords, the current administration. Do I believe everyone at the top was
directly involved? No. I do however think that certain key officials were deliberately slow and lackladaisial. We already have public officials
admitting some forknowledge, though they generally claim this intel wasn't specific or clear enough.
Given the tapdancing and stonewalling of the 9/11 commision by the Bush administration, the omissions and blackouts, I will continue to hold my
suspicions that certain key individuals were more purposefully passive. I am one of those people that would like a new 9/11 investigation. Not because
I wish to prove a bunch of conspiracy theories, because I don't. I was not satisfied with the original 9/11 Commision, which I felt was sloppy and
too lax in its investigation. It was not very thorough, either, and the full NIST reports had not been released.
Not to mention it was sorely underfunded. Given that it was the deadliest peacetime terrorist attack in US history and our trillion dollar defenses
failed, I would have though it merited alot more funding, effort, and determination than it did.