W
What Me Worry?
Guest
http://911research.wtc7.net/
9-11 Anomalies
Anomalies of the September 11th Attack, Its Run-Up, and Response
Accepting the official story of the 9/11/01 attack requires one to accept a
long series of anomalies -- extremely improbable events, amazing
coincidences, and contradictions. This page lists many such anomalies. The
Top Anomalies page focuses on the more salient ones. The anomalies described
on this page are organized into the following topics:
Run-up to the attack
Hijacking scenario
(Lack of) military response
World Trade Center destruction
Pentagon attack
Death toll
Coincidences in service of incompetence
Government response
Means, motive, and precedent
Run-Up to the Attack
Numerous incidents preceding the attack indicate many people had advance
knowledge of the attack.
Put Options
Stock trades bet on the fall in share values for the two airlines
whose planes were used in the attack.
o Put options purchases on United Airlines and American Airlines
stock rose to four and 25 times normal levels in the days preceding the
attack. 1 2
Avoidance of the Airlines, the WTC, and the Pentagon
Government officials and executives avoided the targets of the attack.
o Pentagon officials canceled travel plans on September 10th. 3
o San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown received a warning not to fly
on September 10th. 4
o Scotland Yard prohibited Salman Rushdie from flying on September
11th. 5
o Two employees of Odigo, the instant messaging service, received
e-mail warnings of the attack two hours before the first assault on the WTC.
6
o Business executives, some of whom worked in the WTC, were in
Nebraska to attend a meeting at Offutt Air Force Base hosted by billionaire
Warren Buffett on the morning of September 11th. The same base would be
visited later that day by George W. Bush. 7
Hijacking Scenario
The attack scenario was irrational on the part of the alleged hijackers, and
its execution is incomprehensible in light of their behavior. There is
little or no credible evidence that Arab hijackers were involved in the
September 11th attack, except in the takeover of Flight 93.
Attack Plan
By flying from remote airports and going far out of their way, the
attack planners exposed their plan to almost certain ruin, had the air
defense system operated normally.
o The originating airport for Flights 11 and 175 was Boston Logan
instead of any of several airports near New York City. This created about 40
minutes of exposure to interception for each flight.
o Flight 77 flew to the Midwest before turning around to return to
Washington D.C.. It was airborne an hour and 23 minutes before allegedly
attacking the Pentagon. That would provide ample opportunity for
interception even if the air defense system were mostly disabled.
o Flight 93 flew to the Midwest before turning around to fly
toward Washington D.C. Had it reached the capital, it would have been
airborne for more than an hour and a half. The odds of escaping interception
with that plan would be infinitesimal under standard operating procedures.
Behavior of Villains
The behavior of the alleged hijackers preceding the attack is
inconsistent with skill and discipline needed to have a hope of pulling off
such an attack.
o Mohammed Atta allegedly barely caught Flight 11, a key flight in
the event that he was supposedly planning for years.
o The alleged hijackers partied at topless bars and drank alcohol,
despite being portrayed as fundamentalist Muslims, for whom such behavior
would be surprising, to say the least. 8
Evidence Void
There is no hard evidence that any of the alleged hijackers were on
any of the doomed flights, and substantial evidence that some weren't
involved.
o No video of any of the 19 hijackers at any of the three
originating airports of the four flights has been made public, except for a
video allegedly showing hijackers of Flight 77.
o At least six of the alleged hijackers have turned up alive since
the attack.
o None of the four flight crews radioed Air Traffic Control about
hijackings in progress.
o None of the four flight crews punched in the four-digit
hijacking code. 9
o No public evidence indicates that the remains of any of the
hijackers was identified at any of the crash sites.
o None of the contents of any of the black boxes have been made
public.
o The only 4-1/2 minutes of the phone call from Flight 11
Attendant Betty Ong made public describes a stabbing but does not provide
any details indicating that Arab hijackers were on board.
Phenomenal Success
The success with which hijackers allegedly took over four jets with
knives and then piloted the jets to small targets is simply miraculous.
o None of the four flight crews were able to stop the alleged
hijackers, in spite of several of the pilots being Vietnam veterans.
o None of the alleged hijackers were good pilots, yet the three
buildings were hit with phenomenal precision.
(Lack of) Military Response
Despite normal intercept times of between 10 and 20 minutes for errant
domestic flights, the airliners commandeered on 9/11/01 roamed the skies for
over an hour without interference.
Failures to Report
According to NORAD's timeline the FAA reported errant airliners after
inexplicable delays.
o The FAA took 18 minutes to report Flight 11's loss of
communication and deviation from its flight plan.
o The FAA took 39 minutes to report Flight 77's deviation from its
flight plan.
Failures to Scramble
Interceptors were only scrambled from distant bases after long delays.
o Despite the fact that Flights 11 and 175 were headed for New
York City, no interceptors were scrambled from nearby La Guardia, or from
Langley, Virginia.
o Despite NORAD's having received formal notification of the first
hijacking at 8:38, no interceptors were scrambled from Andrews to protect
the nearby Pentagon until after it was hit at 9:37.
Failures to Intercept
Once in the air, interceptors flew at only small fractions of their
top speeds, assuring they would fail to intercept the airliners.
o The two F-15s scrambled from Otis AFB to chase Flight 11 flew at
an average of 447 mph, about 23.8% of their top speed of 1875 mph.
o The two F-16s scrambled from Langley to protect the capital flew
at an average of 410.5 mph, about 27.4% of their top speed of 1500 mph.
Failures to Redeploy
Nearby fighters on routine patrol duty were not redeployed to
intercept the airliners, nor were fighters that belatedly reached Manhattan
sent to defend the capital.
o Two F-15s flying off the coast of Long Island were not
redeployed to Manhattan until after the second tower was hit.
o The two F-15s scrambled from Otis AFB to protect Manhattan could
have reached the capital in 9.6 minutes once they arrived over New York
City. That was still 34 minutes before the Pentagon was hit.
World Trade Center Destruction
On 9/11/01 three skyscrapers were totally destroyed, with structural
collapse primarily due to fires given as the explanation. Fires and bombings
have never before or since caused steel-frame buildings to collapse.
Building 7
Building 7 imploded late on 9/11/01. It was not hit by an aircraft.
o Building 7 experienced total collapse, allegedly because of
fires, when no steel-frame building before or since has ever collapsed,
totally or even partially, due to fires. Building 7 was an over-engineered
47-story steel-frame skyscraper, standing over 350 feet from the nearest of
the Twin Towers. Public evidence documents only small fires in it on
September 11th.
o Building 7 collapsed in a nearly perfectly vertical fall,
producing only minor damage in the Verizon and Post Office buildings only 60
feet on either side of it.
o Building 7 collapsed into a remarkably small rubble pile of
mostly pulverized remains, when no steel building falling for any reason has
ever pulverized itself.
o Building 7 contained a 15-million-dollar emergency command
center, but instead of using it for its ostensible purpose, then-Mayor
Giuliani evacuated his team to a makeshift command center as soon as the
September 11th attack started. 10 11
o The emergency command center was destroyed along with the rest
of the building, even though it was constructed as a bomb-hardened shelter.
o The remains of Building 7 were rapidly removed and the steel
recycled, evidently without any on-site and only extremely limited off-site
examination. The rapid disposal operation proceeded despite the fact that no
one was believed buried in the rubble, and the tidy rubble pile was not
blocking adjacent roads.
Twin Towers
The Twin Towers exploded into dust and shattered steel, a behavior
inconsistent with the known behavior of steel structures outside of
explosive demolition.
o The South Tower was struck 17 minutes after the North Tower, and
in a less damaging manner, and it had less severe fires, yet it collapsed 29
minutes before the North Tower.
o The South Tower's core structure was largely undamaged by the
off-centered jet impact, unlike the North Tower, yet it collapsed sooner.
o The South Tower had much less severe fires than the North Tower,
and yet collapsed sooner.
o Smoke from the fires in the South Tower became progressively
darker up to the time it collapsed.
o Firefighters reached the crash zone of the South Tower and
calmly described controllable fires.
o Both towers started to disintegrate at regions above and below
the crash zones in the first seconds of their falls.
o Both towers fell straight down, through themselves, following
the path of maximum resistance, a behavior never before observed in
spontaneous collapses of any type of vertical structure.
o The collapses of both towers exhibited features never otherwise
seen except in controlled demolitions: sudden onset accompanied by
thunderous bangs, visible explosions ringing their perimeters, energetic
ejections of dust at regular intervals, and copious production of dust.
o Both towers exploded outward and were shredded and pulverized --
a pattern of destruction much more destructive than normal controlled
demolitions, yet this result was supposedly produced without the added
energy of explosives.
Pentagon Attack
The Pentagon attack defies expectations that this prime terrorist target
would have been defended, and that a terrorist would have hit the front side
in a simple maneuver, rather than the back side in an extreme precision
aerobatic maneuver.
Wide-Open Target
The Pentagon -- the heart of the military establishment of the world's
greatest super-power -- was hit after ample warning without being protected
by any defensive action.
o The 9:37 strike was well over an hour after the first signs of a
hijacking and 34 minutes after the South Tower strike confirmed that an
attack was underway.
o The Pentagon is within 11 miles of Andrews Air Force Base, which
apparently had two combat-ready fighter wings on 9/11/01.
o The attack plane was monitored on radar as it approached the
capital.
Unlikely Super-pilot
Alleged Flight 77 pilot Hani Hanjour was not up to the task.
o The spiral dive approach to the Pentagon was such an extreme
maneuver that experienced air traffic controllers thought it was military
jet. 12 The tree-top final approach skimmed objects in the yard and
crashed the plane into the first floor of the building. Experienced pilots
have wondered if any human pilot could have executed the maneuver.
o Hani Hanjour was considered incompetent by his flight school
instructors, and was denied rental of a single-engine plane. 13
Evidence Vacuum
Authorities systematically confiscated or destroyed the evidence.
o Video recordings from adjacent businesses were seized by the FBI
shortly after the attack and have never been seen since.
o Only two video segments have been released by the Pentagon from
all the security cameras that monitor its periphery. Neither clearly shows
the attack aircraft.
o Investigators were not allowed access to the crash site until
well into October.
More Than Just a Crash
Was the crash engineered?
o A photographed scrap of aircraft debris that has markings
similar to an American Airlines 757 corresponds to the forward portion of
the starboard (right) side of the plane, yet the scrap was far to the left
of the plane's path.
o Eyewitnesses reported the smell of cordite.
o Several eyewitnesses reported that the jetliner exploded before
reaching the facade of the Pentagon.
o Portions of the facade where the wing ends and tail of a 757
would have collided show no gouging. Were these parts shredded by explosives
before they reached the facade?
Death Toll
The death toll of the attack, though horrific, was much lower than it would
have been if not for numerous aspects of target selection and timing.
Flights
All four flights were unusually empty.
o Flights 11, 175, 77, and 93 were only at 51%, 31%, 20%, and 16%
occupancy, respectively.
World Trade Center
The towers were attacked before most people had arrived, and were hit
high enough to allow most people to escape.
o When Flight 11 hit the North Tower at 8:46 AM, the World Trade
Center buildings were at less than half the occupancy of a typical mid-day.
o The first tower to be attacked was hit just 15 stories below the
top, and trapped people mostly between the 95th and 110th floors.
o The second tower to be attacked was hit only 30 stories below
the top, and the plane missed the core, allowing people to evacuate from
above the impact zone. The 17 minutes that elapsed since the first hit
allowed many people to escape the second tower while the elevators were
still working.
Pentagon
125 people were killed in a building with 20,000 people.
o The portion of the Pentagon that was attacked, the West Block,
was in the process of being renovated, and so was at low occupancy.
o No high-level Pentagon officials were killed in the attack.
Coincidences in Service of Incompetence
Many decisions and events in the days and months preceding the attack helped
to make the incompetence theory more plausible.
War Games
Several war game exercises were being conducted on 9/11/01.
o Operation Northern Vigilance redeployed northeast sector air
defense resources to northern Canada and Alaska. 14
o Operations Vigilant Warrior and Vigilant Guardian, which
simulated hijackings and involved live radar "injects," may have confused
military and civilian personnel monitoring aircraft. 15
o The National Reconnaissance Office, which monitors satellites
and airborne objects, was evacuated while the attack unfolded because it was
conducting a plane-into-tower crash drill. 16
o The Tripod II biowarfare exercise, scheduled for 9/12/01,
resulted in the deployment of FEMA to Manhattan before the attack. 17
Rules Changes
Procedural changes would limit the ability of pilots and military
commanders to respond to hijackings.
o Military orders stripped commanders in the field of autonomy in
responding to hijackings.
o The FAA banned firearm possession by commercial pilots two
months before the attack.
Out to Lunch
Top officials were not available until after the attack was over.
o President George W. Bush remained at the publicized location of
Booker Elementary School until about a half-hour after the news of the
attack went on TV worldwide, first reading My Pet Goat to second-graders,
and then holding a press conference.
o Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff allegedly remained
in a meeting with Senator Max Cleland until nearly the time the Pentagon was
hit.
o Brigadier General Montague Winfield had Navy Captain Charles J.
Leidig, Jr. -- a rookie -- assume his watch as Deputy Director for
Operations for the National Military Command Center (NMCC) at 8:30 am on
9/11/01, and relieved him after the attack was over. 18
Government Response
Despite the worst failure in history of the military to protect American
civilians, and the worst alleged engineering failures in history, there were
no consequences for the responsible authorities, and no honest
investigations.
Air Defense Failures
No one was held to account for the numerous unprecedented failures in
air defense.
o General Richard Myers, Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff on September 11th, was confirmed as Chairman on September 13th in
spite of being unable to provide any meaningful answers to questions
regarding the air defense failures.
o General Richard Eberhart, commander of NORAD on September 11th,
was promoted to head the newly created NORTHCOM. 19
o NORAD's press release contradicted early statements by
high-ranking officials that no interceptors had been scrambled on 9/11/01.
o NORAD's vague timeline raises far more questions than it
answers, yet officials have never been required to give a full account.
o The 9/11 Commission advanced a new timeline which contradicts
NORAD's earlier timeline and the testimony of military officials to the
commission itself.
Building Collapse Inquiry
The total collapses of WTC 1, 2, and 7 were the three largest
engineering failures in history (based on the official story). How were they
investigated?
o FEMA was given the sole authority to investigate the collapses
even though it is not an investigative agency.
o The investigative team assembled by FEMA consisted of unpaid
volunteers.
o The investigators were not allowed access to Ground Zero.
o The investigators were not provided with the blueprints of the
buildings.
o FEMA's report states the causes of the collapse "remain unknown
at this time". (By the time the report was released the steel had been
entirely disposed of.) The fact that Building 7 (supposedly) failed in a way
that contradicts 100 years of engineering experience makes it the largest
and least understood structural failure in history.
o The 9/11 Commission Report failed to even mention the existence
of Building 7.
o The 9/11 Commission Report denied the existence of the Twin
Towers' core structures.
o NIST's report on the collapse of the Twin Towers purports to
provide a "probable collapse sequence" for each Tower but truncates its
timelines before the collapses even begin.
Means, Motive, and Precedent
The preceding list is far from complete. It does not include consideration
of facts pertaining to the means, motive, and precedent for the crime. The
official account's blaming one organization, while ignoring others with much
more to gain and possessing tools and access better suited to the commission
of the crime is arguably a vast anomaly. This subject is addressed by
911Review.com:
Means
Motive
Precedent
NOTE: For more complete sources, visit the pages linked to. References
1. Profiting From Disaster?, CBSNews.com, 9/19/01
2. Prices, Probabilities and Predictions, OR/MS Today,
3. Bush: We're at War, Newsweek, 9/24/01
4. Willie Brown got low-key early warning about air travel, SFGate.com,
9/12/01
5. , London Times, 9/27/01
6. Odigo says workers were warned of attack, HAARETZ.com,
7. Franklin unit rebuilds after 9/11 tragedy, San Francisco Business Times,
2/1/02
8. Manager: Men spewed anti-American sentiments, AP, 9/14/01
9. The Day the FAA Stopped the World, time.com, 9/14/01
10. Giuliani Improvises After Command Center Gets Hit, Washington
Technology, 10/08/01
11. Terrorism and Anti-Terrorism, Gotham Gazette, 9/12/01
12. 'Get These Planes on the Ground', ABCNews.com, 11/24/01
13. A Trainee Noted for Incompetence, New York Times, 5/4/02, page 10
14. The scene at NORAD on Sept. 11: Playing Russian war games ... and then
someone shouted to look at the monitor, Toronto Star, 12/9/01
15. Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, 2004
16. Agency planned exercise on Sept. 11 built around a plane crashing into a
building, AP, 8/21/02
17. Tripod II and FEMA: Lack of NORAD Response on 9/11 Explained,
FromTheWilderness.com, 2004
18. Statement of Capt Charles J. Leidig, Jr., 9-11commission.gov, 6/17/04
19. Eberhart To Head NORTHCOM, afa.org, 8/02 [cached]
9-11 Anomalies
Anomalies of the September 11th Attack, Its Run-Up, and Response
Accepting the official story of the 9/11/01 attack requires one to accept a
long series of anomalies -- extremely improbable events, amazing
coincidences, and contradictions. This page lists many such anomalies. The
Top Anomalies page focuses on the more salient ones. The anomalies described
on this page are organized into the following topics:
Run-up to the attack
Hijacking scenario
(Lack of) military response
World Trade Center destruction
Pentagon attack
Death toll
Coincidences in service of incompetence
Government response
Means, motive, and precedent
Run-Up to the Attack
Numerous incidents preceding the attack indicate many people had advance
knowledge of the attack.
Put Options
Stock trades bet on the fall in share values for the two airlines
whose planes were used in the attack.
o Put options purchases on United Airlines and American Airlines
stock rose to four and 25 times normal levels in the days preceding the
attack. 1 2
Avoidance of the Airlines, the WTC, and the Pentagon
Government officials and executives avoided the targets of the attack.
o Pentagon officials canceled travel plans on September 10th. 3
o San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown received a warning not to fly
on September 10th. 4
o Scotland Yard prohibited Salman Rushdie from flying on September
11th. 5
o Two employees of Odigo, the instant messaging service, received
e-mail warnings of the attack two hours before the first assault on the WTC.
6
o Business executives, some of whom worked in the WTC, were in
Nebraska to attend a meeting at Offutt Air Force Base hosted by billionaire
Warren Buffett on the morning of September 11th. The same base would be
visited later that day by George W. Bush. 7
Hijacking Scenario
The attack scenario was irrational on the part of the alleged hijackers, and
its execution is incomprehensible in light of their behavior. There is
little or no credible evidence that Arab hijackers were involved in the
September 11th attack, except in the takeover of Flight 93.
Attack Plan
By flying from remote airports and going far out of their way, the
attack planners exposed their plan to almost certain ruin, had the air
defense system operated normally.
o The originating airport for Flights 11 and 175 was Boston Logan
instead of any of several airports near New York City. This created about 40
minutes of exposure to interception for each flight.
o Flight 77 flew to the Midwest before turning around to return to
Washington D.C.. It was airborne an hour and 23 minutes before allegedly
attacking the Pentagon. That would provide ample opportunity for
interception even if the air defense system were mostly disabled.
o Flight 93 flew to the Midwest before turning around to fly
toward Washington D.C. Had it reached the capital, it would have been
airborne for more than an hour and a half. The odds of escaping interception
with that plan would be infinitesimal under standard operating procedures.
Behavior of Villains
The behavior of the alleged hijackers preceding the attack is
inconsistent with skill and discipline needed to have a hope of pulling off
such an attack.
o Mohammed Atta allegedly barely caught Flight 11, a key flight in
the event that he was supposedly planning for years.
o The alleged hijackers partied at topless bars and drank alcohol,
despite being portrayed as fundamentalist Muslims, for whom such behavior
would be surprising, to say the least. 8
Evidence Void
There is no hard evidence that any of the alleged hijackers were on
any of the doomed flights, and substantial evidence that some weren't
involved.
o No video of any of the 19 hijackers at any of the three
originating airports of the four flights has been made public, except for a
video allegedly showing hijackers of Flight 77.
o At least six of the alleged hijackers have turned up alive since
the attack.
o None of the four flight crews radioed Air Traffic Control about
hijackings in progress.
o None of the four flight crews punched in the four-digit
hijacking code. 9
o No public evidence indicates that the remains of any of the
hijackers was identified at any of the crash sites.
o None of the contents of any of the black boxes have been made
public.
o The only 4-1/2 minutes of the phone call from Flight 11
Attendant Betty Ong made public describes a stabbing but does not provide
any details indicating that Arab hijackers were on board.
Phenomenal Success
The success with which hijackers allegedly took over four jets with
knives and then piloted the jets to small targets is simply miraculous.
o None of the four flight crews were able to stop the alleged
hijackers, in spite of several of the pilots being Vietnam veterans.
o None of the alleged hijackers were good pilots, yet the three
buildings were hit with phenomenal precision.
(Lack of) Military Response
Despite normal intercept times of between 10 and 20 minutes for errant
domestic flights, the airliners commandeered on 9/11/01 roamed the skies for
over an hour without interference.
Failures to Report
According to NORAD's timeline the FAA reported errant airliners after
inexplicable delays.
o The FAA took 18 minutes to report Flight 11's loss of
communication and deviation from its flight plan.
o The FAA took 39 minutes to report Flight 77's deviation from its
flight plan.
Failures to Scramble
Interceptors were only scrambled from distant bases after long delays.
o Despite the fact that Flights 11 and 175 were headed for New
York City, no interceptors were scrambled from nearby La Guardia, or from
Langley, Virginia.
o Despite NORAD's having received formal notification of the first
hijacking at 8:38, no interceptors were scrambled from Andrews to protect
the nearby Pentagon until after it was hit at 9:37.
Failures to Intercept
Once in the air, interceptors flew at only small fractions of their
top speeds, assuring they would fail to intercept the airliners.
o The two F-15s scrambled from Otis AFB to chase Flight 11 flew at
an average of 447 mph, about 23.8% of their top speed of 1875 mph.
o The two F-16s scrambled from Langley to protect the capital flew
at an average of 410.5 mph, about 27.4% of their top speed of 1500 mph.
Failures to Redeploy
Nearby fighters on routine patrol duty were not redeployed to
intercept the airliners, nor were fighters that belatedly reached Manhattan
sent to defend the capital.
o Two F-15s flying off the coast of Long Island were not
redeployed to Manhattan until after the second tower was hit.
o The two F-15s scrambled from Otis AFB to protect Manhattan could
have reached the capital in 9.6 minutes once they arrived over New York
City. That was still 34 minutes before the Pentagon was hit.
World Trade Center Destruction
On 9/11/01 three skyscrapers were totally destroyed, with structural
collapse primarily due to fires given as the explanation. Fires and bombings
have never before or since caused steel-frame buildings to collapse.
Building 7
Building 7 imploded late on 9/11/01. It was not hit by an aircraft.
o Building 7 experienced total collapse, allegedly because of
fires, when no steel-frame building before or since has ever collapsed,
totally or even partially, due to fires. Building 7 was an over-engineered
47-story steel-frame skyscraper, standing over 350 feet from the nearest of
the Twin Towers. Public evidence documents only small fires in it on
September 11th.
o Building 7 collapsed in a nearly perfectly vertical fall,
producing only minor damage in the Verizon and Post Office buildings only 60
feet on either side of it.
o Building 7 collapsed into a remarkably small rubble pile of
mostly pulverized remains, when no steel building falling for any reason has
ever pulverized itself.
o Building 7 contained a 15-million-dollar emergency command
center, but instead of using it for its ostensible purpose, then-Mayor
Giuliani evacuated his team to a makeshift command center as soon as the
September 11th attack started. 10 11
o The emergency command center was destroyed along with the rest
of the building, even though it was constructed as a bomb-hardened shelter.
o The remains of Building 7 were rapidly removed and the steel
recycled, evidently without any on-site and only extremely limited off-site
examination. The rapid disposal operation proceeded despite the fact that no
one was believed buried in the rubble, and the tidy rubble pile was not
blocking adjacent roads.
Twin Towers
The Twin Towers exploded into dust and shattered steel, a behavior
inconsistent with the known behavior of steel structures outside of
explosive demolition.
o The South Tower was struck 17 minutes after the North Tower, and
in a less damaging manner, and it had less severe fires, yet it collapsed 29
minutes before the North Tower.
o The South Tower's core structure was largely undamaged by the
off-centered jet impact, unlike the North Tower, yet it collapsed sooner.
o The South Tower had much less severe fires than the North Tower,
and yet collapsed sooner.
o Smoke from the fires in the South Tower became progressively
darker up to the time it collapsed.
o Firefighters reached the crash zone of the South Tower and
calmly described controllable fires.
o Both towers started to disintegrate at regions above and below
the crash zones in the first seconds of their falls.
o Both towers fell straight down, through themselves, following
the path of maximum resistance, a behavior never before observed in
spontaneous collapses of any type of vertical structure.
o The collapses of both towers exhibited features never otherwise
seen except in controlled demolitions: sudden onset accompanied by
thunderous bangs, visible explosions ringing their perimeters, energetic
ejections of dust at regular intervals, and copious production of dust.
o Both towers exploded outward and were shredded and pulverized --
a pattern of destruction much more destructive than normal controlled
demolitions, yet this result was supposedly produced without the added
energy of explosives.
Pentagon Attack
The Pentagon attack defies expectations that this prime terrorist target
would have been defended, and that a terrorist would have hit the front side
in a simple maneuver, rather than the back side in an extreme precision
aerobatic maneuver.
Wide-Open Target
The Pentagon -- the heart of the military establishment of the world's
greatest super-power -- was hit after ample warning without being protected
by any defensive action.
o The 9:37 strike was well over an hour after the first signs of a
hijacking and 34 minutes after the South Tower strike confirmed that an
attack was underway.
o The Pentagon is within 11 miles of Andrews Air Force Base, which
apparently had two combat-ready fighter wings on 9/11/01.
o The attack plane was monitored on radar as it approached the
capital.
Unlikely Super-pilot
Alleged Flight 77 pilot Hani Hanjour was not up to the task.
o The spiral dive approach to the Pentagon was such an extreme
maneuver that experienced air traffic controllers thought it was military
jet. 12 The tree-top final approach skimmed objects in the yard and
crashed the plane into the first floor of the building. Experienced pilots
have wondered if any human pilot could have executed the maneuver.
o Hani Hanjour was considered incompetent by his flight school
instructors, and was denied rental of a single-engine plane. 13
Evidence Vacuum
Authorities systematically confiscated or destroyed the evidence.
o Video recordings from adjacent businesses were seized by the FBI
shortly after the attack and have never been seen since.
o Only two video segments have been released by the Pentagon from
all the security cameras that monitor its periphery. Neither clearly shows
the attack aircraft.
o Investigators were not allowed access to the crash site until
well into October.
More Than Just a Crash
Was the crash engineered?
o A photographed scrap of aircraft debris that has markings
similar to an American Airlines 757 corresponds to the forward portion of
the starboard (right) side of the plane, yet the scrap was far to the left
of the plane's path.
o Eyewitnesses reported the smell of cordite.
o Several eyewitnesses reported that the jetliner exploded before
reaching the facade of the Pentagon.
o Portions of the facade where the wing ends and tail of a 757
would have collided show no gouging. Were these parts shredded by explosives
before they reached the facade?
Death Toll
The death toll of the attack, though horrific, was much lower than it would
have been if not for numerous aspects of target selection and timing.
Flights
All four flights were unusually empty.
o Flights 11, 175, 77, and 93 were only at 51%, 31%, 20%, and 16%
occupancy, respectively.
World Trade Center
The towers were attacked before most people had arrived, and were hit
high enough to allow most people to escape.
o When Flight 11 hit the North Tower at 8:46 AM, the World Trade
Center buildings were at less than half the occupancy of a typical mid-day.
o The first tower to be attacked was hit just 15 stories below the
top, and trapped people mostly between the 95th and 110th floors.
o The second tower to be attacked was hit only 30 stories below
the top, and the plane missed the core, allowing people to evacuate from
above the impact zone. The 17 minutes that elapsed since the first hit
allowed many people to escape the second tower while the elevators were
still working.
Pentagon
125 people were killed in a building with 20,000 people.
o The portion of the Pentagon that was attacked, the West Block,
was in the process of being renovated, and so was at low occupancy.
o No high-level Pentagon officials were killed in the attack.
Coincidences in Service of Incompetence
Many decisions and events in the days and months preceding the attack helped
to make the incompetence theory more plausible.
War Games
Several war game exercises were being conducted on 9/11/01.
o Operation Northern Vigilance redeployed northeast sector air
defense resources to northern Canada and Alaska. 14
o Operations Vigilant Warrior and Vigilant Guardian, which
simulated hijackings and involved live radar "injects," may have confused
military and civilian personnel monitoring aircraft. 15
o The National Reconnaissance Office, which monitors satellites
and airborne objects, was evacuated while the attack unfolded because it was
conducting a plane-into-tower crash drill. 16
o The Tripod II biowarfare exercise, scheduled for 9/12/01,
resulted in the deployment of FEMA to Manhattan before the attack. 17
Rules Changes
Procedural changes would limit the ability of pilots and military
commanders to respond to hijackings.
o Military orders stripped commanders in the field of autonomy in
responding to hijackings.
o The FAA banned firearm possession by commercial pilots two
months before the attack.
Out to Lunch
Top officials were not available until after the attack was over.
o President George W. Bush remained at the publicized location of
Booker Elementary School until about a half-hour after the news of the
attack went on TV worldwide, first reading My Pet Goat to second-graders,
and then holding a press conference.
o Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff allegedly remained
in a meeting with Senator Max Cleland until nearly the time the Pentagon was
hit.
o Brigadier General Montague Winfield had Navy Captain Charles J.
Leidig, Jr. -- a rookie -- assume his watch as Deputy Director for
Operations for the National Military Command Center (NMCC) at 8:30 am on
9/11/01, and relieved him after the attack was over. 18
Government Response
Despite the worst failure in history of the military to protect American
civilians, and the worst alleged engineering failures in history, there were
no consequences for the responsible authorities, and no honest
investigations.
Air Defense Failures
No one was held to account for the numerous unprecedented failures in
air defense.
o General Richard Myers, Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff on September 11th, was confirmed as Chairman on September 13th in
spite of being unable to provide any meaningful answers to questions
regarding the air defense failures.
o General Richard Eberhart, commander of NORAD on September 11th,
was promoted to head the newly created NORTHCOM. 19
o NORAD's press release contradicted early statements by
high-ranking officials that no interceptors had been scrambled on 9/11/01.
o NORAD's vague timeline raises far more questions than it
answers, yet officials have never been required to give a full account.
o The 9/11 Commission advanced a new timeline which contradicts
NORAD's earlier timeline and the testimony of military officials to the
commission itself.
Building Collapse Inquiry
The total collapses of WTC 1, 2, and 7 were the three largest
engineering failures in history (based on the official story). How were they
investigated?
o FEMA was given the sole authority to investigate the collapses
even though it is not an investigative agency.
o The investigative team assembled by FEMA consisted of unpaid
volunteers.
o The investigators were not allowed access to Ground Zero.
o The investigators were not provided with the blueprints of the
buildings.
o FEMA's report states the causes of the collapse "remain unknown
at this time". (By the time the report was released the steel had been
entirely disposed of.) The fact that Building 7 (supposedly) failed in a way
that contradicts 100 years of engineering experience makes it the largest
and least understood structural failure in history.
o The 9/11 Commission Report failed to even mention the existence
of Building 7.
o The 9/11 Commission Report denied the existence of the Twin
Towers' core structures.
o NIST's report on the collapse of the Twin Towers purports to
provide a "probable collapse sequence" for each Tower but truncates its
timelines before the collapses even begin.
Means, Motive, and Precedent
The preceding list is far from complete. It does not include consideration
of facts pertaining to the means, motive, and precedent for the crime. The
official account's blaming one organization, while ignoring others with much
more to gain and possessing tools and access better suited to the commission
of the crime is arguably a vast anomaly. This subject is addressed by
911Review.com:
Means
Motive
Precedent
NOTE: For more complete sources, visit the pages linked to. References
1. Profiting From Disaster?, CBSNews.com, 9/19/01
2. Prices, Probabilities and Predictions, OR/MS Today,
3. Bush: We're at War, Newsweek, 9/24/01
4. Willie Brown got low-key early warning about air travel, SFGate.com,
9/12/01
5. , London Times, 9/27/01
6. Odigo says workers were warned of attack, HAARETZ.com,
7. Franklin unit rebuilds after 9/11 tragedy, San Francisco Business Times,
2/1/02
8. Manager: Men spewed anti-American sentiments, AP, 9/14/01
9. The Day the FAA Stopped the World, time.com, 9/14/01
10. Giuliani Improvises After Command Center Gets Hit, Washington
Technology, 10/08/01
11. Terrorism and Anti-Terrorism, Gotham Gazette, 9/12/01
12. 'Get These Planes on the Ground', ABCNews.com, 11/24/01
13. A Trainee Noted for Incompetence, New York Times, 5/4/02, page 10
14. The scene at NORAD on Sept. 11: Playing Russian war games ... and then
someone shouted to look at the monitor, Toronto Star, 12/9/01
15. Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, 2004
16. Agency planned exercise on Sept. 11 built around a plane crashing into a
building, AP, 8/21/02
17. Tripod II and FEMA: Lack of NORAD Response on 9/11 Explained,
FromTheWilderness.com, 2004
18. Statement of Capt Charles J. Leidig, Jr., 9-11commission.gov, 6/17/04
19. Eberhart To Head NORTHCOM, afa.org, 8/02 [cached]
