Little Known Facts About 911 "Here are a series of little known facts about the September 11, 2001 attacks. From early morning warnings to pre planned "exercises" the "Little Known Facts About 911" present a damning dramatization of how the events may have unfolded.
Little Known Facts About 911
(6:30 a.m.): NORAD on Alert for Emergency Exercises
Lieutenant Colonel Dawne Deskins and other day shift employees at NEADS start their workday. NORAD is conducting a weeklong, large-scale exercise called Vigilant Guardian. [Newhouse News Service, 2/25/2002] Deskins is regional mission crew chief for the Vigilant Guardian exercise. [ABC News, 10/11/2002]
Vigilant Guardian is described as an exercise that would pose an imaginary crisis to North American Air Defense outposts nationwide; as a simulated air war; and as an air defense exercise simulating an attack on the United States. According to the 9/11 Commission, it postulated a bomber attack from the former Soviet Union. [9/11 Commission, 8/24/2004; Filson, 2004; Newhouse News Service, 2/25/2002] Vigilant Guardian is described as being held annually, and is one of NORADs four major annual exercises. [Filson, 2004; GlobalSecurity http://(.org), 5/14/2002; Arkin, 2005] However, another report says it takes place semi-annually. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 7/3/2002] Accounts by participants vary on whether 9/11 was the second, third, or fourth day of the exercise. [Code One Magazine, 2/2002; Ottawa Citizen, 10/11/2002; Newhouse News Service, 2/25/2002] Vigilant Guardian is a command post exercise (CPX), and in at least some previous years was conducted in conjunction with Stratcoms Global Guardian exercise and a US Space Command exercise called Apollo Guardian. [GlobalSecurity http://(.org), 5/14/2002; US Congress, n.d.; Arkin, 2005]
All of NORAD is participating in Vigilant Guardian on 9/11. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 7/3/2002] At NEADS, most of the dozen or so staff on the operations floor have no idea what the exercise is going to entail and are ready for anything. [Utica Observer-Dispatch, 9/5/2004] NORAD is also running a real-world operation named Operation Northern Vigilance. NORAD is thus fully staffed and alert, and senior officers are manning stations throughout the US. The entire chain of command is in place and ready when the first hijacking is reported. An article later says, In retrospect, the exercise would prove to be a serendipitous enabler of a rapid military response to terrorist attacks on September 11. [Bergen Record, 1/5/2004; Aviation Week and Space Technology, 7/3/2002] Colonel Robert Marr, in charge of NEADS, says, We had the fighters with a little more gas on board. A few more weapons on board. [ABC News, 10/11/2002] However, Deskins and other NORAD officials later are initially confused about whether the 9/11 attacks are real or part of the exercise. There is a National Reconnaissance Office exercise planned to occur as well (see 9:00 a.m.), involving a scenario of an airplane as a flying weapon. [United Press International, 9/22/2002; Associated Press, 9/21/2002]
Early Morning September 11, 2001: Medic Is Studying a Medical Emergency Disaster Plan for a Plane Crash at the Pentagon
Sergeant Matt Rosenberg, an army medic at the Pentagon, is studying a new medical emergency disaster plan based on the unlikely scenario of an airplane crashing into the place. [Washington Post, 10/16/2001] The day before, Rosenberg later recalls in an interview with the Office of Medical History, he called the FBI with questions about who would have medical jurisdiction if such an event were to take place. Believe it or not, the day prior to the incident, I was just on the phone with the FBI, and we were talking so who has command should this happen, who has the medical jurisdiction, who does this, who does that, and we talked about it and talked about it, and he helped me out a lot. And then the next day, during the incident, I actually found him. He was out there on the incident that day. [Office of Medical History, 10/2004]
(6:45 a.m.): Israeli Company Given Two Hours Notice of Attack
Approximately two hours prior to the first attack, at least two workers at Odigo, an Israeli-owned instant messaging company, receive messages warning of the attack. Odigos US headquarters are located two blocks from the WTC. The source of the warning is unknown. [Ha'aretz, 10/26/2001; Washington Post, 10/28/2001]
6:47 a.m.: WTC Building 7 Alarm Not Operating According to later reports, the alarm system in WTC 7 is placed on TEST status for a period due to last eight hours. This ordinarily happens during maintenance or other testing, and any alarms received from the building are generally ignored. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 7/2004 ]
September 11, 2001: Intelligence Committee Chairs Meet with ISI Head and Possible 9/11 Attack Funder as the Attack Occurs
At the time of the attacks, ISI Director Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed is at a breakfast meeting at the Capitol with the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Senator Bob Graham (D) and Representative Porter Goss (R) (Goss is a 10-year veteran of the CIAs clandestine operations wing). The meeting is said to last at least until the second plane hits the WTC. [Washington Post, 6/18/2002] Graham and Goss later co-head the joint House-Senate investigation into the 9/11 attacks, which has made headlines for saying there was no smoking gun of Bush knowledge before 9/11. [Washington Post, 8/11/2002] Note that Senator Graham should have been aware of a report made to his staff the previous month (see Early August 2001) that one of Mahmoods subordinates had told a US undercover agent that the WTC would be destroyed. Evidence suggests that attendee Mahmood ordered that $100, 000 be sent to hijacker Mohamed Atta. Also present at the meeting were Senator Jon Kyl (R) and the Pakistani ambassador to the US, Maleeha Lodhi. (All or virtually all of the people in this meeting had previously met in Pakistan just a few weeks earlier.) Senator Graham says of the meeting: We were talking about terrorism, specifically terrorism generated from Afghanistan. The New York Times reports that bin Laden was specifically discussed. [New York Times, 7/3/2002; Salon, 10/14/2001; Vero Beach Press Journal, 10/12/2001]
(8:00 a.m.): Larry Silverstein Doesnt go to WTC Due to Doctors Appointment
WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein is supposed to be working today in the temporary offices of his company, Silverstein Properties, on the 88th floor of the north tower. However, at his Park Avenue apartment, Silversteins wife reportedly laid down the law: The developer could not cancel an appointment with his dermatologist, even to meet with tenants at his most important property. [New York Observer, 4/17/2003; New York Magazine, 5/18/2005] He is therefore not at the WTC when it is hit, and first hears of the attacks when an associate calls him from the lobby of one of the WTC buildings. [Real Deal, 2/2004] Two of Silversteins childrenhis son, Roger, and daughter, Lisawork for his company and have been regularly attending meetings with WTC tenants at Windows on the World (the restaurant at the top of the north tower). Yet this morning they are running late. According to the New York Observer, If the attack had happened just a little later, Mr. Silversteins children would likely have been trapped at Windows. [New York Observer, 4/17/2003] Fifty-four of Silverstein Properties 160 staff are in the north tower when it is hit, and four of them die. [Globe and Mail, 10/7/2002] Silverstein signed the lease on the WTC less than two months previously, and later will attempt to get $7 billion in insurance for the destruction of the towers (see July 24, 2001).
September 11, 2001: Israeli Special-Ops Passenger Shot or Stabbed by Hijackers?
An FAA memo written on the evening of 9/11, and later leaked, suggests that a man on Flight 11 was shot and killed by a gun before the plane crashed into the WTC. The Executive Summary, based on information relayed by a flight attendant to the American Airlines Operation Center, stated that a passenger located in seat 10B [Satam Al Suqami] shot and killed a passenger in seat 9B [Daniel Lewin] at 9:20 am. (Note that since Flight 11 crashed at 8:46, the time must be a typo, probably meaning 8:20). A report in Israeli newspaper Haaretz on September 17 identifies Lewin as a former member of the Israel Defense Force Sayeret Matkal, Israels most successful special-operations unit. [United Press International, 4/6/2002] Sayeret Matkal is a deep-penetration unit that has been involved in assassinations, the theft of foreign signals-intelligence materials, and the theft and destruction of foreign nuclear weaponry. Sayeret Matkal is best known for the 1976 rescue of 106 passengers at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. [New Yorker, 11/29/2001] Lewin founded Akamai, a successful computer company, and his connections to Sayeret Matkal remained hidden until the gun story became known. [Guardian, 10/15/2001] FAA and American Airline officials later deny the gun story and suggest that Lewin was probably stabbed to death instead. [Washington Post, 4/2/2002; United Press International, 4/6/2002] Officials assert that the leaked document was a first draft, and subsequently corrected, but declines to release the final draft, calling it protected information. However, an FAA official present when the memo was drafted will dispute the FAAs claim, asserting that [t]he document was reviewed for accuracy by a number of people in the room, including myself and a couple of managers of the operations center. [WorldNetDaily, 4/7/2002]
8:30 a.m.: FAA Hijack Coordinator Responsible For Contacting Military is Out of Contact
Protocols in place on 9/11 state that if the FAA requests the military to go after an airplane, the escort service will be requested by the FAA hijack coordinator by direct contact with the National Military Command Center (NMCC). [Federal Aviation Administration, 12/3/1998] Acting FAA Deputy Administrator Monty Belger states essentially the same thing to the 9/11 Commission, The official protocol on that day was for the FAA headquarters, primarily through the hijack coordinator ... to request assistance from the NMCC if there was a need for DOD assistance. [9/11 Commission, 7/17/2004 Sources: Monty Belger] However, the hijack coordinator, FAA Office of Civil Aviation Security Director Mike Canavan, is in Puerto Rico and claims to have missed out on everything that transpired that day. The 9/11 Commission fails to ask him if he had delegated that task to anyone else while he was gone. [9/11 Commission, 8/24/2004; 9/11 Commission, 6/23/2003]
8:30 a.m.: Rookie in Command of the NMCC Captain Charles Leidig, the deputy for Command Center operations at the NMCC, takes over temporarily from Brigadier General Montague Winfield and is effectively in charge of NMCC during the 9/11 crisis. Winfield had requested the previous day that Leidig stand in for him on September 11. Leidig had started his role as Deputy for Command Center Operations two months earlier and had qualified to stand in for Winfield just the previous month. Leidig remains in charge from a few minutes before the 9/11 crisis begins until about 10:30 a.m., after the last hijacked plane crashes. He presides over an important crisis response teleconference that has a very slow start, not even beginning until 9:39 a.m. [9/11 Commission, 7/17/2004; 9/11 Commission, 7/17/2004]
8:30 a.m.: Army Base Near Pentagon Holds Terrorist Attack Exercise
At Fort Belvoir, an army base 10 miles south of the Pentagon, Lt. Col. Mark R. Lindon is conducting a garrison control exercise when the 9/11 attacks begin. The object of this exercise is to test the security at the base in case of a terrorist attack. Lindon later says, I was out checking on the exercise and heard about the World Trade Center on my car radio. As soon as it was established that this was no accident, we went to a complete security mode. Staff Sgt. Mark Williams of the Military District of Washington Engineer Company at Fort Belvoir also later says: Ironically, we were conducting classes about rescue techniques when we were told of the planes hitting the World Trade Center. Williams team is one of the first response groups to arrive at the site of the Pentagon crash and one of the first to enter the building following the attack. [Connection Newspapers, 10/5/2002] A previous MASCAL (mass casualty) training exercise was held at Fort Belvoir a little over two months earlier (see July 2001). It was designed to enhance the first ready response in dealing with the effects of a terrorist incident involving an explosion. [MDW News Service, 8/5/2001]
8:30 a.m.: FBI/CIA Anti-Terrorist Task Force Away From Washington on Training Exercise in California
USA Today reports that at this time, a joint FBI/CIA anti-terrorist task force that specifically prepared for this type of disaster is on a training exercise in Monterey, Calif. Consequently, as of late Tuesday, with airports closed around the country, the task force still [hasn]t found a way to fly back to Washington. [USA Today, 10/11/2001] The US politics website http://evote.com adds that the FBI has deployed all of its anti-terrorist and top special operations agents at a training exercise (complete with all associated helicopters and light aircraft) in Monterey, California. So at the time of the attacks, the chief federal agency responsible for preventing such crimes [is] being AWOL. [Evote http://[.com], 10/11/2001]
8:30 a.m.: US Military Holding Practice Armageddon Nationwide Training Exercise
As the 9/11 attacks are taking place, a large military training exercise called Global Guardian is said to be in full swing. It has been going on since the previous week. [Omaha World-Herald, 10/10/2002; Omaha World-Herald, 3/27/2002] Global Guardian is an annual exercise sponsored by US Strategic Command (Stratcom) in cooperation with US Space Command and NORAD. One military author defines Stratcom as the single US military command responsible for the day-to-day readiness of Americas nuclear forces. [Arkin, 2005] Global Guardian is a global readiness exercise involving all Stratcom forces and aims to test Stratcoms ability to fight a nuclear war. It is one of many practice Armageddons that the US military routinely stages. [Omaha World-Herald, 10/10/2002; Associated Press, 3/21/2002; Omaha World-Herald, 3/27/2002; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 12/12/1997] It links with a number of other military exercises, including Crown Vigilance (an Air Combat Command exercise), Apollo Guardian (a US Space Command exercise), and NORAD exercises Vigilant Guardian and Amalgam Warrior [ERROR (SourceType=executiveDepartmentDocument); GlobalSecurity http://(.org), 11/10/2002] Global Guardian is both a command post and field training exercise, and is based around a fictitious scenario designed to test the ability of Stratcom and its component forces to deter a military attack against the US. Hundreds of military personnel are involved. [Collins Center Update, 1/2000 ; US Congress, n.d.; Times-Picayune, 10/8/2002] According to a 1998 Internet article by the British American Security Information Councilan independent research organizationGlobal Guardian is held in October or November each year. [Kristensen, 11/1998] In his book Code Names, NBC News military analyst William Arkin dates this exercise for October 22-31, 2001. [Arkin, 2005] And a military newspaper reported in March 2001 that Global Guardian was scheduled for October 2001. [Space Observer, 4/23/2001 ] If this is correct, then some time after March, the exercise must have been rescheduled for early September. Furthermore, there may be another important facet to Global Guardian. A 1998 Defense Department newsletter reported that for several years Stratcom had been incorporating a computer network attack (CNA) into Global Guardian. The attack involved Stratcom red team members and other organizations acting as enemy agents, and included attempts to penetrate the Command using the Internet and a bad insider who had access to a key command and control system. The attackers war dialed the phones to tie them up and sent faxes to numerous fax machines throughout the Command. They also claimed they were able to shut down Stratcoms systems. Reportedly, Stratcom planned to increase the level of computer network attack in future Global Guardian exercises. [IAnewsletter, 7/1998 ] It is not currently known if a computer attack was incorporated into Global Guardian in 2001 or what its possible effects on the countrys air defense system would have been if such an attack was part of the exercise.
(Before 8:46 a.m.): Rumsfeld Reportedly Predicts Terror Attacks
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and Representative Christopher Cox (R) are meeting in Rumsfelds private Pentagon dining room, discussing missile defense. Rumsfeld later recalls, I had said at an eight oclock breakfast that sometime in the next two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve months there would be an event that would occur in the world that would be sufficiently shocking that it would remind people again how important it is to have a strong healthy Defense Department that contributes tothat underpins peace and stability in our world. [Larry King Live, 1/5/2002] Wolfowitz recalls, And we commented to them that based on what Rumsfeld and I had both seen and worked on the Ballistic Missile Threat Commission, that we were probably in for some nasty surprises over the next ten years. [Vanity Fair, 6/9/2005] There are confused accounts that Rumsfeld says, Ive been around the block a few times. There will be another event, just before the Pentagon is hit by Flight 77, but such comments may have been made around this time instead. Rumsfeld says, And someone walked in and handed a note that said that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. And we adjourned the meeting, and I went in to get my CIA briefing ... right next door here [in my office]. [Larry King Live, 1/5/2002]
8:48 a.m.: Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, Preparing for Global Guardian Exercise When Attacks Start
Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana is an important node in the US Strategic Command (Stratcom) exercise Global Guardian (see 8:30 a.m.) on 9/11. Colonel Mike Reese, director of staff for the 8th Air Force, is monitoring several television screens at the base as part of the exercise when he sees CNN cut into coverage of the first World Trade Center crash, two minutes after it happens. He watches live when the second plane hits the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m. Reese says that at this point, we knew it wasnt a mistake. Something grave was happening that put the nations security at risk. An article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune later recounts how awareness of the real attacks impacts those participating in the exercise: Immediately [the Barksdale staffs] focus turned to defense, securing Barksdale, Minot [North Dakota], and Whiteman [Missouri] air force bases, where dozens of aircraft and hundreds of personnel were involved in the readiness exercise Global Guardian. The exercise abruptly ended as the United States appeared to be at war within its own borders. Four A-10s, an aircraft not designed for air-to-air combat, from Barksdales 47th Fighter Squadron, were placed on cockpit alert, the highest state of readiness for fighter pilots. Within five minutes, the A-10s, equipped only with high intensity cannons, could have been launched to destroy unfriendly aircraft, even if it was a civilian passenger airliner. Lt. Col. Edmund Walker, commander of the 47th Fighter Squadron, a novice pilot still in training, is sitting in his fighter along with other pilots in other fighters, ready to take off, when they are ordered back to the squadron office. They are told they are no longer practicing. Walker recalls, We had to defend the base against any aircraft, airliner or civilian. We had no idea. Would it fly to the base and crash into the B-52s or A-10s on the flight line? [Times-Picayune, 10/8/2002] When President Bushs Air Force One takes off from Sarasota, Florida, at approximately 9:55 a.m., it has no destination, and circles over Florida aimlessly. But around 10:35 (see (10:35 a.m.)), it begins heading towards Barksdale Air Force Base. [CBS News, 10/11/2002; Washington Post, 2/27/2002] It finally arrives at Barksdale around 11:45 a.m. [CBS News, 10/11/2002; Daily Telegraph, 1/16/2002] Its never been explained exactly why Bush traveled from Florida to Barksdale. The Daily Telegraph has reported, The official reason for landing at Barksdale was that President Bush felt it necessary to make a further statement, but it isnt unreasonable to assume thatas there was no agreement as to what the Presidents movements should beit was felt he might as well be on the ground as in the air. [Daily Telegraph, 1/16/2002]
(Before 8:50 a.m.): CIA Director Expresses Worry About al-Qaeda Attack
According to one report, CIA Director Tenet is eating breakfast with his mentor, former Senator David Boren (D). Before the planes hit the World Trade Center, CIA Director George Tenet warned [Boren] ... that he was worried about a possible attack by Osama bin Ladens al-Qaeda network. [Chicago Sun-Times, 1/6/2003]
People and organizations involved: al-Qaeda, George Tenet, David Boren
(8:50 a.m.): CIA Director, Told of Attack, Immediately Suspects bin Laden CIA Director Tenet is told of the first WTC crash while he is eating breakfast with his mentor, former Senator David Boren (D). They are interrupted when CIA bodyguards converge on the table to hand Tenet the cell phone. Tenet is told that the WTC has been attacked by an airplane. Boren later says, I was struck by the fact that [the messenger] used the word attacked. Tenet then hands a cell phone back to an aide and says to Boren, You know, this has bin Ladens fingerprints all over it. He was very collected, Boren recalls. He said he would be at the CIA in 15 minutes, what people he needed in the room and what he needed to talk about. [ABC News, 10/14/2002; USA Today, 10/24/2001]
According to other accounts, Tenet responds to the caller, They steered the plane directly into the building? Tenet then says to Boren, That looks like bin Laden. Tenet muses aloud, I wonder if this has something to do with the guy [Zacarias Moussaoui] who trained for a pilots license. (Moussaoui had been arrested several weeks earlier.) [St. Paul Pioneer Press, 6/29/2002; Stern, 9/13/2003] According to another account, Tenet pauses while on the phone to tell Boren, The World Trade Center has been hit. Were pretty sure it wasnt an accident. It looks like a terrorist act, then returns to the phone to identify who should be summoned to the CIA situation room. [Time, 10/14/2001] (Note that according to two accounts, Tenet was not informed of the developing crisis until after the second WTC tower had been struck. [Washington Post, 2/27/2002; Bamford, 2004] However, the majority of reports indicate that Tenet was informed of the crisis right after the first WTC tower was struck.)
September 11, 2001: More Than $100 Million Rushed from WTC
Data recovery experts later looking at 32 hard drives salvaged from the 9/11 attacks discover a surge in credit card transactions from the WTC in the hours before and during the attacks. Unusually large sums of money are rushed through computers even as the disaster unfolds. Investigators later say, There is a suspicion that some people had advance knowledge of the approximate time of the plane crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding $100 million. They thought that the records of their transactions could not be traced after the mainframes were destroyed. [Reuters, 1/19/2002] (9:00 a.m.): 9/11-Styled Simulation Cancelled The National Reconnaissance Office plans a simulation of an airplane accidentally crashing into its headquarters. The office is located four miles from Washingtons Dulles airport, where one of the real hijacked planes takes off. The NRO operates many of the nations spy satellites. It draws its personnel from the military and the CIA. The simulation is apparently run by John Fulton and his team at the CIA. An agency spokesman says, It was just an incredible coincidence that this happened to involve an aircraft crashing into our facility. As soon as the real world events began, we canceled the exercise. [Associated Press, 9/21/2002; United Press International, 9/22/2002]
(9:00 a.m.): WTC South Tower Announcement: OK to Return to Offices A public announcement is broadcast inside the WTC Tower Two (the South Tower, which has yet to be hit), saying that the building is secure and people can return to their offices. [New York Times, 10/11/2002] Such announcements continue until a few minutes before the building is hit, and may [lead] to the deaths of hundreds of people. No one knows exactly what is said (though many later recall the phrase the building is secure), or who gives the authority to say it. [USA Today, 10/2/2002] Additionally, security agents inside the building repeat similar messages to individuals in the tower. For instance, one survivor recounts hearing, Our building is secure. You can go back to your floor. If youre a little winded, you can get a drink of water or coffee in the cafeteria. [New York Times, 10/13/2001] Another survivor recalls an escaping crowd actually running over a man with a bullhorn encouraging them to return to their desks. [Newsday, 10/12/2001] Businessman Steve Miller recalls hearing a voice say over the buildings loudspeaker something similar to:
Theres a fire in Tower One. Tower Two in unaffected. If you want to leave, you can leave. If you want to return to your office, its okay. [Washington Post, 10/16/2001] British visitor Mike Shillaker recalls, As we got to around floor 50, a message came over the [loudspeaker], telling us that there was an isolated fire in Tower One, and we did not need to evacuate Tower Two. Again, thank god we continued down, others didnt. [BBC, 10/1/2002] Despite messages to the contrary, about two-thirds of the towers occupants evacuate during the 17 minutes between the attacks. [USA Today, 1/20/2002]
(9:00 a.m.): Northern Vigilance Exercise Canceled; False Radar Blips Purged from Radar Screens
Deep below Cheyenne Mountain at NORAD headquarters in Colorado, NORAD is at full battle staff levels for a major annual exercise, Operation Northern Vigilance, which tests every facet of the organization. This military exercise, which began two days earlier, deploys fighters to Alaska and Northern Canada to monitor a Russian air force exercise in the Russian arctic. Canadian Captain Mike Jellinek is one hour into his shift, overseeing the Colorado Command Center, when he learns the FAA believes there is a hijacking in progress and is asking NORAD for support. Northern Vigilance is called off. As the Toronto Star reports, Any simulated information, whats known as an inject, is purged from the [radar] screens. [NORAD, 10/9/2001; Toledo Blade, 1/9/2002] Therefore, many minutes into the real 9/11 attack, there may have been false radar blips causing confusion. Additional details, such as whose radar screens had false blips, or from when to when, are unknown. According to Jellinek, the Northern Vigilance is canceled just a minute or two before the second WTC crash at 9:03 a.m. The Russians, having seen the second WTC crash on television, quickly communicate that they are canceling their Russian arctic exercise. [Toledo Blade, 1/9/2002; National Post, 11/19/2002]
(9:00 a.m.): Cheney Perplexed over WTC Footage on Television
Vice President Cheney later says he is in his White House office watching the television images of the first WTC crash wreckage. According to his recollection, he was puzzled. I was sitting there thinking about it. It was a clear day, there was no weather problemhow in hell could a plane hit the World Trade Center?
His staff members elsewhere in the White House are apparently unaware of the emerging crisis. For instance, his chief of staff, I. Lewis Scooter Libby, sees the television images briefly, but turns off the television so as not to be distracted from a conversation on another topic. [Newsweek, 1/31/2002]
Before 9:00 a.m.: Army Base Outside New York Prepares for Terrorist Attack Exercise Staff at Fort Monmouth, an Army base in New Jersey located about 50 miles south of New York City, is preparing to hold a disaster drill to test emergency response capabilities to a fake chemical attack. The exercise, called Timely Alert II, is to involve various law enforcement agencies and emergency personnel, including Fort Monmouth firefighters and members of the New Jersey State Police. Personnel are to be deployed and measures taken as in a real emergency. A notice has been sent out, warning that anyone not conducting official business will be turned away from Fort Monmouth during the exercise. Soon after 9 a.m., the exercise director tells a group of participating volunteers that a hijacked plane has crashed into the World Trade Center. The participants pretend to be upset, believing this is just part of the simulation. When they see the live televised footage of the WTC attacks, some people at the base think it is an elaborate training video to accompany the exercise. One worker tells a fire department training officer: You really outdid yourself this time.
Interestingly, the follow-up exercise held in July 2002 (Timely Alert III) does incorporate simulated television news reports to give participants the impression that the emergency is real. And in the first Timely Alert exercise, held on the base in January 2001, a call had come through of a supposed real bomb situation, but this fortunately turned out to be a report related to a training aid being used during the exercise. On 9/11, Fort Monmouth is geared to go into high-alert status as part of Timely Alert II. The exercise is called off once the base is alerted to the real attacks. [Monmouth Message, 3/9/2001; Hub, 10/21/2001; Asbury Park Press, 8/24/2002; Monmouth Message, 10/12/2003; US Department of the Army, 8/26/2003; Monmouth Message, 9/23/2002; Monmouth Message, 10/21/2001] Fort Monmouth is home to various Army, Defense Department, and other government agencies. The largest of these is the US Armys Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM). CECOM serves to develop, acquire, field, and sustain superior information technologies and integrated systems for Americas warfighters. It is tasked with the critical role of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR). [Army, 2/2003 ; GlobalSecurity http://(.org), 9/2/2004; Communications-Electronics Command, 5/17/2002] Fort Monmouth services also directly assist in the emergency response later in the day. Its fire department deploys to Atlantic Highlands to assist passengers coming from Manhattan by ferry, and members of its Patterson Army Health Clinic are also sent out to help. Teams of CECOM experts from the base are later deployed to ground zero in New York with equipment capable of locating cellular phone transmissions within the ruins of the collapsed World Trade Center. Its explosive ordnance company is also deployed to assist authorities should they come across anything they think might be explosives, while digging through the debris in search of victims. [Monmouth Message, 10/21/2001; Hub, 10/21/2001]
Before 9:00 a.m.: Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, is Directing Global Guardian Training Exercise Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha, Nebraska, appears to be the headquarters of the US Strategic Command (Stratcom) exercise Global Guardian that is in full swing when the 9/11 attacks begin. At least the director of the exercise, Admiral Richard Mies, commander in chief of Stratcom, is at Offutt this morning. [Omaha World-Herald, 10/10/2002] Because of Global Guardian, bombers, missile crews, and submarines around America are all being directed from Stratcoms Command Center, a steel and concrete reinforced bunker below Offutt. [BBC, 10/1/2002; Omaha World-Herald, 3/27/2002; Associated Press, 3/21/2002; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 12/12/1997; Omaha World-Herald, 10/10/2002] This bunker is staffed with top personnel and they are at a heightened security mode because of the exercise.
[Associated Press, 3/21/2002; Air Force Weather Observer, 8/2002] Because of Global Guardian, three special military command aircraft with sophisticated communications equipment, based at Offutt, are up in the air the morning of 9/11.
These E-4B National Airborne Operations Center planesnicknamed Doomsday planes during the Cold Warare intended to control nuclear forces from the air in times of crisis. They are capable of acting as alternative command posts for top government officials from where they can direct US forces, execute war orders and coordinate the actions of civil authorities in times of national emergency. The Federal Advisory Committee (whose chairman is retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft) is aboard one of these Doomsday planes, being brought to Offutt to observe the exercise. Media accounts indicate Global Guardian is cancelled at Offutt shortly after the second WTC tower is hit (at 9:03 a.m.), with staff switching to real-world mode. [Omaha World-Herald, 10/8/2002; Air Force Weather Observer, 8/2002; US Department of Defense, 2/9/2002] However, even after Global Guardian is called off, the three E-4Bs remain airborne. [BBC, 10/1/2002; Omaha World-Herald, 3/27/2002] Also, the morning of 9/11, a small group of business leaders are at Offutt Air Force Base for a charity fundraiser event due to take place there later in the day, hosted by the multi-billionaire Warren Buffett. When the attacks begin, these visitors are having breakfast with Admiral Mies, the director of Global Guardian. After the second WTC tower is hit, Mies excuses himself from the group, presumably to assist in canceling the exercise. [Omaha World-Herald, 10/10/2002; Omaha World-Herald, 3/27/2002; San Francisco Business Times, 3/1/2002]
9:00 a.m.: 9/11-Styled Simulation Cancelled An emergency response exercise is scheduled to take place at 9 a.m. the morning of 9/11, involving the simulated crash of a small corporate jet plane into a government building. The exercise is to be conducted by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in Chantilly, Virginiajust four miles from Washington Dulles International Airport, from where Flight 77 took off, and 24 miles from the Pentagon. The NRO draws its personnel from the CIA and the military. The exercise is to involve the jet experiencing mechanical problems then crashing into one of the four towers at the NRO. In order to simulate the damage from the crash, some stairwells and exits are to be closed off, forcing NRO employees to find other ways to evacuate the building. However, according to an agency spokesman, as soon as the real world events began, we cancelled the exercise. After the attacks, most of the agencys 3, 000 staff are supposedly sent home. [United Press International, 9/22/2002; Associated Press, 9/21/2002; National Law Enforcement and Security Institute, 9/6/2002]
Between 9:03 and 9:37 a.m.: Defense Official at Pentagon Says, Were Next
After the second WTC tower is hit, NBC News correspondent Jim Miklaszewski is heading down a hall inside the Pentagon when he runs into a Defense Department official. The official says he doesnt yet know anything specific about the attack. But, he says, it is so coordinated that [i]f I were you I would stay off the E-ring [the outermost corridor of the Pentagon] today, because were next. According to Miklaszewski, the official had no specific information, that was just his gut instinct. [Gilbert et al., 2002]
After 9:03 a.m.: WTC Building 7 Evacuated; Exact Timing Unclear
According to a soldier at the scene, WTC Building 7 is evacuated before the second tower is hit. [Fort Detrick Standard, 11/18/2001] However, a firefighter who arrived there after the second tower is hit is told that the building is being evacuated due to reports of a third plane, indicating that two planes have already crashed. [Jems And FireRescue Supplement, 4/2002 ]
After 9:03 a.m.: NORAD Training Exercise Cancelled
NORAD Commander Larry Arnold later says that after Flight 175 hits the South Tower, I thought it might be prudent to pull out of the exercise [presumably Vigilant Guardian (see (6:30 a.m.))], which we did. He says: As we pulled out of the exercise we were getting calls about United Flight 93 and we were worried about that. Some early accounts say the military receives notification of the possible hijacking of Flight 93 at around 9:16 a.m. [9/11 Commission, 6/23/2003; CNN, 10/17/2001] However, the 9/11 Commission later claims that the military first receives a call about Flight 93 at 10:07 a.m. [9/11 Commission, 7/17/2004] Larry Arnold adds, Then we had another call from Boston Center about a possible hijacking, but that turned out to be the airplane that had already hit the South Tower but we didnt know that at the time. [Filson, 2004]
9:28 a.m.: NORAD Possibly Holding Live-Fly Training Exercise
According to former counterterrorism tsar Richard Clarke, around this time the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers tells him via video link: We are in the middle of Vigilant Warrior, a NORAD exercise, but ... Otis [Air National Guard Base] has launched two birds toward New York. [Clarke, 2004] However, no other references have been found to this exercise, Vigilant Warrior. Considering that exercise terms are normally an unclassified nickname, [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 5/23/1998 ] this is perhaps a little odd. Could Richard Clarke have mistakenly been referring to the Vigilant Guardian exercise (see (6:30 a.m.)), which is taking place on 9/11? According to a later news report though, NORAD confirms that it was running two mock drills on Sept. 11 at various radar sites and Command Centers in the United States and Canada, one of these being Vigilant Guardian. [New Jersey Star-Ledger, 1/5/2004] If this is correct then there must be another NORAD exercise on 9/11. If not Vigilant Warrior, a possibility is that the exercise referred to by Richard Clarke is in fact Amalgam Warrior, which is a NORAD-sponsored, large-scale, live-fly air defense and air intercept field training exercise. Amalgam Warrior usually involves two or more NORAD regions and is held twice yearly, in the spring for the West Coast and in the autumn for the East Coast. [GlobalSecurity http://(.org), 5/14/2002; Airman, 1996; US Congress, n.d.; Arkin, 2005] Is it possible that in 2001 the East Coast Amalgam Warrior is being held earlier than usual (like Global Guardian (see 8:30 a.m.)) and is taking place on 9/11? In support of this possibility is a 1997 Defense Department report that describes the Stratcom exercise Global Guardian, saying it links with other exercise activities sponsored by the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Unified Commands. The exercises it links with are Crown Vigilance (an Air Combat Command exercise), Apollo Guardian (a US Space Command exercise), andsignificantlythe NORAD exercises Vigilant Guardian and Amalgam Warrior. [ERROR (SourceType=executiveDepartmentDocument); GlobalSecurity http://(.org), 11/10/2002] Since in 2001, Vigilant Guardian (see (6:30 a.m.)) is occurring the same time as Global Guardian, might Amalgam Warrior be as well? In his book Code Names, William Arkin says that Amalgam Warrior is sometimes combined with Global Guardian. [Arkin, 2005] Amalgam Warrior tests such activities as tracking, surveillance, air interception, employing rules of engagement, attack assessment, electronic warfare, and counter-cruise-missile operations. A previous Amalgam Warrior in 1996 involved such situations as tracking unknown aircraft that had incorrectly filed their flight plans or wandered off course, in-flight emergencies, terrorist aircraft attacks, and large-scale bomber strike missions. Amalgam Warrior 98-1 was NORADs largest ever exercise and involved six B-1B bombers being deployed to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, to act as an enemy threat by infiltrating the aerial borders of North America. [GlobalSecurity http://(.org), 5/14/2002; Airman, 1996; Arkin, 2005] Another Amalgam Warrior in fall 2000 similarly involved four B-1 bombers acting as enemy forces trying to invade Alaska, with NORAD going from tracking the unknown aircraft to sending up alert F-15s in response. [Eielson News Service, 11/27/2000; Associated Press, 11/29/2000] If either one (or both) of these exercises ending with the name Warrior is taking place on 9/11, this could be very significant, because the word Warrior indicates that the exercise is a Joint Chiefs of Staff-approved, Commander in Chief, NORAD-sponsored field training exercise. [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/25/1989] Real planes would be pretending to be threats to the US and real fighters would be deployed to defend against them
9:30 a.m.: Office of Emergency Management is Evacuated
The headquarters of New Yorks Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which is on the 23rd floor of WTC Building 7, is evacuated. The headquarters was opened in 1999 and was specifically intended to co-ordinate the citys response to disasters such as terrorist attacks (see June 8, 1999). [9/11 Commission, 8/24/2004] A senior OEM official orders the evacuation after being told by a Secret Service agent that additional commercial planes are unaccounted for. [9/11 Commission, 8/24/2004] All civilians were evacuated from WTC 7 around the time the second WTC tower was hit (see After 9:03 a.m.). Despite these evacuations though, firefighters reportedly find individuals on the 7th and 8th floors of WTC 7 at around 12:10 to 12:15 p.m., who they then lead out of the building. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 7/2004 ]
(9:36 a.m.): Air Force Officer Sees a Military Helicopter Circling the Pentagon? An unnamed senior Air Force officer tells a CNN reporter minutes later that, just prior to the Pentagon being hit, he is outside the building and sees what appears to be a US military helicopter circling the Pentagon. He says it disappears behind the building where the helicopter landing pad is, and then he sees an explosion. [CNN, 10/11/2001] The Guardian reports one witness claiming that the explosion occurring when the Pentagon is hit blows up a helicopter circling overhead. [Guardian, 10/12/2001] No other witnesses are known to report seeing this helicopter. However, Dick Cheney will later tell NBCs Meet the Press that the first reports on the Pentagon attack suggested a helicopter hit it. [Meet the Press, 10/16/2001] Interestingly, New York Times columnist William Safire will report that, at approximately this time, Dick Cheney is told that either another plane or a helicopter loaded with explosives is heading for the White House. [New York Times, 10/13/2001 ]
(Before 9:37 a.m.): Sheer Coincidence Brings Emergency Rescue and Secret Service Near to Pentagon In response to an emergency 9-1-1 telephone call, the Arlington County Emergency Communications Center dispatches several units to deal with an apartment fire in Rosslyn, Virginiawithin the vicinity of the Pentagon.
Because this fire is in a high-rise building, nine different fire and medical service units are dispatched. However, the first engine crew to arrive radios to the other units that the fire has gone out. Consequently, by sheer coincidence, at the time when the Pentagon is hit, there are a significant number of available fire and medical service units already on the road nearby. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 8/2002; Fire Engineering, 12/2002] Additionally, Secret Service personnel are concentrated around the heliport a short distance from where Flight 77 will hit: President Bush was scheduled to fly from Florida that afternoon, and his helicopter, Marine One, would carry him to the Pentagon. That meant Secret Service everywhere and their cars blocking the driveway. [Scripps Howard News Service, 9/1/2002]
(Before 9:37 a.m.): Rumsfeld Said to Make Eerie Predictions, but Witness Who Gives Account Is Long Gone
Representative Christopher Cox later claims he is still meeting with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. They are still discussing missile defense, apparently completely oblivious of the approaching Flight 77. Watching television coverage from New York City, Rumsfeld says to Cox, Believe me, this isnt over yet. Theres going to be another attack, and it could be us. According to the Daily Telegraph, Flight 77 hits the building moments later. [Daily Telegraph, 1/16/2002] In another telling, Cox claims that Rumsfeld says, If we remain vulnerable to missile attack, a terrorist group or rogue state that demonstrates the capacity to strike the US or its allies from long range could have the power to hold our entire country hostage to nuclear or other blackmail. And let me tell you, Ive been around the block a few times. There will be another event. Rumsfeld repeats that sentence for emphasis. According to Cox, Within minutes of that utterance, Rumsfelds words proved tragically prophetic. Cox also claims, I escaped just minutes before the building was hit. [Office of Representative Christopher Cox, 10/11/2001] However, Rumsfeld claims that this meeting with Cox ended before the second WTC crash, which occurred at 9:03 a.m. Cox himself said that after being told of the WTC, [Rumsfeld] sped off, as did I. Cox says he immediately headed to his car, making it impossible for him to still be in the Pentagon just minutes before it is hit. [Associated Press, 10/11/2001] Another account puts Rumsfelds Ive been around the block a few times. There will be another event comment two minutes before the first WTC crash at 8:46 a.m., when Rumsfeld reportedly makes other predictive comments. [Associated Press, 10/16/2001]
(After 9:37 a.m.): FBI Confiscates Film of Pentagon Crash
An employee at a gas station located across the street from the Pentagon servicing military personnel later says the stations security cameras should have recorded the moment of impact. However, he says, Ive never seen what the pictures looked like. The FBI was here within minutes and took the film. [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1/11/2002] A security camera atop a hotel close to the Pentagon also records the impact. Hotel employees watch the film several times before the FBI confiscates the video. [Gertz File, 10/21/2001] This film footage has never been released.
(9:52 a.m.): Lynne Cheney Joins Husband in White House Bunker; Vice President Repeatedly Hangs up Clarke Telephone
According to the 9/11 Commission, Lynne Cheney joins her husband, Vice President Cheney, in the PEOC (Presidential Emergency Operations Center) bunker below the White House. [9/11 Commission, 7/17/2004] She had been at a downtown office around 9:00 a.m. when she was escorted by the Secret Service to the White House. [Newsweek, 1/31/2002] Counterterrorism tsar Richard Clarke describes the people in the PEOC as decidedly more political than those in his bunker below the other wing of the White House. In addition to Cheney and his wife, most of the day the PEOC contains National Security Adviser Rice, political adviser Mary Matalin, Cheneys Chief of Staff I. Lewis Scooter Libby, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, and White House Communications Director Karen Hughes. Clarke is told later in the day by someone else in the PEOC, I cant hear the crisis conference [led by Clarke] because Mrs. Cheney keeps turning down the volume on you so she can hear CNN ... and the vice president keeps hanging up the open line to you. Clarke notes that the right-wing ideologue Lynne Cheney frequently offers her advice and opinions during the crisis. [Clarke, 2004]
(Before 9:59 a.m.): Gold Transported Through WTC Basement
Large amounts of gold are stored in vaults in the massive basement below the WTC, and some of this is being transported through the basement this morning. Several weeks later, recovery workers will discover hundreds of ingots in a service tunnel below WTC 5, along with a ten-wheel lorry and some cars (which were, presumably, transporting the gold) (see (Mid-October-mid November 2001)). The lorry and cars had been crushed by falling steel, but no bodies will be reported found with them, so presumably they were abandoned before the first WTC collapse, at 9:59 a.m. [London Times, 12/1/2001; New York Daily News, 12/1/2001]
(Before 10:06 a.m.): Flight 93 Breaks Up Prior to Crash?
Flight 93 apparently starts to break up before it crashes, because debris is found very far away from the crash site. [Philadelphia Daily News, 12/15/2001] The plane is generally obliterated upon landing, except for one half-ton piece of engine found some distance away. Some reports indicate that the engine piece was found over a mile away. [Independent, 9/13/2002] The FBI reportedly acknowledges that this piece was found a considerable distance from the crash site. [Philadelphia Daily News, 12/15/2001] Later, the FBI will cordon off a three-mile wide area around the crash, as well as another area six to eight miles from the initial crash site. [CNN, 10/13/2001] One story calls what happened to this engine intriguing, because the heat-seeking, air-to-air Sidewinder missiles aboard an F-16 would likely target one of the Boeing 757s two large engines. [Philadelphia Daily News, 12/15/2001] Smaller debris fields are also found two, three, and eight miles away from the main crash site. [Mirror, 10/13/2002; Independent, 9/13/2002]
Eight miles away, local media quote residents speaking of a second plane in the area and burning debris falling from the sky. [Reuters, 10/13/2001] Residents outside Shanksville reported discovering clothing, books, papers, and what appeared to be human remains. Some residents said they collected bags-full of items to be turned over to investigators. Others reported what appeared to be crash debris floating in Indian Lake, nearly six miles from the immediate crash scene. Workers at Indian Lake Marina said that they saw a cloud of confetti-like debris descend on the lake and nearby farms minutes after hearing the explosion... [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/13/2001] Moments after the crash, Carol Delasko initially thinks someone had blown up a boat on Indian Lake: It just looked like confetti raining down all over the air above the lake. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 10/14/2001] Investigators say that far-off wreckage probably was spread by the cloud created when the plane crashed and dispersed by a ten mph southeasterly wind. [News Journal (Wilmington, DE), 10/16/2001] However, much of the wreckage is found sooner than that wind could have carried it, and not always southeast.
(After 10:06 a.m.): Witnesses Report Lack of Plane Wreckage at Flight 93 Crash
Scene Numerous individuals who see the Flight 93 crash site describe a lack of plane wreckage: Jon Meyer, a reporter with WJAC-TV, says, I was able to get right up to the edge of the crater. ... All I saw was a crater filled with small, charred plane parts. Nothing that would even tell you that it was the plane. ... There were no suitcases, no recognizable plane parts, no body parts. The crater was about 30 to 35 feet deep. [Newseum et al., 2002]
According to Mark Stahl, who goes to the crash scene, Theres a crater gouged in the earth, the plane is pretty much disintegrated. Theres nothing left but scorched trees. [Associated Press, 10/11/2001]
Frank Monaco of the Pennsylvania State Police says, If you would go down there, it would look like a trash heap. Theres nothing but tiny pieces of debris. Its just littered with small pieces. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/12/2001] Scott Spangler, a photographer with a local newspaper, says, I didnt think I was in the right place. I was looking for a wing or a tail. There was nothing, just this pit. ... I was looking for anything that said tail, wing, plane, metal. There was nothing. [Newseum et al., 2002]
According to Ron Delano, a local who rushes to the scene after hearing about the crash, If they hadnt told us a plane had wrecked, you wouldnt have known. It looked like it hit and disintegrated. [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 10/12/2001]
Gabrielle DeRose, a news anchor with KDKA-TV, views the crash site from a hill overlooking it. She says, It was very disturbing to think all the remains just disintegrated.... There were no large pieces of airplane, no human remains, no baggage. [Sylvester and Huffman, 2002] Local assistant volunteer fire chief Rick King, who sees the crater at the crash site, says, Never in my wildest dreams did I think half the plane was down there. King sends his men into the woods to search for the planes fuselage, but they keep coming back and telling him, Rick. Theres nothing. [Longman, 2002]
Bob Craig of the FBIs evidence-gathering team later explains what is supposed to have occurred: Turn the picture of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center on its side, and, for all intents and purposes, the face of the building is the strip mine in Shanksville [where Flight 93 crashed]. [Longman, 2002] When the planes two black boxes are later discovered (see September 13-14, 2001), they are reportedly found 15 and 25 feet inside the crater. [Washington Post, 6/12/2002; Longman, 2002]
September 11, 2001: Five Israelis Arrested for Puzzling Behavior near WTC
Five Israelis are arrested around 4:30 pm for puzzling behavior related to the WTC attacks: filming the burning WTC from the roof of their companys building near Liberty State Park, New Jersey, then shouting in what was interpreted as cries of joy and mockery. A neighbor spotted them and called the police and the FBI. The police tracked them down in a van with the words Urban Moving Systems written on the side. [Bergen Record, 10/12/2001; Ha'aretz, 10/17/2001] One man was found with $4, 700 in cash hidden in his sock, another had two passports on him, and a box cutter was found in the van. [ABC News, 7/21/2002] Investigators say that [t]here are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted... It looked like theyre hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen. [Bergen Record, 10/12/2001] One of these Israelis later says, our purpose was to document the event. [ABC News, 7/21/2002] The FBI later concludes at least two are Mossad agents and that all were on a Mossad surveillance mission. The FBI interrogates them for weeks. [Forward, 4/15/2002] They are held on immigration violation charges, but are released 71 days later. [ABC News, 7/21/2002] Their names are later identified as Sivan and Paul Kurzberg, Oded Ellner, Omer Marmari, and Yaron Shmuel. [Forward, 4/15/2002]
(5:20 p.m.): WTC Building 7 Collapses; Cause Remains Unclear Building 7 of the WTC complex, a 47-story tower, collapses. No one is killed. [Washington Post, 10/12/2001; CNN, 10/12/2001; MSNBC, 10/22/2001; Associated Press, 9/19/2002] Many questions will arise over the cause of this collapse in the coming weeks and months. Building 7, which was not hit by an airplane, is the first modern, steel-reinforced high-rise to collapse because of fire. [Chicago Tribune, 12/29/2001; New York Times, 4/2/2002; Stanford Report, 1/5/2002] Some later suggest that the diesel fuel stored in several tanks on the premises may have contributed to the buildings collapse. The building contained a 6, 000-gallon tank between its first and second floors and another four tanks, holding as much as 36, 000 gallons, below ground level. There were also three smaller tanks on higher floors. [Federal Emergency Management Agency, 6/1/2002; New York Observer, 4/25/2002; New York Times, 4/2/2002; Chicago Tribune, 12/29/2001] However, the cause of the collapse is uncertain. A 2002 government report concludes: The specifics of the fires in WTC 7 and how they caused the building to collapse remain unknown at this time. Although the total diesel fuel on the premises contained massive potential energy, the best hypothesis has only a low probability of occurrence. [Federal Emergency Management Agency, 6/1/2002] Some reports indicate that the building may have been deliberately destroyed. Shortly after the collapse, CBS News anchor Dan Rather comments that the collapse is reminiscent of ... when a building was deliberately destroyed by well-placed dynamite to knock it down. [CBS News, 10/11/2001]
(11:30 p.m.): Bush Sees New Pearl Harbor Before going to sleep, President Bush writes in his diary, The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today. ... We think its Osama bin Laden. [Washington Post, 2/27/2002]
September 12, 2001: Hijackers Passport Found Near WTC
It is reported that the passport of hijacker Satam Al Suqami has been found a few blocks from the WTC. [ABC News, 10/16/2001; Associated Press, 10/16/2001; ABC News, 10/12/2001] Barry Mawn, the director of the FBIs New York office, says police and FBI found it during a grid search of the area. [CNN, 10/18/2001] However a senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission later claims it was actually discovered by a passerby and given to an NYPD detective, shortly before the World Trade Center towers collapsed. [9/11 Commission, 2/26/2004] The Guardian says, The idea that Mohamed Attas passport had escaped from that inferno unsinged [tests] the credulity of the staunchest supporter of the FBIs crackdown on terrorism. [Guardian, 4/19/2002] (Note that, as in this Guardian account, the passport is frequently mistakenly referred to as Attas passport.)
September 12-October 2001: Steel Debris From WTC Shipped Out of US for Recycling In the month following 9/11, a significant amount of the steel debris from the WTC collapses is removed from the rubble pile, cut into smaller sections, and either melted at a recycling plant or shipped out of the US. [US Congress, 4/6/2002] Each of the twin towers contained 78, 000 tons of recyclable steel. Much of this is shipped to India, China, and other Asian countries, where it will be melted down and reprocessed into new steel products. Asian companies are able to purchase the steel for just $120 per ton, compared, for example, to a usual average price of $150 per ton in China. Industry officials estimate that selling off the steel and other metals from the WTC for recycling could net a few tens of million dollars. [Reuters, 2/22/2002; Reuters, 2/21/2002; New York Times, 11/9/2001; Eastday, 2/24/2002; CorpWatch, 3/6/2002] 9/11 victims families and some engineers are angered at the decision to quickly discard the steel, believing it should be examined to help determine how the towers collapsed. A respected fire fighting trade magazine comments, We are literally treating the steel removed from the site like garbage, not like crucial fire scene evidence. [Fire Engineering, 2/2002] Rep. Joseph Crowley (D) will later call the loss of this evidence borderline criminal. By March 2002, 150 pieces of steel from the WTC debris will have been identified by engineers for use in future investigations (see March 6, 2002). [Federal Emergency Management Agency, 6/1/2002] A study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which commences in August 2002 [Associated Press, 9/21/2002; National Institute of Standards and Technology, 9/21/2002] , will have 236 pieces of recovered steel available to it. Of these, 229 pieces are from WTC 1 and 2, representing roughly 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent of the 200, 000 tons of structural steel used in the construction of the two towers. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 10/2005 ] New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg defends the decision to quickly get rid of the WTC steel, saying, If you want to take a look at the construction methods and the design, thats in this day and age what computers do. Just looking at a piece of metal generally doesnt tell you anything. Officials in the mayors office decline to reply to requests by the New York Times regarding who decided to have the steel recycled. [New York Times, 1/25/2002; Eastday, 2/24/2002]
September 12, 2001-February 2002: Witnesses See Molten Metal in the Remains at Ground Zero In the weeks and months after 9/11, numerous individuals report seeing molten metal in the remains of the World Trade Center: Ken Holden, who is involved with the organizing of demolition, excavation and debris removal operations at Ground Zero, later will tell the 9/11 Commission, Underground, it was still so hot that molten metal dripped down the sides of the wall from [WTC] Building 6. [9/11 Commission, 5/1/2003]
William Langewiesche, the only journalist to have unrestricted access to Ground Zero during the cleanup operation, describes, in the early days, the streams of molten metal that leaked from the hot cores and flowed down broken walls inside the foundation hole. [Langewiesche, 2002]
Leslie Robertson, the structural engineer responsible for the design of the WTC, describes fires still burning and molten steel still running 21 days after the attacks. [SEAU News, 11/2001 ]
Alison Geyh, who heads a team of scientists studying the potential health effects of 9/11, reports, Fires are still actively burning and the smoke is very intense. In some pockets now being uncovered, they are finding molten steel. [Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine, 2001] Ron Burger, a public health advisor who arrives at Ground Zero on September 12, says that feeling the heat and seeing the molten steel there reminds him of a volcano. [National Environmental Health Association, 10/2003 ] According to a member of New York Air National Guards 109th Air Wing, who is at Ground Zero from September 22 to October 6, One fireman told us that there was still molten steel at the heart of the towers remains. Firemen sprayed water to cool the debris down but the heat remained intense enough at the surface to melt their boots. [National Guard Magazine, 1/2002] New York firefighters recall heat so intense they encountered rivers of molten steel. [New York Post, 4/3/2004]
As late as five months after the attacks, in February 2002, firefighter Joe OToole sees a steel beam being lifted from deep underground at Ground Zero, which, he says, was dripping from the molten steel. [Knight Ridder, 6/29/2002] Steven E. Jones, a physics professor from Utah, later will claim this molten metal is direct evidence for the use of high-temperature explosives, such as thermite, used to deliberately bring down the WTC towers. [MSNBC, 12/16/2005]
He will say that without explosives, a falling building would have insufficient directed energy to result in melting of large quantities of metal. [Deseret Morning News, 12/10/2005] There is no mention whatsoever of the molten metal in the official reports by FEMA, NIST, or the 9/11 Commission. [Federal Emergency Management Agency, 6/1/2002; 9/11 Commission, 8/24/2004; National Institute of Standards and Technology, 10/2005 ] But Dr. Frank Gayle, who leads the steel forensics aspects of NISTs investigation of the WTC collapses, is quoted as saying, Your gut reaction would be the jet fuel is what made the fire so very intense, a lot of people figured thats what melted the steel. Indeed it didnt, the steel did not melt. [ABC News 7 (New York), 3/7/2004] As well as the reports of molten metal, data collected by NASA in the days after 9/11 finds dozens of hot spots (some over 1300 degrees) at Ground Zero (see September 16-23, 2001).
September 13, 2001: Bush and Saudi Ambassador Hold Private Meeting President Bush and Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US, hold a private meeting in the White House. No aides or translators are present. Bandar is so close to the Bush family that he is nicknamed Bandar Bush. Sen. Bob Graham (D) later will note that while neither Bush nor Bandar have disclosed what they discussed in the meeting, mere hours later, the first flights transporting Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family are in t"