Secrets of 9/11: New Details of Chaos, Nukes Emerge

When chief of staff Andrew Card knelt down and told George Bush “America is under attack” 15 years ago Sunday, the words he whispered in the president’s ear in a Florida classroom launched what was supposed to be a planned, orderly response to a national emergency.

But what followed instead was chaos, a breakdown in communication and protocol that risked international conflict and could have made Sept. 11, 2001, a still bigger tragedy. There were live nukes on the tarmac at U.S. airbases, a failed communications system, and a security protocol for the president and his potential successors — the “continuity of government” plan — that only one top official followed.

Based on a review of newly unclassified documents, memoirs and other published accounts, and interviews with U.S. officials, NBC News has learned that:

Three dozen live nuclear weapons were aboard U.S. Air Force bombers at three airbases when al Qaeda struck New York and Washington. Because of inadequate communications equipment and procedures, top U.S. officials couldn’t talk to each other or to anyone else. Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to speak to Bush to know why the U.S. was preparing to go to DEFCON 3 — but the White House couldn’t put him through to Air Force One. Bush had no way to receive phone calls. After Bush left Florida, where he had been reading a book to schoolkids, his plane was low on fuel but for hours had nowhere to land. Most of the top 10 people in the president’s line of succession, including Vice President Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, either refused to follow the protocol and go to their designated secure sites, or were out of the country, or were never contacted.

My original comments were deleted before I could save them at FR but ARKIN is a leftist shit. Check out his anti-defense exposures of American weapons systems, nuclear weapons supposed storage sites, and overseas contingency plans.

He was affiliated with the Marxist-created Institute for Policy Studies for a long time. Check him out at www.keywiki.org, www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org and even www.wikipedia.com.

His claim that U.S. officials in the chain of command were literally out of the picture is not true. He admits that VP Cheney was in the White House’s underground security facility (with communications abilities).

Secy of Defense Rumsfeld was in the Pentagon and as newly released film shows, he went outside to assist the injured.

Pres. Bush was airborne from Sarasota Florida to Barksdale AF Base for refueling before Air Force One headed to the underground Strategic Command headquarters (I believe it is in Nebraska).

The communications problems were mainly with the FAA and other airports but a key FAA official ordered the grounding of all airborne aircraft (about 4000) in order to clear the air. Any craft remaining after that was considered a possibly hijacked craft until determined other wise.

The big fiasco was the 1944-95 “stand down” orders the Clinton Administration gave for the Cold War readiness forces (1/3 nuclear bombers airborne 24/7; 1/3 on ready alert, and the rest to fly as a second wave if necessary).

There were no armed military aircraft in DC (Andrews or Bolling AF Bases). They had to come from far away Otis AFB and Langley AFB. A pilot took off from Andrews in an unarmed plane (female pilot) who decided that if she caught up the plane (FL 83?) in Pennsylvania, she would ram it.

The pilot from Langley got to within either radar or actual long distance visual range of Fl 83? but had to turn back because he was literally out of fuel. He landed and was refueled (I recall he had some jerry-rigged missiles or machines installed on his F16) but the plane had gone down and he wasn’t needed.

Never heard of any shoulder-fired missiles by Pentagon defense people. They would have been on the roof of the Pentagon immediately when they got notification that a second plane was headed towards DC. NADA.

We were unprepared for this aerial assault that FBI JohnO’Neill (SAC special office, NYC) had warned about it for years. He was right but he died in one of the WTC buildings. He was their chief security officer after being literally ousted by FBI director Louis Freeh and his toadie Tom Pickard. That’s where the real story is.

Take anything by Arkin with a grain of salt, two aspirins, and healthy skepticism. He’s not on America’s side.

9/11’s Anniversary was today, on a Sunday though you are right, the attack took place on a Tuesday. The blast at the Pentagon rocked my house and if I hadn’t been late for work, I might have been passing by the Pentagon when the plane went in.

We heard it coming up Shirley Highway shortly before it crashed.

Here’s something you might not see about why the Pentagon got hit instead of the White House or Capital. The plane had circled the beltway at a low altitude then came up Shirley Highway (95) towards DC.

Because of vegetation covering the viewing approach to DC (i.e. both the White House and the Capital), the plane’s pilot couldn’t see either target within enough time to direct the plane into them.

When he came up 95 which had an obstructing rise and then flew over the rise, the only thing he could see was the Pentagon directly in front of him. That’s the target he chose and went it. It would have been a matter of just seconds before he hit it.

That is why many people never saw the plane hit UNLESS they were on the ground at the Pentagon or looking out of a few apartment complexes at the top of 95 overlooking the Pentagon.

Only one film so far has been found that showed the plane hitting the Pentagon and exploding immediately upon impact with the outer wall. It sheared off the wings but the body of the plane with its fuel rammed through several Pentagon outer rings, spewing flaming fuel right before it exploded.

Got a lot of my flight and targeting information from a Vietnam F-4 fighter-bomber pilot (Red River Rat) who showed me how the views of the pilot were obstructed and how he had little time to decide to hit the Pentagon or try again to find the White House or Capital.

As a reporter, now mainly researcher, I learned how to ask questions like these when I was in Nam and then covered the Pentagon for a few years. Glad to share what I learned here at FR.

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