FBI probes 5th flight for hijackers, Plane grounded on day of attack

Chicago Tribune ^ | 18 Sept 2001 | Stephen J. Hedges, Naftali Bendavid

[Diddle E. Squat]

bump.

[razorback-bert]

But the idea that one of these hijacked planes would take out AF1 makes absolutely no sense.

True, however expecting a mr clinton response, they expected the President to fly straight away to the cameras. Then who knows what they had planned for DC.

BTW, one plane hit the WTC to attract the media, the second came later to make sure it was seen on live TV.

[cc2k]

In my opinion, this delay was a classic terror-bombing tactic, as used in WWII. First strike brings out the rescuers and firefighters. Follow-up strike kills them.

I agree with that, too. That's another reason to believe that the timing on the WTC wasn't "botched" as someone said earlier on this thread.

[piasa]

The only thing I don't get was why they did this attack when Bush was out of town. With all the inside info they had, surely they knew he wasn't at the WH. But the idea that one of these hijacked planes would take out AF1 makes absolutely no sense.

It may be that with all the talk about how much of an idiot Bush is supposed to be, a mere figurehead as the folks on the left and the Europeans had for so long claimed, with his presidency in question and supposedly not popular, that they figured he was less critical than Cheney. It may also be, what with the terrorist links in Florida, that there was a team down here to take him out as the plane took off, or by some other means.

[piasa]

How are we supposed to know who is a terrorist and who isn't?

Just pretend you are from Illinois, and have been living for years in East St. louis. It's not much different- E. St. Louis has looked like Beirut for decades. It is almost as safe as Beirut, too.

[cc2k]

BTW, one plane hit the WTC to attract the media, the second came later to make sure it was seen on live TV.

That, and to kill the emergency workers that responded to the first hit.

Thanks to Goetz_von_Berlichingen for pointing that out.

[nsmart]

I have an idea that kills two birds with one stone. Send Congress and the Senate home to telecommute. No more big target in DC.. No more travel concerns for those on the West Coast. No more temptation to lead a "Condit like" double life. No more Lobbyist receptions every afternoon. In fact, "K" street might just dry up.

Start the drum-beat. Send them HOME! Imagine if they heard what their constituents were saying over coffee instead of the "insiders".

COME ON FREEPERS -- JUST DO IT!

[syriacus]

I wonder if the terrorists didn't suspect that the extreme heat from the burning fuel of the filled tanks of the planes would bring down the WTC.
If they only meant a symbolic attack, why didn't they fly smaller planes?
Isn't Bin Laden's father a builder?
Might they not have seen what happened to "inferno-ized" steel during Desert Storm?

Of course, I'm only surmizing that the terrorists were looking at the integrity of the WTC from a different perspective and from a different era than the builders of the WTC did.

[blam]

I think everyone on this thread is giving them more credit than they deserve. They are extremely lucky to have hit both towers and I'm sure OBL views them as being very successful. One plane hitting almost anything in NY/DC=success.

[syriacus]

BTW, one plane hit the WTC to attract the media, the second came later to make sure it was seen on live TV. That, and to kill the emergency workers that responded to the first hit.

How lucky for the office workers and how sad for their rescuers!!

[syriacus]

Send Congress and the Senate home to telecommute

This is an idea worth considering!

[Congressman Billybob]

To the contrary, my friend.

Anyone who knows the techniques of Controlled Demolition, Inc., the world's leading firm that uses explosives to drop buildings in their tracks, knows that the Towers were designed to take the hit of an airliner into them. They were not designed to take a fire of 2,000 degrees, caused by a full load of aviation fuel.

The floor supports of the building (just each floor, not the entire building) are rated to survive at about 1,500 degrees. Beyond that, the floor supports fail and the building pancakes down, from the point of failure, taking whatever is above it, with it, and crushing whatever is below it. I've followed the career of Controlled Demolition, based in my former hometown of tiny Towson, Maryland. These terrorists did crudely, using fully-loaded transcontinental jet liners, what Controlled Demolition does precisely, using just a few pounds of shaped charges, precisely placed and precisely targetted.

The designer of the Towers confirmed this. Like the designer of the Titanic, when he saw how extensive the fires were, he knew the Towers were doomed. The result of dropping the Towers was planned, not accidental. The death toll was relatively low compared to what it could have been, because the steel holding the floors at the point of the impacts lasted almost an hour. That's why so few of the casualties were civilians, and so many were the firemen who were in there to clear both buildings.

I wrote this up in my column posted during my honeymoon in Las Vegas. Click below. This was written entirely from memory (no interactive Internet access). It is also entirely accurate.

The (More er Less) Honorable Billybob,
cyberCongressman from Western Carolina

Click here for Billybob's latest, "The Engineering (and Law) of War."

[Maurice Tift]

Who and where are they?

A remember seeing a flight school instructor on TV recently talking about a student who wanted to know how to steer the plane, but didn't seem concerned about take-offs and landings. I'm sure the FBI is already interviewing flight school instructors for information on their students... especially students from the Middle East. Of course, I'd feel better if all pilots, flight engineers, etc. carried guns.

[nsmart]

I agree

[JRadcliffe]

"Or was it Logan to LAX?"

Either way, Boston, which is arguably the most socialistic, and whinny city in America -- the land of (puke...barf...fart...burp) fat-ass Kennedy, has the WORST ariport security in the nation.

I'll avoid that one like a plague

[Diddle E. Squat]

That's a good line of thinking, but I don't buy it for this reason. Some of the info coming out about their having secret codes for our emergency plans indicated that they had a good knowledge of the line of succession, how we protect that, etc. So they had to know that Cheney would be in the bunker by then. However, your theory may be right if that plane was delayed more than they had anticipated. Hence maybe explaining why they passed on the WH, and figured the Capitol had already had many of the Congressmen evacuated. It flew all the way out to stinkin' western KY before turning. However, if that was the case, why didn't they go straight into the Pentagon?

[razorback-bert]

That, and to kill the emergency workers that responded to the first hit.

If this was their intent, then why not hit the same building again. No emergency workers in the second.

[JRadcliffe]

I've got an even better idea. We demand that congress can only meet for one week every year -- and NO MORE than that. Let's see how much them child molesting lard butts get done then!