9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes

Andrews Air Force Base is a huge installation. It has two combat-ready squadrons of f-16 & f-18's fueled up and loaded with weapons. After the towers were hit, even a retard would scramble those jets to protect Washington in the quickest possible time. You tell me why this wasn't done? It is complete incompetence imho.

I'm not an expert, so I have to go by the chronology in the 9/11 commission report. I also don't know why the jets were scrambled out of Langley rather than Andrews; Langley was closer to the tracks of flights 77 and 93, but the controllers didn't know that at the time. We must also consider the likelihood that there are parts of the response, particularly the defense of Washington, that were in the classified portion of the report.

NORAD was notified Flight 77 had been hijacked, and of its approximate location, only four minutes before it hit the Pentagon. So if there was any failure on the morning of 9/11, it was a failure on the part of the FAA to do something it was never designed to do.

The more important failures were in anticipation and planning, which goes back to the acknowledged failures of intelligence.

Amen, brother.

Now, I'm all for looking at the aftermath of a situation, any situation, and learning what mistakes were made and how the same mistakes can be avoided in the future.

Too often though, the process turns into a witch hunt and that's what happened with the 9/11 commission and is still what so many on the Left want to do.

Re: the Vanity Fair article at the top of the thread. Before I read it, my assumption was that it was along this vein of trying to blame the Bush administration and/or the military for 9/11. However, after reading it last night (though I haven't listened to the audio yet) my impression is that the military responded with cool, calm professionalism, as usual, and the civilian ATCs were turning to jelly.

I'll scream at a player who whiffs at strike 3 in the dirt, but I know I couldn't do the easiest part of his job on my best day.

Now why on earth can't you adjust your cup????

Seriously, thanks for shooting down (no pun intended) some moronic ideas here...

Just found out the answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks_timeline_for_the_day_of_the_attacks

9:13: The F-15 fighters from Otis Air Force base leave military airspace near Long Island, bound for Manhattan.

9:25: The Otis-based F-15s establish an air patrol over Manhattan.

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