Pentagon Tragedy: A Plot that Keeps on Thickening
One of the things that has bothered me since the morning of
9/11 is how little attention the Pentagon tragedy received. All
you could hear screamed from the media and White House for
months was WTC! WTC! WTC! Heroes of Flight 93! Heroes of Flight
93! It was an endless litany education through repetition. In
fact, 9/11 became synonymous, almost forcibly, with the WTC.
Yet, over 200 people died at the Pentagon, including the ill-
fated passengers on Flight 77, right at the heart of the city.
Why so little focus on this tragedy? I believe that of all the
events of 9/11, the crash of Flight 77 into the Pentagon was
the most telling, it was the hottest, smokiest of the smoking
guns. The key to the whole mystery may well lie in this five-
sided building built by FDR's administration. First, here's a
little long-overdue background on the Pentagon.
The history of the Pentagon
When war broke out in Europe in 1939, even before the US
entered the conflict, our War Department was gearing up for the
possibility. However, there was no real home for the Department
of Defense it was scattered across DC in 17 different
buildings. Back then, there wasn't a whole lot of red tape to
cut through when the green light was given to come up with a
place to put the DOD, by God, they came up with a plan in four
days! In this relative blink of an eye, Brigadier General
Brehon B. Somervell developed a scheme for a three-story
humongous complex capable of housing 40,000 workers (it later
grew to five floors after WWII broke out). But, Somervell's
plan for a five-sided structure was not, as one might expect,
symbolic, or an effort to create a stylized giant chevron.
Instead, it was the most practical idea that suggested itself:
the 67-acre site chosen (a former Deptartment of Agriculture
Farm on the Potomac) was bound on five sides by five existing
roads. Voila! The Pentagon. Cost estimates for the original
project was $35 million about what a couple of out buildings
for storing old munitions might cost now! Believe it or not,
the project was considered highly controversial. Some
complained that it took up land intended for the expansion of
Arlington Cemetery. Others said the DOD shouldn't be housed
outside the District of Columbia, while some (we jaded 21st
centurians would have to laugh at this) complained that the
cost was too high.
One problem Congress wrangled over was what to do with the
building once WWII was over. Although some wanted to turn it
into a warehouse, most people assumed that the building would
become a veterans' hospital. It is very telling that no one
believed there would be a need for 40,000 defense department
workers after the War. That was because no one foresaw that war
was soon to become a way of life in one form or the other for
Americans. This shift to an all-war (ours or someone else's we
supply weapons for) all the time focus can be traced to the
Cold War mentality that many in high places locked into during
the 1950s and never left (and has never allowed the rest of us
to leave).
In any case, the classic monster of a building (over 5 million
square feet!) that we call the Pentagon was begun in 1941 a few
months before Pearl Harbor (the appropriations bill was signed
by FDR in August 1941). Spurred to heroic efforts by the
declaration of war in December, the construction crews 13,000
men at one point completed the building in an astounding 16
months. As with all government projects, the final cost was
nearly three times higher than first estimates (it came in at
$83 million). Because a war was on, reinforced concrete was
used instead of steel in most of the building's structure (in
contrast to the WTC, which was a mass of steel beams). There
were no elevators instead, concrete ramps go between levels.
The finished building consists of five nested concentric
pentagons (called rings), with a 5-acre courtyard at the heart.
The building is really a small town with its own shopping
concourse, banks, and even its own subway station. In 1993, the
Clinton administration decided to upgrade the Pentagon, for
many reasons, not least of which was the growing concern over
terrorist attacks. In addition to new plumbing, the upgrade
included putting in heavy duty fireproofing in the walls,
reinforcing the walls, and improving security in general. The
final reconstruction strategy called for the work to be divided
into five "wedges," each wedge encompassing a corner and a
rectangle of the Building. The first wedge to be tackled was
the one facing west, covering 1.2 million square feet. By
September 2000, work on this wedge was about 70% complete. The
wedge was supposed to have been completely done by July 2001,
but, as with rebuilding any old "house," more problems kept
being uncovered. For example, all sorts of interesting goodies
were found in the walls: a secure vault no one knew about, old
whiskey bottles (hmm, wonder who went to such lengths to hide
their booze!), and other items. Then of course, there were
supports that needed more reinforcement, asbestos to be
removed, etc. Among the improvements made to Wedge One: Blast
resistant windows and brick backup walls behind the building's
limestone outer facade. These inner walls contain a metal
fabric mesh similar to the mesh used in vehicle air bags. This
mesh was designed specifically to CONTAIN DEBRIS FRAGMENTS in
the event of a blast.
The bloody morning of September 11.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, about 20,000 people were
at work in the Pentagon. Almost no one was in Wedge one, except
workers who were moving furniture in the last step before the
wedge was reopened for business. When the news of the planes
hitting the WTC came, Pentagon personnel were horrified and
clustered round radios and television sets to follow the
coverage. One man remembered remarking to another worker that
he feared the Pentagon was vulnerable to all types of terrorist
assaults. Then, at 9:43, there was a huge explosion and fire
and smoke rose from wedge one. By evening, it would be known
that at least 180 people had been killed, including the 64
passengers on Flight 77.
So, what is wrong with the whole Pentagon disaster picture? For
starters, here are a few interesting facts:
As mentioned earlier, the Bush administration had PLENTY of
information that would lead them to believe the Pentagon and
other major national landmarks were at high risk of a terrorist
attack, especially in the summer and fall of 2001. Many
warnings had come over the previous 8 years that the Pentagon
could be a target of a terrorist attack, not only that but part
of a multiple-strike terrorist attack. In fact, this
possibility seemed so plausible that in November 2000 a
disaster response exercise was held by the Military District of
DC that simulated a plane hitting the Pentagon. So, September
11 finds Bush and several other key administrators safely
removed from DC Bush, at a Florida elementary school, is
strategically NOWHERE NEAR a national landmark that morning.
John Ashcroft has stopped flying on commercial airliners and is
in the wilds of Missouri, via private jet, fishing. Cheney is
at an "undisclosed location" (his bunker, probably). Jeb Bush,
from September 7, has the Florida National Guard on standby. A
collection of top CEOs of companies based at the WTC are
attending a charity event at Offutt Air Base in Omaha at 8:00
AM on 9/11 (rather odd time, doncha think?) the same base to
which Bush flees later in the same day. Rumsfeld is at the
Pentagon but in the wedge FURTHEST from what will be the point
of impact.
So, while the Bush administration and its pals were maneuvering
into the safest possible positions, the folks at the Pentagon
(and the workers and "expendable" CEOs at the WTC, of course)
were left to their fate, no warning given to them at all. Given
the above info on the administration's awareness of the threat
to the Pentagon, it seems reasonable to expect that the MINUTE
the news was heard about the WTC being hit that the Pentagon
should have been evacuated IMMEDIATELY as a precaution until
further notice. At the very least, after the SECOND TOWER was
hit! At that point, the multiple-strike scenario should have
been so hideously obvious. Yet the workers were left at their
posts like sitting ducks. Was this incompetence, intent to
kill, or was it something else?
Let's try applying a different hypothesis and see how the
pieces fit. HYPOTHESIS: That person or persons unknown in the
Bush administration were involved in planning the attack on the
Pentagon. Let's examine the likely objectives of the Perpetrator
(s) and their objectives according to this hypothesis compared
to actual events.
A. Minimize loss of life while creating a terrorist event of
frightening proportions
ACTUAL EVENTS: 1. Published reports following 9/11 say the
number of passengers on all four hijacked flights was
remarkably light under half capacity. There were just 64
people on Flight 77. (Possible modus operandi: One writer has
theorized that a computer hacker could have manipulated the
bookings for these flights in such a way that they would appear
to have been full after a reasonable number of people and thus
no more passengers could be accepted.)
2. The plane struck the almost empty, but newly reinforced,
fire resistant wedge. In fact, the plane underwent an elaborate
maneuver to be able to line its trajectory up with Wedge One
not only that, but to strike the newly reinforced, collapse-
resistant WALL in wedge one. A suicide pilot would likely have
made a beeline for the building and done a nosedive into the
top, which would have caused more damage.
3. No one in the Pentagon had been put on alert from the time
of the Bush's receipt of the August 6 memo to the morning of
9/11, when, for over 40 minutes, it was known that a hijacked
plane-turned-bomb was in the air.
CONCLUSION: In their own sick way, the perpetrators tried to
keep the loss of life minimized. They kept the number of
passengers on the planes to a minimum, then made sure the plane
would hit Wedge One, a well-reinforced fire-resistant area
where few people would be that day. In addition, they did not
issue alerts because they assumed emergency evacuation might
place workers in greater danger many may actually have sought
shelter, ironically, in the newly reinforced Wedge. (In an
interesting side note, it has been pointed out by some
observers that the planes that hit the WTC seemed to aim for
the top 1/4 of the towers, as if to avoid destroying the towers
and, again, in a bizarre, perverted way, to minimize loss of
life).
B. Eliminate any trace of the plane a challenge because of the
special mesh in the new wall designed to capture any debris.
ACTUAL EVENTS: 1. Flight 77 was a Boeing 757, an aircraft that
is about 60 feet long, with a wingspan of 125 feet. Yet, it
appears to have left essentially not a trace of material inside
the building. Brigadier General Arthur F. Diehl III, Air Force,
gave this first hand account of the crash site: "No one could
believe the catastrophic damage it was horrible. A whole wedge
had collapsed; the aircraft had penetrated about three of the
five rings of the building. There wasn't a single piece of the
jet to be seen anywhere".
2. Several accounts and filmed shots of the event suggest an
explosion OUTSIDE the wedge. Construction foreman Joe
Harrington, standing in parking lot near the impact point
said: "It seemed like it made impact just before the wedge. It
was like a Hollywood movie or something."
3. Although there was seismic activity associated with the WTC
event and Flight 93, both of which involved direct impacts with
a solid object, no significant seismic activity was recorded
for the Pentagon explosion (lack of detected waves was
confirmed by forensic seismologists with the US, Geological
Survey).
CONCLUSION: The plane exploded and was essentially vaporized
the split second before actual impact with the wall. What
actually struck and penetrated the Wedge was not the solid body
of the plane but a fireball from the explosion moving forward
with the combined momentum of the moving plane and the
explosion. Because the actual explosion occurred in the air and
the destruction in the building was due to the fireball and to
implosive forces and not a solid-solid impact, there was no
seismic activity.
3. You do not want this airplane intercepted or shot down,
because your plot would be revealed if too much evidence
becomes accessible (even in the form of plane fragments).
ACTUAL EVENTS: 1. The transponder in this plane was turned off
a move seen by investigators as a highly sophisticated action
on the part of the hijackers. This renders the plane
untraceable by ground control. (I believe there was another
reason for this see below).
2. Even though it was known by about 08:55 that Flight 77 had
been hijacked and that the Pentagon could be a target, no
defensive moves were made to protect the Pentagon. F-16s were
finally scrambled into the air, but too late. These planes, by
the way, were scrambled out of Langley Airforce base. While
Langley is about 130 miles southwest of the Pentagon, Bolling
AFB just across the Potomac from the Pentagon, is at most 5
miles southeast while Andrews is 10 miles. The Langley F-16
left the ground two minutes before the Pentagon was hit. In any
case, I find it extremely hard to believe that the most
important military command structure in the US is not defended
by surface to air missiles! I mean, we are supposed to believe
that there are antiaircraft weapons atop the White House but
NOT deployed anywhere near the Pentagon? Give us a break!
4. You want to make absolutely sure that this is a precision
hit nothing left to chance.
ACTUAL EVENTS: 1. Eyewitness observers say that Flight 77
performed a 180-degree "G" turn before diving for the center of
the long wall of Wedge One. The plane was estimated to be
rocketing at an estimated speed of 400 mph. Several experienced
pilots have claimed that the final maneuver of the 757 could
not have been performed by a human pilot because of the
tremendous G-forces that would have been exerted, rending even
the simplest movements exceedingly difficult (picture your arms
each suddenly weighing about 100 pounds and each finger about
10).
2. Eyewitnesses and the evidence of a security camera show a
fiery explosion OUTSIDE the wall.
3. The transponder was OFF.
CONCLUSION: The plane was remotely controlled by a command
transmitter system at least in the final minutes. There was an
explosive device on board, which was detonated immediately
before impact, probably remotely controlled as well. The
timing, trajectory, etc, may have been generated by a software
program of some sort that could work this out to the
millisecond. The plane's own transponder would have had to have
been turned off so that it's operation would not interfere with
a second transponder placed aboard by the perpetrators a
transponder designed to pick up the signal of a command system
transmitter operated somewhere in the area. Or, of course, the
plane's own transponder was not actually off it was just
changed to a new setting. In any case, turning the transponder
off would not have helped the hijackers to hide from the
battery of sophisticated radars encircling DC, so this
motivation (hiding from radars) does not make any sense. Here
is a description of an advanced, "fully mobile" CTS built
Systems Planning Corp, the CEO of whih is Bush's undersecretary
of defense and long time Texas pal Dov Zakheim.
More Disturbing 9/11 facts
While the workers in the Pentagon who were to die on 9/11 were
putting in their last week, serving their country at the
nation's military nerve center, one of the co-perpetrators of
WTC was walking the same halls, escorted as the special guest
of the Bush administration.
September 4: Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad, former director of the
ISI (the Pakistani version of the CIA), arrives in DC In the
days leading up to 9/11. Ahmad spent time in the State
Department, at CIA headquarters, and at the Pentagon. Not long
before arriving in D.C., Ahmad had overseen the wiring of
$100,000 to Mohammad Atta, one of the hijackers aboard one of
the planes striking the WTC. This revelation was made in
October, after 9/11 by Indian intelligence sources and reported
in the Times of India. The news was not reported by US
officials or American journalists.
What does India know?
September 9: While Ahmad was in DC, Commander Ahmad Shah
Masood, leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, was
assassinated by persons connected to the ISI. The 47-year old
Masood was a wildly popular, charismatic leader known to
Afghans as the "Lion of Panjsher." His biggest goal: the true
freedom and independence of Afghans. Fiercely independent and
anti-interventionist, he would most certainly have opposed the
Bush administration's war plans and would not have played ball
with any oil pipeline scheme. The Cold War Clan (as I call the
Bushes, Kissinger, Rumsfeld and the rest of the power-hungry
old fossils in charge) have never had a use for charismatic
leaders look what happened to Allende...or Kennedy, for that
matter.
From all of the accumulated evidence, there is little doubt in
my mind that Indian intelligence has the goods on the Bush
administration. It was Indian intelligence that "discovered"
the links between ISI's Mahmoud Ahmad and the WTC attacks. We
suspect this connection was, of course, already known to the
Bush administration, which, for all anyone knows, supplied the
$100,000. But, according to several sources, Indian
intelligence knows far more than this. One Dehli government
source told a reporter with Agence France Press last
October: "The evidence we have supplied to the US [re: the ISI-
WTC connection] is of a much wider range and depth than just
one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced
act of terrorism." So, if India is the potential source of
Bush's downfall, then what better way to silence India than to
threaten her, via our now totally dependent "ally" Pakistan
(complete with its fraudulently elected president), with
nuclear annihilation? Alternatively, is this latest "global
world crisis" merely yet another Bush-engineered ploy designed
to divert attention away from the real danger THE BUSH
ADMINISTRATION? By inducing Musharraf to trump up
a "confrontation" with India and convincing the world that
nuclear war may be impending, Rumsfeld and Bush can appear
to "ride" to the rescue...it also affords them a slick way to
get US troops out of the area. In short, whatever this latest
scenario is, you can be sure it isn't what it appears to be.
Like everything else about this administration.
FINAL TIMELINE: The Events, Planes and Players of September 11.
Putting It All Together
Psychologists say during the Vietnam war, soldiers were more
prone to PTSD than their WWII counterparts in large part
because of the way post-action reentry was handled. Vietnam
vets were shuffled from the front right back to the states -
usually alone, and expected to jump right into life, but often
in an atmosphere of tension where they were viewed with
suspicion and contempt. There was no time for real healing. The
nation was in turmoil; home was not a peaceful place.
I believe that since 9/11, Americans have been suffering from a
case of collective PTSD. After 9/11, Bush immediately seized on
America's fears - instead of helping the nation to heal, to be
TRULY united, he whipped up anger, fanned paranoia, created a
much deeper divide while forcing people to feel they must give
lip service to the new "brand" of patriotism. We were wounded
casualties with nowhere to go to lick our wounds, no atmosphere
of hope and security to help soothe our minds and spirits.
Instead, we were under constant attack - just like Vietnam vets
on those endless missions in the jungle that never seemed to
gain any real ground. There was one vague threat after the
other; one basic right after the other stripped away leaving us
to feel chronically uneasy.
Then there was the war against Afghanistan. This frenzy of
revenge forced us to mobilize and to push aside any misgivings
or (for some of us), to suffer sleepless nights worrying about
the consequences of a war we felt was wrong. The weeks, then
months, following 9/11 were, in short, a period of relentless
stress for all Americans. As a result, many people now say they
can't really remember what the specific events were surrounding
9/11 -some can't even remember seeing the time line, though
timelines were run in nearly every newspaper and magazine right
after the tragedy.
I think this stress-amnesia syndrome may very well be why
George Bush has had such a cakewalk until recently. He took
advantage of an entire nation that was numbed by shock and
grief and unable to defend itself as it might otherwise have
done. In short, we couldn't see the sleight of hand through the
blur of tears.
Now we are coming to, shaking off the fog that has confused us
and seeing the facts clearly -for the first time, really, it
seems.
Here, presented as clearly as possible for Americans ready to
look with cooler heads and drier eyes are the events, players
and planes of 9/11.
Who Was Responsible for What on the Day of September 11, 2001?
The responsibility for protecting America's skies from
terrorist attack falls upon the North American Aerospace
Defense Command (NORAD, also simply called the "Space
Command."). Established in 1958, NORAD is a US-Canadian command
that provides warning of missile and air attack against both
member nations, according to the organization's Web site. In
the Eastern US, NORAD has at its disposal, several Air Force
Bases from which F-16s and F-15s can be scrambled at a moment's
notice. Among these bases are Otis AFB in Cape Cod, Mass,
Hancock AFB in Syracuse, NY -home of the 174 Fighter Wing of F-
16's- Andrews AFB just outside DC, and Langley AFB in Eastern
Virginia. NORAD's mission statement on its website states:
"The Northeast Air Defense Air Sector's area of responsibility
covers more than one-half million square miles of airspace
including that over New York City; Washington, D.C.; Chicago
and other major metropolitan areas."
THE CHAIN OF COMMAND DURING A TERRORIST ATTACK:
A: The FAA reports hijackings and other threats to NORAD's
First Air Force Commander, who is based in Tyndall, FLA. On
Sept. 11, this was Gen. Larry K. Arnold.
B: The First Air Force Commander then relays this info to The
Commander in Chief (CINC) of NORAD. On 9/11, this was Gen.
Ralph "Ed" Eberhardt
C: In a grave situation where force seems warranted, the CINC
reports to the Commander in Chief......George Bush. Also
notified are Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and acting
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard B. Myers
The fact that NORAD was well aware that a major attack was a
possibility is made obvious by the command's planning, well
before Sept. 11, for a major exercise, slated for June 4, 2002.
This is from a NORAD announcement:
"On June 4, 2002, the North American Aerospace Defense Command
(NORAD) will sponsor a multi-agency, bi-national exercise,
Amalgam Virgo 02, involving an airborne terrorism scenario over
the United States and Canada. The exercise, which was planned
prior to the events of Sept. 11, is designed to allow many US
and Canadian agencies to test, improve and validate their
coordination and operational procedures."
Regardless of what warnings Bush may have received, NORAD was
well aware of the threat to American skies.
