78 Corn objected:
79 “I won’t”: “When 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Go Bad,” by David Corn, 3/1/02, www.zcommunications.org;
80 howl of rage:
81 thousands of pages: see refs in sourcing for Chs. 1–9; Some skeptics suggest that the absence of formal NTSB investigations on Flights 11 and 175—as well as the other two hijacked flights—is suspicious. From the outset, however, these crashes were deemed to have been “criminal acts,” which meant jurisdiction fell not to the NTSB but to the FBI. Within two days of the attacks, though, the FBI requested technical assistance from the NTSB. According to the NTSB’s chairman, some sixty NTSB experts worked “around the clock in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and at our headquarters in Washington, D.C., assisting with aircraft parts identification, searching for and analyzing flight recorders.” Some of the research done by NTSB experts has emerged in recent years, especially with the 2009 opening of 9/11 Commission files and absence of reports: e.g., notation on NTSB DCA01MA060 [Flight 11], www.ntsb.gov; (suspicious: e.g., “A Little Known Fact About the 9/11 Planes,” http://sabbah.biz, “Flight 77 Black Boxes,” http://911review.org; “criminal acts”/FBI requested: NTSB Advisory, 9/13/01, www.ntsb.gov; “around the clock”: Testimony of NTSB Chairman Marion C. Blakey, 6/25/01, Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportaion, U.S. Senate, www.ntsb.gov, corr. NTSB’s Ted Lopatkiewicz, 2009).
82 300,000: corr. NARA’s Kristen Wilhelm, 2011;
83 “distracts people”:
CHAPTER 12
1
memo/“How,” etc.:
Philip to Tom & Lee, 9/6/04, “Farmer Memo re False Statements,” B4, Dana Hyde files, CF;
2
chairman/vice chairman:
Kean & Hamilton, 25;
3
Roemer/“false”:
int. Roemer on
, CNN, 8/2/06;
4
shocked:
, 8/2/06;
5
“deception”:
Farmer, 4;
6
Farmer questioned:
Farmer, 4–, 227–;
7
Meyers confused/had launched:
Testimony of General Richard Myers, Hearings, U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, 107th Cong., 1st Ses., 9/13/01;
8
“We responded awfully”:
transcript, OnLine NewsHour, 9/14/01,
www.pbs.org
;
9
Weaver timeline/“There was no”:
, 9/15/01,
, 9/16/01;
10 Cheney/“toughest decision”: transcript,
11 “Did we shoot”: cited by Bob Woodward and Dan Balz in “10 Days in September,” a series of articles based on interviews with Bush, Cheney, and other official sources,
12 “It’s my understanding”: CR, 43, 465n233;
13 “Oh, my God”: Testimony of Norman Mineta, 5/23/03, CO;
14 never missiles: Spencer, 277;
15 report incorrect:
16 Rumors circulating: A retired Army colonel, Donn de Grand-Pre, claimed in 2004 that Flight 93 was shot down by a pilot flying for the North Dakota National Guard. He named the pilot supposedly responsible and said he had sent a report on the matter to a named general. Flight records reportedly show that the alleged pilot was on other duties at the relevant time—and the general denied even knowing de Grand-Pre. A contributor to a 2008 blog, posted by a person identifying himself only as a former Langley Air Force Base mechanic, quotes a colleague at second hand as having said, “They shot one down … One of those 16s came back with one less missile than it left with.” The claim has no value as information—it is anonymous, and the supposed veteran did not himself speak with the original source of the quote. Conspiracy theorists, meanwhile, seized on the alleged content of a 911 call made from Flight 93 by passenger Edward Felt shortly before the airliner crashed. According to a staffer at the emergency center that took the call, Felt mentioned that there been an explosion on board, and “white smoke.” The dispatcher who actually took the call, however, denied that Felt said anything about an explosion. The call was recorded, and there is no such reference in the transcript. David Griffin refers in his books to “considerable evidence” that 93 was shot down—yet cites none of substance (De Grand-Pre: eds. Dunbar & Reagan, 77–; blog: “The US Air Force Shot Down Flight 93,” 4/11/08, http://georgewashington.blogspot.com; Felt: FBI 302 of [name redacted], 9/19/01, Pittsburgh to Counterterrorism, New York, 9/17/01, & FBI 302 of [name redacted], 9/11/01, INTELWIRE, transcript of call 9/11/01, “Flight 93 Calls,” B12, T8, CF; Griffin: e.g.,
17 Commission “required”: Public Law 107–306, 11/27/02, www.archives.gov;
18 delays/?obstruction/tapes withheld/?recalcitrant: Kean & Hamilton, 83–, 258–, Shenon, 203–;
19 “incomplete”: corr. Miles Kara, 2011;
20 Scott timeline/?“9:24”/?“awful decision”/In one breath, etc.: Testimonies of Larry Arnold & Alan Scott, 5/23/03, CO, Farmer, 262–;
21 leery/proof/subpoena: Shenon, 203–, Kean & Hamilton, 88, 260;
22 “Whiskey tango foxtrot”: Farmer, 265.
23 NORAD/more than 100 squadrons/14 “alert”/intercepts: CR, 16–, Spencer, 286–;
24 planes as weapons: Staff Monograph “The Four Flights and Civil Aviation Security,” 55–, CF, Farmer, 98–;
25 hijacking protocol: CR, 17–, Farmer, 117;
26 multiple Centers: e.g., Miles Kara, “Archive of the ‘Transponders and Ghosts’ Category,” www.oredigger61.org—Centers involved were Boston, New York, D.C., Indianapolis, and Cleveland;
