Failure to Act During 9/11 Attack
This is what Bush actually did -- or did not do -- according to
Stan Goff, a retired US Army veteran who has taught military science
and doctrine at West Point. Goff writes, in "The So-called Evidence is
a Farce": "I have no idea why people aren't asking some very specific
questions about the actions of Bush and company on the day of the
attacks. . . . Four planes get hijacked and deviate from their flight
plan, all the while on FAA radar."
Goff, incidentally, like the other astonished military experts, cannot
fathom why the government's automatic "standard order of procedure in
the event of a hijacking" was not followed. Once a plane has deviated
from its flight-plan, fighter planes are sent up to find out why. That
is law and does not require presidential approval, which only needs to
be given if there is a decision to shoot down a plane. Goff spells it
out: "The planes are all hijacked between 7:45 and 8:10am. . . . Who is
notified? This is an event already that is unprecedented. But the
President is not notified and going to a Florida elementary school to
hear children read."
"By around 8:15am it should be very apparent that something is terribly
wrong. The President is glad-handling teachers. By 8:45am, when
American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the [North Tower], Bush is
settling in with children for his photo ops . . . Four planes have
obviously been hijacked simultaneously . . . and one has just dived
into the . . . twin towers, and still no one notifies the nominal
Commander-in-Chief.
"No one has apparently scrambled [sent aloft] Air Force interceptors
either. At 9:03, . . . Flight 175 crashes into the [South Tower]. At
9:05 Andrew Card, the . . . Chief of Staff whispers to . . . Bush [who]
"briefly turns somber" according to reporters. Does he cancel the
school visit and convene an emergency meeting? No. He resumes listening
to second-graders . . . and continues the banality even as American
Airlines Flight 77 conducts an unscheduled point turn over Ohio and
heads in the direction of Washington DC.
"Has he instructed Chief of Staff Card to scramble the Air Force? No.
An excruciating 25 minutes later, he finally deigns to give a public
statement telling the United States what they have already figured out;
that there's been an attack by hijacked planes on the World Trade
Center. There's a hijacked plane bee-lining to Washington, but has the
Air Force been scrambled to defend anything yet? No. . . .
"At 9:35, this plane conducts another turn, 360 degrees over the
Pentagon, all the while being tracked by radar, and the Pentagon is not
evacuated, and there are still no fast-movers from the Air Force in the
sky over Alexandria and DC. Now, the real kicker: A pilot they want us
to believe was trained at a Florida puddle-jumper school for Piper Cubs
and Cessnas, conducts a well-controlled downward spiral, descending the
last 7,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes, brings the plane in so low
and flat that it clips the electrical wires across the street from the
Pentagon, and flies it with pinpoint accuracy into the side of the
building at 460 nauts.
"When the theory about learning to fly this well at the puddle-jumper
school began to lose ground, it was added that they received further
training on a flight simulator. This is like saying you prepared your
teenager for her first drive on [the freeway] at rush hour by buying
her a video driving game . . . There is a story being constructed about
these events."