Evidence is emerging that the Pentagon lied about the magnitude of its response (or lack thereof) on September 11th.
Suspicion about misrepresentations ran so deep among the 9/11 commission members that they considered turning the matter over to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. In the end they only turned the allegations over to the inspectors general of the Defense and Transportation departments. DoD has since claimed that its mis-statements were due to problems with the Pentagon’s record-keeping.
For more than two years, the Pentagon claimed it had quickly scrambled jets to intercept the highjacked airliners. In the case of Flight 93, the military claimed it was preparing to shoot it down had the passengers not brought down the flight themselves. In fact this is not true.
The truth was that the military never had any highjacked flights in its sights and in one case even chased a phantom image of Flight 11 long after it had crashed into the World Trade Center. The military wasn’t even aware of Flight 93 until after it had crashed in Pennsylvania.
I find the truth of the matter pretty shocking, and only deepens my awe and respect for the heroes on Flight 93. Had it not been for their choice to try to take their destiny back in their own hands on that dreadful day we would have undoubtedly lost an entire branch of our government and a precious landmark given that the flight’s trajectory would have crashed it into the White House or the Capitol. They succeeded where our military and government failed us.
No related posts.
Comments on this entry are closed.