Killtown's

9/11 coincidences and oddities page!

(and other note worthy tidbits.)

Pre 2001 • 2001 • 9/11 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006

Last updated:  03/20/2008

(Use the Wayback Machine for expired links.)

• 9/11 - The most devastating and unprecedented terrorist attack in history happens against the United States of America, the world's mightiest superpower, allegedly committed by 19 radical Arab Muslims who hijacked four commercial airliners -- allegedly armed with only small knives and box cutters -- and crashed them into the WTC, the Pentagon, and an empty field in Pennsylvania.

"On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the U.S. is attacked by terrorists in New York City and Washington, and the world changes forever.
Hijacked jetliners hit the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashes into a field in Pennsylvania." - September11News.com

(See also: March 13, 1962 - America's top military leaders, who were staunchly right-wing, drafted "Operation Northwoods" which were secret plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba; August 4, 1964 - US agency concludes the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which was used to escalate the Vietnam war, never happened; September 6-12, 1970 - Four New York-bound airliners are hijacked over western Europe by a militant Palestinian group; February 26, 1993 - The WTC was first bombed by Islamic terrorists and the F.B.I. knew about the plot; March 11, 2004 - A terrorist bomb attack in Madrid, Spain (referred to as 3/11) blows up multiple commuter trains during rush hour exactly 911 days after 9/11)

• 9/11 - The official bin Ladin family's website domain expires.

"On September 11, 2001, the United States experienced the most significant and violent attack by terrorists even on its own soil. The terrible events that ensued have been linked to the mastermind of Osama Binladin, the leader of the group Al-Qaeda.
Although the Binladin family group denounced their fallen son and any political affiliation of Al-Qaeda, on the same day as the terrorist attacks, the Binladin family website and all of their web pages, links, emails and domain name EXPIRED -- on September 11, 2001.
Shocked and curious about the possible connection between Binladin and the war on America, I, Christopher Curry, a technology consultant, began to investigate these events via the net.
I found a number of websites linked to Osama Binladin and began to notice some startling parallels: the largest and most unbelievable was the expiration of a website owned by the Binladin family: www.saudi-binladin-group.com." - Saudi-binLadin-Group.com

Unique Internet Name Once Owned by Bin Laden, Which Expired on 9-11-01, Now Promotes Peace

"shrimpo LLC and Christopher Curry have made news previously when it announced that it had created a unique procedure to take control of the official Bin Laden family website, saudi-binladin-group.com, for which the domain registration expired simultaneously with the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

"The controversy remains whether the September 11th expiry was just a remarkable coincidence or if this truly was a hidden warning," said Christopher Curry, Principal of shrimpo LLC and Internet technology consultant." - Yahoo/PRNewswire (Oct 17)

Date with Destiny?

"A web domain registered to the Saudi Binladin Group (the megabucks corporation uses the alternate spelling of the family name) raises questions about what role, if any, the family has played in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The domain was registered on Sept. 11, 2000, with a preset expiration date of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a technician with VeriSign, an Internet domain registry service formerly known as Network Solutions.
Coincidence?
Or was this website set up to start the countdown on the most devastating attack in U.S. history?

This was no accident, according to a VeriSign technician in Mountainview, Calif.
"This was timed so it would expire on that date," says the technician, who identified herself only by her first name, Antonette, and by her employee number, 001.

The Binladin website was created by a company called Arq Limited, a U.K. web design firm. The administrative, technical and billing contact listed on the whois search is a man named Philip Lumsden.
After several calls to the U.K., I learned that Arq Limited went out of business, replaced by a company called Active 8 Solutions, which shares the same Bath, England, mailing address and a telephone number that is only one digit off from Arq Limited’s old number.
I learned one more interesting thing.
"Mr. Lumsden left a week ago," said a man who answered the phone at Active 8 Solutions. "I am not aware of why he left."

A half-dozen odd calls Tuesday, October 15, to the Saudi Binladin Group’s headquarters in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, turned up little other than assurances that if I called back in 20 minutes or a half-hour, then somebody would be able to give me some information about the website.

The next day, I called again and again was told to call back later. By deadline, neither of the two emails I sent seeking comment were answered.

The trail of the saudi-binladin-group.com website that I began following two weeks ago has taken me to a couple of very strange places — including a five-year-old mysterious death that may be al-Qaeda’s first hit on U.S. soil — and a very nervous British businessman who thought he was getting the bargain of a lifetime when he purchased the assets of a British web-design firm that created the domain." - Philadelphia City Paper (10/18-25/01)

• 9/11 - Standard operating procedures for military scramble approval was for the FAA to contact the National Military Command Center (NMCC) to request air support, then the NMCC would contact NORAD to find out about aircraft availability, then NORAD would seek final approval from Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

"On Sept. 11, the normal scramble-approval procedure was for an FAA official to contact the National Military Command Center (NMCC) and request Pentagon air support. Someone in the NMCC would call Norad's command center and ask about availability of aircraft, then seek approval from the Defense Secretary--Donald H. Rumsfeld--to launch fighters." - Aviation Week (06/03/02)

9/11 Tapes Reveal Ground Personnel Muffled Attacks

"What’s more, the decades-old procedure for a quick response by the nation’s air defense had been changed in June of 2001. Now, instead of NORAD’s military commanders being able to issue the command to launch fighter jets, approval had to be sought from the civilian Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. This change is extremely significant, because Mr. Rumsfeld claims to have been "out of the loop" nearly the entire morning of 9/11. He isn’t on the record as having given any orders that morning. In fact, he didn’t even go to the White House situation room; he had to walk to the window of his office in the Pentagon to see that the country’s military headquarters was in flames.
Mr. Rumsfeld claimed at a previous commission hearing that protection against attack inside the homeland was not his responsibility. It was, he said, "a law-enforcement issue."
Why, in that case, did he take onto himself the responsibility of approving NORAD’s deployment of fighter planes?" - New York Observer (06/21/04) [Reprinted at:  dangerouscitizen.com]

• Side note - "Ironically, FAA officials only a few months earlier had tried to dispense with "primary" radars altogether, opting to rely solely on transponder returns as a way to save money. Norad had emphatically rejected the proposal." - Aviation Week (06/03/02)

(See also:  June 1, 2001 - Dept. of Defense (DOD) initiates new instructions for military assistance relating to aircraft hijackings)

• 9/11 - Vice President Dick Cheney was placed in charge of a domestic terrorism study group within the White House, to monitor and develop plans to deal with a catastrophe such as 9/11.

"In Sarasota, Florida, now Major Garrett joins us. Major, what are you being told?
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello. President Bush has notified -- or talked, rather, to Vice President Cheney. He has talked to the FBI director Robert Mueller, and he has also spoken with the governor of New York, Governor Pataki about this catastrophe.
The president, as we just saw a few moments ago, identifying this as an apparent act of terrorism against the United States. Said there will be full investigation. The entire apparatus of the United States government, FBI, national security, CIA, the vice president, who you may remember was placed in charge of a domestic terrorism study group within the White House, to monitor and develop plans to deal with a catastrophe of just this kind." - CNN (09/11/01)

(See also:  March 21, 1989 - Cheney becomes the 17th US Secretary of Defense)

• 9/11 - Box cutters weren't allowed pre-9/11 by the airlines industry.

"A manual written by the airline industry years before the Sept. 11 attacks instructed airport screeners to confiscate from passengers boxcutters like those used by the hijackers, documents show.
Though the federal government did not specifically bar the objects before Sept. 11, the airlines were in charge of security and the manual they compiled was the guidebook for determining what items could be brought aboard flights.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said keeping boxcutters off planes was an industry requirement, not a government order. She said the FAA allowed airline passengers to carry blades less than four inches long before Sept. 11. Government rules now prohibit such items.
Other items allowed into airplane cabins, according to the manual, included baseball bats, darts, knitting needles, pocket utility knifes less than four inches long and scissors.
The manual for security screeners was issued by the airlines' trade groups to comply with FAA regulations and was in effect at the time of the terror attacks. The document lists boxcutters and pepper spray as items not allowed past security checkpoints. Screeners were told to call supervisors if they found either item.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said some of the hijackers used boxcutters to take over the planes, and the indictment of alleged hijacking coconspirator Zacarias Moussaoui charged that Mohammed Atta, the leader of the hijackers, had pepper spray.
"We actually had rules and regulations to stop this," said former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo, now a lawyer suing United Airlines and American Airlines on behalf of families of Sept. 11 victims.
Paul Hudson, head of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, an advocacy group, said this latest revelation is another reason for an independent commission to investigate Sept. 11." - CBS (11/12/02)

"MR. KEAN: There's been some confusion as to the issue of box cutters. You testified, I gather, that as of September 11th, the FAA did not prohibit box cutters, before Congress. Yesterday we got testimony from the ATA that in checkpoint operation guides, box cutters were classified as restricted items, which could be kept off an aircraft if identified. What was the status of box cutters within the aviation system as a whole, and certainly in Boston, where those checkpoints were?
MR. MINETA: The FAA regulation referred to blades of four inches or greater as prohibited items. And so a box cutter was really less than four inches. Now, on the other hand, the airline industry had a guideline. And in that guideline, they did prohibit box cutters, as it was in that guideline. But in the FAA regulations, that was not the case." - 9/11 Commission

• 9/11 (5:45 am) - Alleged Flight 11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz Al-Omari, are allegedly videotaped, which the tape displays two timestamps, on a security camera at a Portland, ME airport.

Hijack terrorists caught on security camera

"They looked like any other anxious travellers, rushing through the airport security checks to make sure they caught their early morning flight. But the two men caught on security cameras at Portland airport in Maine at 5.45am on September 11 would be flying an airliner into the north tower of the World Trade Centre just three hours later.

The images released yesterday by the US authorities show Mohamed Atta with a man using the name Abdulaziz al-Omari about to board a USAir flight to Boston, where they and three colleagues seized control of American Airlines flight 11. Atta is thought to have been at the controls when the plane hit the north tower at 8.45am. Investigators also have security camera footage of two of the hijackers from American Airlines flight 77, which hit the Pentagon in Washington.
The Portland footage shows the men passing easily through airport security. Casually dressed in open-necked shirts and carrying small bags, they are shown clearing the metal detectors and baggage X-ray machines unchallenged.
According to US investigators, the Portland images provide clear evidence that Atta, 33, was one of the hijackers. His father had claimed yesterday that his son was alive and had spoken to him since the disaster." - Guardian (12/21/01)

Officials say seized car rented from Boston

"Two suspects in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center drove from Massachusetts before boarding a commuter flight at the Portland International Jetport, Gov. Angus King said during a radio show.

The suspect, Mohamed Atta, 33, was one of two men seen on a surveillance tape boarding a flight in Portland, the Globe said. The pair flew to Boston and boarded another plane that crashed into the World Trade Center.

FBI agents were at the Portland airport and reviewed surveillance tapes taken at a security checkpoint, which captured the two suspects on video, said Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood. Agents also interviewed workers and guests at the Comfort Inn in South Portland." - USA Today (09/13/01)

Photo source:  "Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz Al-Omari passing through security at Portland Airport in Maine on September 11 (source: FBI)" - ABC-AU Four Corners

- See hi res photos:  pic 1, pic 2, pic 3

(See also:  September 25, 2001 - Mohamed Atta's father says it's not Atta on Portland security tape)

• 9/11 - Two of Mohamed Atta's luggage, which contained incriminating evidence, were the only luggage of the 81 passengers aboard Flight 11 that didn't make it on the plane.

Airline denied Atta paradise wedding suit; At last minute, American turned away luggage containing cologne, gold Koran

"The clothing found in one of hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta's bags wasn't a pilots' uniform, as first reported, but his paradise wedding suit, says an American Airlines employee who was with authorities when they first opened his luggage.

Alongside the navy suit – which was eerily laid out as if Atta were in it, with a sapphire-blue necktie looped under a crisp dress-shirt collar and neatly knotted – was a bottle of cologne. At the foot of the bag, which had been locked, was a fancy leather-bound Koran painted gold.

Because of an American policy instated just before Sept. 11 to curb baggage-related flight delays, Atta's two checked bags – which had been held up from an earlier flight – were left behind in Boston, says the employee, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from the Dallas-based carrier, which continues to gag all employees from talking about the Sept. 11 hijackings. Two of the hijacked flights were American.
As it happens, Atta was the only passenger among the 81 aboard American Flight 11 whose luggage didn't make the flight, American sources confirm. Atta is thought to have piloted the Boeing 767, loaded with some 16,000 gallons of fuel, into the first World Trade Center tower a year ago today.

As a result, the 33-year-old Egyptian native, who was single, was denied his ceremonial outfit with which he apparently expected to enter the Muslim version of Heaven and join in "marriage" the "women of paradise ... dressed in their most beautiful clothing," as a five-page letter found in his other bag envisioned it.
According to the Koran, Muslims' sacred book, the afterworld is more a physical than metaphysical place, filled with sensuous earthly pleasures. Martyrdom, or dying in the cause of Allah, is the shortest path to get there.
In preparation for martrydom, ablution.
"Shave excess hair from the body and wear cologne. Shower," advises the letter, which was handwritten in Arabic and later translated by the FBI (it's still not clear if Atta penned the letter himself). "Do not leave your apartment unless you have performed ablution."
The bag with the clothing, moreover, included only personal items, whereas the other bag contained utility items, such as navigational tools and even a large serrated knife.

He says as soon as he and others gathered at Logan International Airport saw the suit and other items arranged as they were in the suitcase, it became clear to them that Atta had no plans on coming back to this world.

The other bag, which had also been locked, contained, among other things:
* A videotape of the Boeing 757 aircraft.
* A flight operating manual for the Boeing 757, which has the same cockpit as the 767.
* An Arab-English dictionary.
* A packet of papers which included the 5-page letter, as well as Atta's last will and testament, which was dated April 11, 1996, and also written in Arabic.
* A chart-plotting ruler.
* A manual slide-rule device called an "E6B," but more commonly known as a flight "computer," which pilots use to measure fuel consumption, weight and balance and other things.
* A folding-blade knife with finger grips on the handle.

One suitcase had Atta's earthly belongings, including many things he used or wanted to use in his mass-murdering plot, while the other contained his spiritual requirements to enter paradise.
"It was clear to us he did not want to check those bags," the American employee said.
Indeed, Atta intended to carry on all three of the bags he initially brought with him to Portland International Jetport in Maine earlier that morning, sources there say.
But Atta was forced to check his two larger bags, described as soft-sided with roller boards, because the 19-seat commuter plane he flew to Boston allows passengers just one carry-on bag each, says a US Airways Express employee who works at the ticket counter where Atta checked in.
The two bags were tagged for final destination to Los Angeles International Airport, which is where Flight 11 had been bound.
Both Atta and his traveling companion and fellow hijacker, Abdulaziz Alomari, boarded US Airways Express Flight 5930 with one carry-on each.
Their carry-ons also contained papers, says a passenger who was seated two rows in front of Atta on the shuttle flight.

Roger Quirion of Winslow, Maine, says he observed the two, who he says were "joined at the hip," while waiting at the gate.
"They were sitting together, acting very serious. They were going through papers, something from their carry-on," Quirion told WorldNetDaily.
"It struck me as though they were preparing for some type of meeting," he added. "I thought they were business travelers."
When Atta arrived at Logan's Terminal B from Portland, little did he know that US Airways was slow in transferring his bags from the commuter jet to the American baggage dock.
They arrived before takeoff – but after American's just-imposed cut-off time for late baggage. The new rule refused any bags delivered within 10 minutes of the flight's scheduled take-off. Atta's came within several minutes.
"His bags, which were transferred rampside, were transferred late by US Airways Express," the American employee said.
As soon as the bags were dropped off at American's loading dock, a ground-crew worker checked the tag, put them on a cart and drove them out to the 767 getting ready to taxi to the runway.
But he got a "thumbs down" by the crew that loads the bags, the employee said.
"It was about three minutes before departure," he said. "They had it locked up, and it was ready to go."
The bags were brought back and tagged for rerouting to the 11 a.m. flight to LAX, he says.
When it became clear that Flight 11 had been hijacked, the crew chief called the Massachusetts State Police, which dispatched a state trooper to the baggage rerouting area with a bomb-sniffing dog, says the American source, who assisted the trooper and other authorities.
After the dog cleared the bags for explosives, the trooper had the small locks on Atta's bags cut off and the bags opened.
Then the FBI got involved.
Authorities were able to quickly ID the bags as Atta's thanks to information a flight attendant aboard Flight 11 phoned down to an American flight-services manager at Logan. She described the attackers and gave their seat numbers and Atta's name. " - WorldNetDaily (09/11/02)

FBI says cameras shows hijackers in Portland area

"Atta and Alomari drove to Portland in a car rented at Boston's Logan International Airport, then boarded a USAirways flight back to Boston. From there, they boarded American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, the first building hit.
Alomari and Atta spent the night before the attack at the Comfort Inn in South Portland, about a mile from the airport, authorities said.
A bag that Atta checked at the airport in Portland never made the connecting flight in Boston. Officials said the bag contained a four-page document in Arabic which contained instructions for the mission as well as religious references." - USA Today (10/04/01)

• 9/11 (6:00 am) - NORAD was in day two of a week long exercise called "Vigilant Guardian" in which some of it's military participants thought the first reports of the hijackings later on in the day were "part of the exercise."

"On Sept. 11, as Americans watched horror rain upon New York and Washington, command teams at a little-known military outpost in Rome, N.Y., worked feverishly to restore safe skies and rouse a slumbering homeland defense.
At the Northeast Air Defense Sector, radar operators who constantly scan the continent's boundaries suddenly faced a threat from within and a race they could not win.
6 A.M.: WAR GAMES
Lt. Col. Dawne Deskins figured it would be a long day.
Sept. 11 was Day II of "Vigilant Guardian," an exercise that would pose an imaginary crisis to North American Air Defense outposts nationwide. The simulation would run all week, and Deskins, starting her 12-hour shift in the Operations Center as the NORAD unit's airborne control and warning officer, might find herself on the spot.
At 8:40, Deskins noticed senior technician Jeremy Powell waving his hand. Boston Center was on the line, he said. It had a hijacked airplane.
"It must be part of the exercise," Deskins thought.
At first, everybody did. Then Deskins saw the glowing direct phone line to the Federal Aviation Administration.
On the phone she heard the voice of a military liaison for the FAA's Boston Center.
"I have a hijacked aircraft," he told her.
Six minutes after Boston Center's call, NEADS scrambled two armed F-15s at Otis Air Base on Cape Cod.
"We had no idea where the aircraft was," recalled Maj. James Fox, who gave the order. "We just knew it was over land, so we scrambled them towards land."
As the first plane hit the World Trade Center, the F-15s were rumbling off the runways at Otis.
Boston Center was still tracking a blip believed to be Flight 11." - Newhouse News Service (01/28/02)

"At 8:40 a.m. EDT, Tech. Sgt. Jeremy W. Powell of North American Aerospace Defense Command's (Norad) Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) in Rome, N.Y., took the first call from Boston Center. He notified NEADS commander Col. Robert K. Marr, Jr., of a possible hijacked airliner, American Airlines Flight 11.
"Part of the exercise?" the colonel wondered. No; this is a real-world event, he was told. Several days into a semiannual exercise known as Vigilant Guardian, NEADS was fully staffed, its key officers and enlisted supervisors already manning the operations center "battle cab."
In retrospect, the exercise would prove to be a serendipitous enabler of a rapid military response to terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Senior officers involved in Vigilant Guardian were manning Norad command centers throughout the U.S. and Canada, available to make immediate decisions.
Fortunately, Maj. Gen. Eric A. Findley, another Canadian and Norad's director of operations, was already in the mountain for the Vigilant Guardian exercise." - Aviation Week (06/03/02)

"If that weren't protection enough, on September 11th, NEADS (or the North East Air Defense System dept of NORAD) was several days into a semiannual exercise known as "Vigilant Guardian". This meant that our North East Air Defense system was fully staffed. In short, key officers were manning the operation battle center, "fighter jets were cocked, loaded, and carrying extra gas on board."
Lucky for the terrorists none of this mattered on the morning of September 11th." - Statement of Mindy Kleinberg to the 9/11 Commission (03/31/02)

"116. On 9/11, NORAD was scheduled to conduct a military exercise, Vigilant Guardian, which postulated a bomber attack from the former Soviet Union. We investigated whether military preparations for the large-scale exercise compromised the military's response to the real-world terrorist attack on 9/11. According to General Eber-hart, "it took about 30 seconds" to make the adjustment to the real-world situation. Ralph Eberhart testimony, June 17, 2004.We found that the response was, if anything, expedited by the increased number of staff at the sectors and at NORAD because of the scheduled exercise. See Robert Marr interview (Jan. 23, 2004)." - 9/11 Commission

"On the morning of 9/11, we were conducting a NORAD command post exercise and our headquarters and regions were postured for “wartime conditions.” Six minutes prior to the first attack on the World Trade Center, the FAA informed NORAD of the potential hijack of American Airlines Flight 11. As events unfolded throughout the morning, NORAD responded immediately with fighters and appropriate airspace control measures. Unfortunately, due to the constraints of time and distance, we were unable to influence the tragic circumstances." - Gen. Ralph Eberhart testimony, 9/11 Commission (06/17/04)

9/11 Tapes Reveal Ground Personnel Muffled Attacks

"So many unconnected dots, contradictions and implausible coincidences. Like the fact that NORAD was running an imaginary terrorist-attack drill called "Vigilant Guardian" on the same morning as the real-world attacks. At 8:40 a.m., when a sergeant at NORAD’s center in Rome, N.Y., notified his northeastern commander, Col. Robert Marr, of a possible hijacked airliner—American Flight 11—the colonel wondered aloud if it was part of the exercise. This same confusion was played out at the lower levels of the NORAD network." - New York Observer (06/17/04) [Reprinted at:  dangerouscitizen.com]

(See also:  9/11 (9:00 am) - The CIA began an exercise to simulate a plane crashing into one of it's buildings; September 12, 2001 - FEMA scheduled to participate in biochemical attack drill called "Operation TRIPOD" in New York City; February 11, 2005 - Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers confirm there were four wargames on 9/11)

• 9/11 - President Bush is in Florida in which his brother Jeb is the Governor and was the state that had controversially handed him the 2000 presidency.

"...you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack.  I was in Florida," said Bush. -White House (12/04/01)

"The previous evening Mr Bush had dined beachside with his brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, the state that had, albeit controversially, handed him the presidency." - Telegraph-UK (12/16/01)

(See also:  September 7, 2001 - Jeb Bush signs a two year Florida executive emergency order four days before 9/11; 8:52 am - President Bush arrives at Booker Elementary school in Sarasota, FL)

• 9/11 - Former President, ex-CIA Director, and Bush's father George H. W. Bush had spent the night at the White House the night before and supposedly leaves early in the morning before the attacks occur.

'George And Laura', September 11, 2001, A Tuesday
"Nine hundred miles to the north, Laura Bush also started the day early. In her husband's absence, the job of taking Spot the English springer spaniel and their frisky black Scottish terrier Barney for their morning walk had fallen to the First Lady. Afterward, Laura returned to the second-floor family quarters for a quick breakfast with her in-laws. George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara had spent the night at the White House and were about to board a private jet bound for a speaking engagement in Minnesota." -CBS 'The Early Show' (10/01/02)

(See also: September 10, 2001 - Former President Bush meets with Osama's brother at Carlyle Group meeting in Washington D.C.)

• 9/11 - Defense contractor, The Carlyle Group, is hosting a business conference in D.C. in which featured honored guest is one of Osama Bin Laden's brother.

"On 11 September, while Al-Qaeda's planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Carlyle Group hosted a conference at a Washington hotel.  Among the guests of honor was a valued investor: Shafig bin Laden, brother to Osama." - Guardian Unlimited (05/16/02)

(See also: September 10, 2001 - Former President Bush meets with Osama's brother at Carlyle Group meeting in Washington D.C.)

• 9/11 - Three F-16 jetfighters from the D. C. National Guard at Andrews AFB, which is 15 miles from the Pentagon, were flown 180 nautical miles away for a training mission in North Carolina.

"The 121st squadron's day had started normally. Three F-16s were flying an air-to-ground training mission on a range in North Carolina, 180 naut. mi. away." - Aviation Week (09/09/02)

• 9/11 - All of the five alleged Flight 77 hijackers lived in a motel right outside the gates of the NSA -- the U.S.'s most powerful spy agency in which it's 38,000 employees are sworn to a lifetime of secrecy.

"A few miles out of Washington, on Route 1 to Baltimore, lies an inconspicuous military installation called Fort Meade.
And yet it contains the largest mass of secrets in the world.
It is home to the National Security Agency (NSA), the least visible but most powerful spy agency in America's armoury.
The NSA's job is to eavesdrop on the world's phone calls and emails, but do not try to phone them.
The NSA website does not list a phone number. You do not contact them. They listen to you.
Though invisible on the map, 38,000 people work at the agency every day, more than the CIA and FBI put together - every one of them sworn to a lifetime of secrecy.
When Osama bin Laden first moved to Afghanistan, the NSA listened in to every phone call he made on his satellite phone.
In fact, one of the most bizarre ironies of all this is that five of the hijackers lived in a motel right outside the gates of the NSA.
Early on the morning of 11 September, when Hani Hanjour and his four accomplices left the Valencia Motel on US route 1 on their way to Washington's Dulles airport, they joined the stream of NSA employees heading to work.
Three hours later, they had turned flight 77 around and slammed it into the Pentagon." - BBC (06/08/02)

• 9/11 - The Director of the NSA on 9/11 was Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden from the United States Air Force.

"Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden [United States Air Force] is Director, National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS), Fort George G. Meade, MD. As the Director of NSA/CSS, he is responsible for a combat support agency of the Department of Defense with military and civilian personnel stationed worldwide.
March 1999 - Present - Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service, Ft. George G. Meade, MD" - NSA

• 9/11 - Possible terrorist incident against President Bush early in the morning at his hotel resort in Florida.

• 9/11 (8:00 am) - In his first round of intelligence briefings of the day, Bush's is briefed on the heightened terrorist risk reported throughout the summer.

"United Airlines Flight 93 pushed back from gate A17 at 8:01 am, on its way from Newark to San Francisco International Airport, on September 11, 2001." - wikipedia.org

Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny

"The Flight 93 passengers had walked down the concourse of Terminal A, where they breezed past the security gate, then walked the 100 yards to a long circular hallway from which the boarding ramps jutted out like spokes.
At Gate 17, they strode another 70 feet down the jetway, made a left turn, and were inside the Boeing 757.

One passenger was late. Mark Bingham had overslept and his friend, Matthew Hall, drove madly from Manhattan to Newark. They screeched to a halt outside Terminal A at 7:40. Bingham leapt from the car, lugging the old, blue-and-gold canvas bag he'd used as a rugby player at the University of California at Berkeley a decade earlier.
United attendants reopened the door to the boarding ramp and let him on the plane." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (10/28/01)

Triton's Clayton White on other side of recruiting
"You might say Clayton White's life has come full circle since February 1996.
White’s career didn’t end there, however. He eventually made the NFL’s New York Giants as a free agent and spent three seasons in the league, the last one in 2002 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But the most lasting memory of White’s time in New York had nothing to do with football.
"We had played a Monday night game in Denver, and flew back home the next morning," White said. "We landed in Newark, N.J., about 6:45 in the morning. We usually get off the plane on the tarmac and board a bus to get to our cars.
"I noticed another plane sitting next to ours because the people were walking to the plane across the tarmac instead of through the jetway.
"Two weeks later, as we’re taking another plane to a game, one of the stewardesses informed us the plane that had been boarding next to us was Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11. That was a very eerie feeling." - Fayetteville Observer (01/31/06)

"Jetway is the registered trademark of FMC Technologies, Inc. for their line of enclosed, moveable jet bridge connectors (also termed loading bridges, aerobridges/airbridges, or passenger boarding bridges) which extend from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, thereby enabling passengers to board and disembark without having to go outside." - wikipedia.org

• 9/11 - The instant messaging service Odigo, says that two of its workers at their Israeli facility received messages two hours before the Twin Towers attack on September 11 predicting the attack would happen.

Excerpts from an interview with Sergeant Matthew Rosenberg, a medic at the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic.
"We had virtually completed our MASCAL plan. I was setting up training for medics, I was in the process of ordering new supplies, and trying to reinvent what we would do, how we would go about it. We still had the old MASCAL kits in place, and everything under the old guidance, and we were trying to take that a step beyond. Believe it or not, the day prior to the incident, I was just on the phone with the FBI, and we were talking ‘so who has command should this happen, who has the medical jurisdiction, who does this, who does that,’ and we talked about it and talked about it, and he helped me out a lot. And then the next day, during the incident, I actually found him. He was out there on the incident that day, and I made the joke, “You know, I used to have questions about all this, about who would have the command.” He would say, “You got any more questions?” I went, “Nope, not anymore.”
When I started seeing patients coming out of the building, I picked up my radio, and I called in, “This is Sergeant Rosenberg. You need to initiate the MASCAL plan now. We have multiple patients in the center courtyard, and I need medical assets in the courtyard immediately.” - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]

• 9/11 - Emergency equipment for the Pentagon's MASCAL emergency plane crash plans were already out of their storage areas for an inventory check before the Pentagon was hit.

Excerpts from an interview with Major Lorie A. Brown, who was Chief Nurse of DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic.
"Because the crash site was on the west side of the building the clinic was almost directly opposite, our corridor was a clear avenue for people to escape. As soon as I saw that, we initiated the MASCAL, [mass casualty plan] started galvanizing all of our assets and put our plan in action.
We actually had our MASCAL equipment out of the storage areas because we were doing an inventory. So there were many pieces that just fell into place and worked so well on that day. It was just fortuitous. It was just amazing that way that things kind of happened the way they did. But like I said our planning truly made such a huge difference on that day. Our Commander had the foresight to focus on MASCAL prep and gave us the time and budget to really revamp our old MASCAL plan. I can’t say enough about how critical this was to our success." - Soldiers to the Rescue/Responding in the Pentagon [HTML]

(See also:  9/11 - Pentagon medic Matt Rosenberg was studying the MASCAL plane crash plan right before the Pentagon was hit; 9/11 - A Pentagon rescuer mentions how "eerie" it was that the MASCAL plane crash plan that he had twice trained for was "very similar to what actually happened")

• 9/11 - A "garrison control exercise" was being conducted at Fort Belvoir, less than 20 miles from the Pentagon, to "test the security at the base in case of a terrorist attack" and a team there was conducting classes about rescue techniques and then were one of the first responders to the Pentagon.

An Engineer's Expertise Joins a Firefighter's Nightmare

"Two groups rushing to the Pentagon that fateful morning were the firefighters from the Fort Belvoir Fire Department and a contingent of engineers from Headquarters Battalion, USAG Fort Belvoir, Military District of Washington.
"Ironically, we were conducting classes about rescue techniques when we were told of the planes hitting the World Trade Center," said Staff Sgt. Mark Williams. "My team was one of the initial response groups and one of the first to enter the building upon our arrival at the site.

AS FATE WOULD have it, that is exactly were the office of Fort Belvoir's new commanding officer, Col. Thomas Williams, who took command on July 11, 2002, had been just moments before.

Col. Williams was not in the area of his office at the moment of impact. But two who were paid the ultimate price, and another suffered severe burns, from which he is still recovering.

Lt. Col. Mark R. Lindon, Commander, Headquarters Battalion at Belvoir, was conducting a garrison control exercise. The object was to test the security at the base in case of a terrorist attack. That training exercise went operational that morning.
"I was out checking on the exercise and heard about the World Trade Center on my car radio. As soon as it was established that this was no accident, we went to a complete security mode. Some people waited up to three hours to get on base that day," Lindon recalled.
"Throughout the next 10 days, I was operating security either here or at the Pentagon." - Connection Newspapers (09/05/02)

- Ft Belvoir to the Pentagon = approx 18 miles - Yahoo Maps

(See also:  June 29, 2001 - MASCAL exercise about a terrorist incident involving an explosion is conducted at Fort Belvoir to test first team's "external response")

 • 9/11 - A training exercise in "airport emergency operations" is being conducted at Fort Myer, a mile from the Pentagon.

Belvoir firefighter among first responders at Pentagon

"A training exercise in airport emergency operations at Fort Myer brought an assistant fire chief from Fort Belvoir to the Pentagon shortly after an aircraft crashed into its west wall.

As training officer for the Fort Belvoir Fire Department, Dodge has acquired an expertise on airport emergency operations because of the Belvoir department's responsibilities at Davison Army Airfield. The morning of Sept. 11 the 28-year veteran was conducting training for the Fort Myer crew on precisely that topic.

He and the class participants had heard during the first break in the training schedule about the first plane crash into one of the towers at the World Trade Center.
"We didn't have access to a TV or anything," he said. "So we just kept on going with the training program. All of a sudden we heard this BOOM! And we felt the building shake. Everyone just looked at each other like, 'what was that?' Then one of the fire units from Arlington came over the radio and said they saw an aircraft go down in the vicinity of the Pentagon."

Dodge said at that point everyone in the class just got up and left to get on the fire trucks. He jumped into a vehicle with Fort Myer's acting battalion commander, Dennis Gilroy.
Once inside the truck, the fire teams received the news an aircraft had crashed into the Pentagon.

"The word was that the unit on the ground [the helipad firefighters who are part of the Fort Myer Fire Department] were involved," Dodge said. "That didn't sound too good. When they say involved, it meant they were a part of the crash.

"We were one of the very first ones there," Dodge said, "aside from the crew that was already positioned at the Pentagon.

He said at that point, something caught his attention.
"I saw one the guys from Fort Myer was trying to get as much equipment as possible off the crash truck parked at the helipad area," said Dodge, whose father retired from the Air Force following his last assignment at the Pentagon.
"The crash truck [stationed at the Pentagon] was engulfed in flames, and they were trying to save what they could." - MDW (10/04/01)

Local heroes: FMMC fire department reflects on attacks

"The Fort Myer Military Community Fire Department had three men on the scene at the Pentagon when the attack occurred. In a matter of minutes, the rest of the team from Fort Myer joined the three men.

The FMMC fire department is responsible for the landings and take-offs at the Pentagon heliport. The department sends three men to the Pentagon each day to cover the flights, according to FMMC Fire Chief Charles Campbell.

While the three men were at the Pentagon, the majority of the men from the department were in an airport rescue firefighters class in the Education Center at Fort Myer.

Immediately, the firemen got their equipment and went to the Pentagon to aid the victims.

The ride to the Pentagon took about four minutes, William Harris, a Fort Myer fire department sergeant, said. Harris was the driver of Engine 161." - DC Military (11/02/01)

FMMC firefighters respond to terrorist action at Pentagon

"Fort Myer, located approximately a mile from the Pentagon..." - DC Military (09/14/01)

(See also:  April 23, 2001 - Fort Myer conducts a "Force Protection Exercise"; September 5, 2001 - Fort Myer and McNair implement "full access control")

• 9/11 - Bernard Brown Jr., a young passenger on Flight 77 that was participating in a field trip, gets a lecture from his father about dying before his flight.  His father tells him "don't be afraid to die because we all are going to die someday."  Bernard's father, Navy Chief Petty Officer Bernard Brown Sr., takes a "rare day off" from work that day to play golf.  Bernard's dad works at the Pentagon.  He works in the same wing of the Pentagon that was hit by hijacked Flight 77. 

Terror’s youngest victims; Unspeakable heartbreak for families of students killed on American Airlines Flight 77

"His father, a Navy chief petty officer, says he sat his son down on the morning of Sept. 11, and had a serious talk with him about dangers he might encounter on the trip.
“To be honest — totally honest — we talked about death,” he says. “And I just told him, ‘Don’t be afraid.’ Just because the events that they were going to do were pretty dangerous. Just listen to what the people tell you, and the instructions, you’ll be all right. You’ll be fine. He said ‘Daddy, I’m scared,’ and I said, ‘hey, don’t be scared, don’t be afraid to die. Because we all are going to die someday.’”
Bernard’s mom Sinata Brown went to work. Her husband Bernard took a rare day off to play golf. Had he not — he would have been in his office at the Pentagon when the plane slammed in at 9:43.
Tragically, his own son’s memorial is not the only one Bernard Brown expects to attend.
That’s because Flight 77 — the flight carrying Bernard Brown’s son — actually crashed into the wing of the Pentagon where he works. Few of his colleagues survived." -MSNBC (09/25/01) [Reprinted at: wildfuryx]

• 9/11 - Five Raytheon employees are on three of the four hijacked planes.

Flight 11:  "Peter Gay, 54, Tewksbury, Massachusetts - Raytheon Co. vice president of operations for electronic systems based in Andover, Massachusetts. He had worked for Raytheon for more than 28 years." - September11Victims.com

"While most of the children stayed in the area when they grew up, the second oldest, Peter, moved north of Boston to become a plant manager for Raytheon. But he stayed close to his family, spending summers with them on Cape Cod. And he never forgot the attention to spit and polish, in his work or play. "It doesn't shine itself," he'd reply when people admired the condition of his vintage car.
Mr. Gay, who would have turned 55 this month, was commuting to California, where he'd been asked to increase production at a Raytheon plant producing a new military radar system. The plant had been producing five systems a day and the goal was nine; when Mr. Gay boarded Flight 11 for his weekly commute on Sept. 11, production was up to 14." - legacy.com

"David P. Kovalcin, 42, Hudson, New Hampshire - Raytheon Co. senior mechanical engineer for electronic systems in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. He had worked for Raytheon for 15 years." - September11Victims.com

"Mr. Kovalcin, 42, was a passenger on Flight 11, on a business trip for Raytheon, where he was a senior mechanical engineer. Mrs. Kovalcin said they had carved out a "Father Knows Best" kind of life, with him coming home at six every evening, choosing to know his family well rather than to work longer hours for more money.
She remembers that her husband had trouble sleeping two nights before his departure. "He woke me up at 3 a.m., and said 'I'm pacing the house. I can't sleep,' " she said.
"I rubbed his head and tried to calm him down. He was very distressed, but had no idea what it was. Then three days later I remembered, and thought, 'Holy cow, I wonder what that was about.' "
The morning he left home he had written a note for his family: "Rebecca, Marina and Mommy, I will miss everybody very much. See you Friday night." At the end he added, "I fed the dogs but not the fish." - legacy.com

"Kenneth Waldie, 46, Methuen, Massachusetts - Raytheon Co. senior quality control engineer for electronic systems in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. He had worked for Raytheon for 17 years." - September11Victims.com

"Mr. Waldie, who lived in Methuen, Mass., had two other children: Andrew, 24, and Jeff, 21. A senior quality control engineer at Raytheon, he was headed to California on a business trip.
Around work, his colleagues referred to him as "911," because of his generosity whenever someone needed help. His favorite number happened to be 11, and he was on Flight 11 when it crashed on the 11th." - legacy.com

Flight 175:  "Herbert W. Homer, 48, Milford, Mass. - Corporate executive, Raytheon Co." - September11Victims.com

"Herb W. Homer of Milford, an official with the US Department of Defense, was killed Tuesday when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed in New York. He was 48.
Mr. Homer served as a US official coordinating government work by Raytheon Co. in Burlington. He began his 27-year federal career at the Defense Contract Management Agency's Raytheon office in 1974.

A member of First Congregational Church of Milford, he worked on several church committees and volunteered in the church nursery." - legacy.com

"The Department of Defense announced today that Herbert W. Homer, a civilian employee of the Defense Contract Management Agency, was among the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight # 175, which crashed into the World Trade Center. He was previously listed in error as unaccounted at the Pentagon." - DoD (09/15/01)

Flight 77:  "Stanley Hall, 68, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. - director of program management, Raytheon Co." - September11Victims.com

"Stan Hall, 68, was on board the American Airlines Flight 77, Tuesday, September 11, that crashed into the Pentagon. He was born in Arlington, Virginia, and attended Washington Lee High School. In 1953, Stan was drafted into the Army and served for two years during the Korean War. He graduated from George Washington University with a Bacheolor in Engineering in 1959 and a Masters from Drexell University in 1963.
Stan was an active member of the South Bay Church of God for 11½ years. He was a Sunday School teacher and on the Board of Trustees.
He left his home in Rancho Palos Verdes six years ago to work at Raytheon's Washington DC facility, where he was director of program management. He was on his way to the company's operations in Goleta.
Stan, a 17 year veteran of the company formerly known as Hughes, helped develop and build anti-radar technology.
"He was our 'dean' of electronic warfare, and his objective was always to the protection of the American servicemen," colleaques remembered.
On November 13, 5001 Army Brigadier General Edward M. Harrington, Director of the Defense Contract Management Agency, on the behalf of President Bush awarded the Defense of Freedom Medal to Stan Hall as well as 3 other Raytheon employees. The medal was to recognize civilian Deparment of Defense employees killed Sepember 11, 2001. It is the equalivant to the Purple Heart for civilains." - legacy.com

Raytheon Employees Lost to the Sept. 11 Tragedy Awarded Defense of Freedom Medal
"Army Brigadier General Edward M. Harrington, director of the Defense Contract Management Agency, awarded the Defense of Freedom Medal, the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart, to the families of the Raytheon employees who died in the Sept. 11 tragedy: Peter Gay of Tewksbury, Mass., Stanley Hall of Clifton, Va., David Kovalcin of Hudson, N.H., and Kenneth Waldie of Methuen, Mass., in a ceremony held at Raytheon's Andover, Mass., facility.

Herb Homer, a Defense Contract Management Agency defense corporate executive assigned to Raytheon, was also awarded the Defense of Freedom Medal. The medal, created to recognize and honor civilian employees of the Department of Defense who were killed or wounded during the terrorist attacks, can be awarded to non-Defense employees based on their involvement in DoD activities at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense." - Raytheon; PRNewswire (10/13/01)

September 11 Remembrance
"I will always remember what it felt like when I learned that we had four people on those planes: Peter Gay, Stan Hall, Dave Kovalcin, and Ken Waldie. We lost other colleagues as well: Herb Homer of the Defense Contract Management Agency, who was assigned to Raytheon and worked side-by-side with us for many years, and three PricewaterhouseCoopers associates working on the Raytheon account." - Raytheon

(See also:  September 6, 2001 - Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force demonstrate new technology aircraft precision approach and landing system; September 10, 2001 - Wife of David Kovalcin said her husband woke her up in the middle of the night complaining he couldn't sleep and that he seemed "very distressed" but she didn't know why; Killtown's:  Flight 77 unusual passengers)

• 9/11 - Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) and Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL) -- the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees -- along with Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) and some other members of the House Intelligence Committee are in a meeting at the Capital building with the director of Pakistani intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad, who authorized a $100,000 wire transfer to alleged lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta.

A Cloak But No Dagger

"On the morning of Sept. 11, Goss and Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general named Mahmud Ahmed -- the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan's intelligence service. Ahmed ran a spy agency notoriously close to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban." - Washington Post (05/18/02)

U.S. seeks reform of Pakistan spy agency

"When terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, then ISI chief Gen. Mahmud Ahmad was visiting Washington. The Bush administration asked him to visit Afghanistan and convince the Taliban to surrender al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, the man believed to have masterminded the attacks.
Instead, Ahmad advised the Taliban not to turn over bin Laden. He argued the Americans were only bluffing and they would not invade Afghanistan. He was fired by Musharraf upon returning from the Taliban headquarters in Kandahar." - UPI (02/20/04)

Spying eyes and ears
"On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, in a room on the House side of the Capitol, Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., and Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla. -- the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, respectively -- met for breakfast. Also at the meeting were Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., and some other members of the House Intelligence Committee.

As much as $100,000 was wired in the past year from Pakistan to Mohamed Atta, the suspected leader of the terrorist hijackings, CNN has been told by law enforcement sources.
Pakistan is a common conduit for money going in and out of Afghanistan, home to Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, the leading suspect in the attacks. But at this point it's not known exactly where the funds may have originated.
Sources said the wire transfers from Pakistan were sent to Atta through two banks in Florida." - CNN (10/01/01)
 

Online NewsHour: Improving Intelligence -- December 11, 2002
SEN. BOB GRAHAM: Yes, going back to your question about what was the greatest surprise. I agree with what Senator Shelby said the degree to which agencies were not communicating was certainly a surprise but also I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.
I am stunned that we have not done a better job of pursuing that to determine if other terrorists received similar support and, even more important, if the infrastructure of a foreign government assisting terrorists still exists for the current generation of terrorists who are here planning the next plots.
To me that is an extremely significant issue and most of that information is classified, I think overly-classified. I believe the American people should know the extent of the challenge that we face in terms of foreign government involvement. That would motivate the government to take action.
GWEN IFILL: Are you suggesting that you are convinced that there was a state sponsor behind 9/11?
SEN. BOB GRAHAM: I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government and that we have been derelict in our duty to track that down, make the further case, or find the evidence that would indicate that that is not true and we can look for other reasons why the terrorists were able to function so effectively in the United States.
GWEN IFILL: Do you think that will ever become public, which countries you're talking about?
SEN. BOB GRAHAM: It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now. And, we need to have this information now because it's relevant to the threat that the people of the United States are facing today." - PBS (12/11/02)

• 9/11 - FAA memo says Flight 11 passenger was shot who happened to be a multi-millionaire elite Israeli military commando who understands Arabic and who happened to be sitting directly in front of one of the alleged hijackers.

Hijacker shot passenger on Flight 11: FAA memo; 'One bullet fired,' killing 9B occupant, but agency claims report was in error

"An internal Federal Aviation Administration memo summarizing the Sept. 11 hijackings says a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11 was shot to death by a single bullet, WorldNetDaily has learned.

The FAA claims the memo, time-stamped Sept. 11 at 5:30 p.m., was written in error.