Rumsfeld says 9-11 plane 'shot down' in Pennsylvania
During surprise Christmas Eve trip, defense secretary contradicts official
story
Posted: December 27, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42112
WASHINGTON – Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, there have been questions about
Flight 93, the ill-fated plane that crashed in the rural fields of
Pennsylvania.
The official story has been that passengers on the United Airlines flight
rushed the hijackers in an effort to prevent them from crashing the plane
into a strategic target – possibly the U.S. Capitol.
During his surprise Christmas Eve trip to Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld referred to the flight being shot down – long a suspicion because
of the danger the flight posed to Washington landmarks and population
centers.
Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally
being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy of the
terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000?
Donald Rumsfeld
Here's what Rumsfeld said Friday: "I think all of us have a sense if we
imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess
hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who
attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over
Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples'
heads on television to intimidate, to frighten – indeed the word
'terrorized' is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior,
to make people be something other than that which they want to be."
Several eyewitnesses to the crash claim they saw a "military-type" plane
flying around United Airlines Flight 93 when the hijacked passenger jet
crashed – prompting the once-unthinkable question of whether the U.S.
military shot down the plane.
Although the onboard struggle between hijackers and passengers –
immortalized by the courageous "Let's roll" call to action by Todd Beamer –
became one of the enduring memories of that disastrous day, the actual cause
of Flight 93's crash, of the four hijacked jumbo jets, remains the most
unclear.
Several residents in and around Shanksville, Pa., describing the crash as
they saw it, claim to have seen a second plane – an unmarked military-style
jet.
Well-founded uncertainly as to just what happened to Flight 93 is nothing
new. Just three days after the worst terrorist attack in American history,
on Sept. 14, 2001, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record newspaper reported that
five eyewitnesses reported seeing a second plane at the Flight 93 crash
site.
That same day, reported the Record, FBI Special Agent William Crowley said
investigators could not rule out that a second plane was nearby during the
crash. He later said he had misspoken, dismissing rumors that a U.S.
military jet had intercepted the plane before it could strike a target in
Washington, D.C.
Although government officials insist there was never any pursuit of Flight
93, they were informed the flight was suspected of having been hijacked at
9:16 am, fully 50 minutes before the plane came down.
On the Sept. 16, 2001, edition of NBC's "Meet the Press," Vice President
Dick Cheney, while not addressing Flight 93 specifically, spoke clearly to
the administration's clear policy regarding shooting down hijacked jets.
Vice President Cheney: "Well, the – I suppose the toughest decision was this
question of whether or not we would intercept incoming commercial aircraft."
NBC's Tim Russert: "And you decided?"
Cheney: "We decided to do it. We'd, in effect, put a flying combat air
patrol up over the city; F-16s with an AWACS, which is an airborne radar
system, and tanker support so they could stay up a long time ...
"It doesn't do any good to put up a combat air patrol if you don't give them
instructions to act, if, in fact, they feel it's appropriate."
Russert: "So if the United States government became aware that a hijacked
commercial airline[r] was destined for the White House or the Capitol, we
would take the plane down?"
Cheney: "Yes. The president made the decision ... that if the plane would
not divert ... as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them
out. Now, people say, you know, that's a horrendous decision to make. Well,
it is. You've got an airplane full of American citizens, civilians, captured
by ... terrorists, headed and are you going to, in fact, shoot it down,
obviously, and kill all those Americans on board?
"... It's a presidential-level decision, and the president made, I think,
exactly the right call in this case, to say, I wished we'd had combat air
patrol up over New York.'"
Earlier stories:
The downing of Flight 93
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38207
Was United Flight 93 shot down Sept. 11?
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30682
'Fighting knife' found in wreckage of Flight 93
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26923
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APFN posting Leads to More Flight 93 coverup!
=================================
9/11 was a combination of older terror drills, NOT wargames! Major parts had
been also tested during Amalgam Virgo 01 (June 2001) and during three until
recently lesser-known drills in Westmore County, Buffalo and Dayton. These
three drills had odd similarities with the fate of Flight 77, Flight 11,
Flight 175 and Flight 93.
Flight 93 aka N591UA, Westmore County drill
My story of Flight 93 aka N591UA starts already on June 12, 2001. On this
weekend the Pittsburgh-area emergency personnel of Westmoreland County, the
area around Shanksville, had already participated in full-scale
mock-disaster drills. Once again, these drills had nothing to do with "wargames",
but clearly have to be defined and distinguished as anti-terror drills:
Tribune-Review reported on the weekend of June 19th, 2001, that the U.S.
Department of Defense spent nearly $23,000 to stage a 3-hour event which was
called "Exercise Mall Strike 2001":
"...Participants in the anti-terrorist drill responded to a fictitious
report of an explosion at the Greengate Mall. Mock victims at the scene were
treated for exposure to chemical or biological contaminations...".
Possibly, either connected with the mall drill in the same time period or,
as reported by Pittsburgh Tribune, a few weeks later, Westmore County held
another training drill simulating a terrorist attack.
One of the responsible participants: Daniel Stevens, public information
officer for Westmoreland County's Department of Public Safety . The very
same Daniel Stevens also confirmed on the morning of September 11 that the
county's 911 call center received a call from a man aboard United Flight 93
over Pittsburgh at 9:58 a.m., who claimed he was locked in a bathroom
MUCH MORE:>>
http://www.cosmicpenguin.com/911/bradm/911index/index.html