'There is a fighter in the area. Should we engage?'
Norm Mineta - U.S. Secretary of Transportation 2001 - 2006. U.S. Secretary of Commerce 2000 - 2001. Senior Vice President, Lockheed Martin 1995 - 2000. Former 12-term Congressman from California 1971 - 1995. Currently, Vice Chairman of the Board, Hill & Knowlton.
9/11 Commission testimony 5/23/03:
Lee Hamilton: We thank you for that. I wanted to focus just a moment on the Presidential Emergency Operating Center [PEOC]. You were there for a good part of the day. I think you were there with the vice president. And when you had that order given, I think it was by the president, that authorized the shooting down of commercial aircraft that were suspected to be controlled by terrorists, were you there when that order was given?
Norm Mineta: No, I was not. I was made aware of it during the time that the airplane coming into the Pentagon. There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, "The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to, "The plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" Well, at the time I didn't know what all that meant. And --
Lee Hamilton: The flight you're referring to is the --
Norm Mineta: The flight that came into the Pentagon. ... http://www.youtube.com
Norm Mineta: I didn't know about the order to shoot down. I arrived at the PEOC at about 9:20 a.m. And the president was in Florida, and I believe he was on his way to Louisiana at that point when the conversation that went on between the vice president and the president and the staff that the president had with him.
Tim Roemer: So when you arrived at 9:20 [at the Presidential Emergency Operating Center in the White House], how much longer was it before you overheard the conversation between the young man and the vice president saying, "Does the order still stand?"
Norm Mineta: Probably about five or six minutes.
Tim Roemer: So about 9:25 or 9:26. And your inference was that the vice president snapped his head around and said, "Yes, the order still stands." Why did you infer that that was a shoot-down? http://www.youtube.com
Editor's note: Secretary Mineta's testimony is entirely omitted from the 9/11 Commission Report. His testimony directly contradicts the 9/11 Commission Report in two key points.
1. Mr. Mineta testified he arrived at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) in the White House at 9:20 a.m. and overheard Vice President Dick Cheney discussing with an aide that the incoming Flight 77 was 50 miles out at 9:25 or 9:26. The 9/11 Commission Report maintains Vice President Cheney did not arrive at the PEOC until 9:58, over one-half hour later. Mr. Mineta's testimony is further supported by the fact that Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37, which is the correct time it would have taken Flight 77 to arrive at the Pentagon, if it had been about 50 miles out at 9:26.
2. The Commission Report maintains the government did not know the whereabouts of Flight 77 prior 9:32, when Dulles Tower air controllers "observed a primary radar target tracking eastbound at a high rate of speed". Mr. Mineta's testimony reveals Vice President Cheney was being informed of the plane's position for several minutes before that, and perhaps considerably longer.
Also of interest, is that the first approximately 15 minutes of Mr. Mineta's testimony before the Commission (Panel 1, Friday, May 23. 2003) during which he discusses the points mentioned above, have been edited out of the official 9/11 Commission video archives. However, his entire testimony does appear in the transcript.
Bio: http://www.nndb.com/people/649/000024577/
May 1, 2007
by John C. Ekonomou
Attorney at Law
B.A. Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago
J.D. Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Lansing, Michigan
RemoveThisBeforeMailing-atty1chgo@yahoo.com
Source: journalof911studies.com
Excerpts from 9/11 Commission Testimony, May 23, 2003
NORAD Major General Larry Arnold’s testimony and verbal exchanges with Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton of the 9/11 Commission.
Page 47-48 of the official 9/11 Commission PDF file transcript
MR. HAMILTON:
And then, finally, as I understand your testimony, it was not possible to shoot down any of these aircraft before they struck. Is that basically correct?
GEN. ARNOLD: That is correct. In fact, the American Airlines 77, if we were to have arrived overhead at that particular point, I don't think that we would have shot that aircraft down.
MR. HAMILTON: Because?
GEN. ARNOLD: Well, we had not been given authority
. . .
"In addition, Norman Mineta’s testimony before the Commission confirms General Arnold’s statement regarding the shoot down order, as evidenced in this exchange on page 9 of the official transcript:"
MR. HAMILTON: With respect to Flight 93, what type of information were you and the Vice President receiving about that flight?
MR. MINETA: The only information we had at that point was when it crashed.
MR. HAMILTON: I see. You didn't know beforehand about that airplane.
MR. MINETA: I did not.
MR. HAMILTON: And so there was no specific order there to shoot that plane down?
MR. MINETA: No, sir.
MR. HAMILTON: But there were military planes in the air in position to shoot down commercial aircraft.
MR. MINETA: That's right. The planes had been scrambled, I believe, from Otis at that point.
"... this account effectively further points to a shoot down order for Flight 77 not being issued prior to the Pentagon strike at 9:37 a.m., as confirmed by General Arnold of NORAD in his sworn testimony.
"The facts as stated above: the non-existence of a shoot down order until after 10:00 a.m., or in either event not prior to the Pentagon strike at 9:37 a.m. as confirmed by NORAD in sworn testimony, and further confirmed by Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta who was present in the PEOC with Vice President Cheney, further confirm the following:
"That the Vice-President of the United States, Richard Cheney, with full knowledge of the fact that a hijacked passenger jet airliner was hurtling toward Washington D.C., with full knowledge of its distance at regular intervals of a minimum of 50 miles out from the Capitol, in fact not only did not act to intercept or shoot down the airliner despite the two earlier hijacked planes hitting the World Trade Center, but issued a direct order to the U.S. Air Force, either by himself or from the President of the United States, NOT to shoot down Flight 77 prior to it hitting the Pentagon."
-- John C. Ekonomou, Attorney at Law, Further evidence that Vice President Cheney’s order on 9/11 regarding Flight 77 was not a shoot-down order, but a standdown order - an order NOT to shoot the plane down, May 1, 2007 --
"After 4+ years of research since retirement in 2002, I am 100% convinced that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were planned, organized, and committed by treasonous perpetrators that have infiltrated the highest levels of our government."
-- Lt. Col. Guy S. Razer, MS, U.S. Air Force (ret) – Retired U.S. Air Force fighter pilot (F-111, F-15E, F-16, B-1, F-18, Mig-29, and Suu-22). Flew combat missions over Iraq. Former instructor at the USAF Fighter Weapons School and NATO’s Tactical Leadership Program. 20-year Air Force career, www.patriotsquestion911.com --
"In my experience as an officer in NORAD as a Tactical Director for the Chicago-Milwaukee Air Defense and as a current private pilot ... there is no way that an aircraft on instrument flight plans would not be intercepted when they deviate from their flight plan, turn off their transponders, or stop communication with Air Traffic Control. No way! With very bad luck, perhaps one could slip by, but no there's no way all four of them could!"
-- Capt. Daniel Davis, U.S. Army – Former U.S. Army Air Defense Officer and NORAD Tac Director. Decorated with the Bronze Star and the Soldiers Medal for bravery under fire and the Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Vietnam. Also served in the Army Air Defense Command as Nike Missile Battery Control Officer for the Chicago-Milwaukee Defense Area. Former Senior Manager at General Electric Turbine (jet) Engine Division (15 years). Private pilot, www.patriotsquestion911.com --
