Thursday, July 21, 2005
Mindy Kleinberg Deserves Answers!
Today, Raw Story, among other things, reports on more London bombings, more investigation details that will undoubtedly be revised over and over again the next few days, and that the NYPD is checking bags and backpacks at the subways, perhaps at the turnstiles.
But there's another article at Raw Story that I'd like to highlight: "Families who fought for 9/11 commission declare it a failure."
Raw Story reports:
"Several widows whose husbands were killed on 9/11 have excoriated the report issued by the 9/11 Commission on the first anniversary of the commission's report, and have joined with other activists to call for a more thorough investigation. They plan a press conference in the National Press Club Friday afternoon, particularly aimed at independent media and the foreign press corps."
The Raw Story also posted a press release about the D.C. Emergency Truth Convergence. Here's the "what" from the urgent ad hoc group, formed by "key players from 9/11 family and advocate groups" with "planning advisors" such as Dr. Bob Bowman of Veterans for Peace, Steve Cobble of afterdowningstreet.org, and Former Oklahoma Representative Charles Key of the Oklahoma City Bombing Commission:
"A historic convergence of truth groups, whistle-blowers, indie media and the foreign press to expose and counter the government's most lethal lies and mainstream media complicity. The event series is designed to play off and maximize the impact of Rep. Cynthia McKinney's 7/22 informal congressional briefing "The 9/11 Commission Report One Year Later: A Citizens Response - Did They Get It Right?" and the 7/23 third anniversary of the Downing Street Memo. Our events will include National Press Club presentations, a Lafayette Park 911/war deceit rally, a dance/concert, and a strategy summit among truth movement leaders, veteran & victim family groups, indie media activists and international journalists."
Mindy Kleinberg is one of the 9/11 widows involved with this event, so I'm reposting this part of an article that I wrote a few weeks ago:
On March 23, 2003, Mindy Kleinberg spoke at the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which was investigating the 9/11 attacks. Kleinberg's husband, Alan, worked in the north tower of the World Trade Center for Cantor Fitzgerald and was killed on September 11th. As it says at the bottom of the transcript of her statement (cache link):
"Mindy Kleinberg is a founding member of September 11th Advocates, a family advocacy group that spearheaded the grassroots effort for the establishment of the independent commission on September 11th."
Mindy Kleinberg's testimony didn't get much airtime in the media, but she raised many questions surrounding the events of 9/11 that have yet to be answered to this day. In particular, Kleinberg mentioned one of the "war games" scheduled for that fateful morning (there were as many as four that were due to take place across the country) in relation to the still unexplained collapse of N.O.R.A.D.:
"Prior to 9/11, FAA and Department of Defense Manuals gave clear, comprehensive instructions on how to handle everything from minor emergencies to full blown hijackings."
"These "protocols" were in place and were practiced regularly for a good reason--with heavily trafficked air space; airliners without radio and transponder contact are collisions and/or calamities waiting to happen."
"Those protocols dictate that in the event of an emergency, the FAA is to notify NORAD. Once that notification takes place, it is then the responsibility of NORAD to scramble fighter-jets to intercept the errant plane(s). It is a matter of routine procedure for fighter-jets to "intercept" commercial airliners in order to regain contact with the pilot."
"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."
"Let me illustrate using just flight 11 as an example."
"American Airline Flight 11 departed from Boston Logan Airport at 7:45 a.m. The last routine communication between ground control and the plane occurred at 8:13 a.m. Between 8:13 and 8:20 a.m. Flight 11 became unresponsive to ground control. Additionally, radar indicated that the plane had deviated from its assigned path of flight. Soon thereafter, transponder contact was lost - (although planes can still be seen on radar - even without their transponders)."
"Two Flight 11 airline attendants had separately called American Airlines reporting a hijacking, the presence of weapons, and the infliction of injuries on passengers and crew. At this point, it would seem abundantly clear that Flight 11 was an emergency."
"Yet, according to NORAD's official timeline, NORAD was not contacted until 20 minutes later at 8:40 a.m. Tragically the fighter jets were not deployed until 8:52 a.m. -- a full 32 minutes after the loss of contact with flight 11."
"Why was there a delay in the FAA notifying NORAD? Why was there a delay in NORAD scrambling fighter jets? How is this possible when NEADS was fully staffed with planes at the ready and monitoring our Northeast airspace?"
"Flight's 175, 77 and 93 all had this same repeat pattern of delays in notification and delays in scrambling fighter jets. Delays that are unimaginable considering a plane had, by this time, already hit the WTC."
"Even more baffling for us is the fact that the fighter jets were not scrambled from the closest air force bases. For example, for the flight that hit the Pentagon, the jets were scrambled from Langley Air Force in Hampton, Virginia rather than Andrews Air Force Base right outside D.C. As a result, Washington skies remained wholly unprotected on the morning of September 11th. At 9:41 a.m. one hour and 11 minutes after the first plane was hijack confirmed by NORAD, Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. The fighter jets were still miles away. Why?"
"So the hijackers luck had continued. On September 11th both the FAA and NORAD deviated from standard emergency operating procedures .Who were the people that delayed the notification? Have they been questioned? In addition, the interceptor planes or fighter jets did not fly at their maximum speed."
"Had the belatedly scrambled fighter jets flown at their maximum speed of engagement, MACH-2, they would have reached NYC and the Pentagon within moments of their deployment, intercepted the hijacked airliners before they could have hit their targets, and undoubtedly saved lives."
Too many Americans are afraid to ask questions. So are too many journalists and bloggers.
For some unexplained reason, there have been no major investigations on the hundreds of sidestories in the mainstream media since a few months after the attacks. Aside from stories that some might say are "conspiracy theories", there are many other things that the press can look at, but choose not to.
Why?
Mindy Kleinberg deserves answers to her questions. So does the world.
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