FAA Foot Dragging? (On providing records of 9/11 to commission)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/980701.asp?0cv=CB10

The federal commission investigating the September 11 terror attacks has approved subpoenaing the Federal Aviation Administration after learning about the existence of potentially important tapes, radar records and other materials about the events of that day that the agency had failed to turn over, NEWSWEEK has learned.

THE BELATED discovery of the FAA tapes and other material infuriated some members of the commission and raised new fears that foot-dragging by federal agencies and the White House may make it impossible for the panel to complete its work by its legally imposed deadline next May. At an emergency meeting on Tuesday night, the commissioners unanimously agreed to issue the subpoenas—the first time it has taken such a step since it began its work late last year, commission sources said.

“This is a shocking display of inattention at best,” Richard Ben-Veniste, a commission member told NEWSWEEK, about the FAA’s failure to turn over the material. “It’s simply unacceptable for us to labor under a deadline and have a lack of compliance” such as that exhibited by the FAA.

The newly discovered tapes are potentially significant evidence related to the U.S. government’s response to the September 11 attacks. Of most immediate importance to the commission: when precisely was the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) notified that the country was under a terrorist attack? Investigators want to know whether the Bush White House and the U.S. military could have acted more quickly to—at a minimum—intercept American Airlines Flight 77, the hijacked aircraft that slammed into the Pentagon at 9:38 a.m., after both World Trade Center towers had been hit.

<snip>
...Investigators want to know why, for example, the FAA wasn’t already on alert for a possible hijacking plot and why there was no policy in place that allowed a military response to a domestic hijacking—even after multiple warnings about such a possibility had been given to President Bush and other senior officials during the summer of 2001. Top White House officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and briefly President Bush, participated in an “air-threat conference call” on the morning of September 11—but an order giving the military authority to shoot down hijacked aircraft didn’t come until after the Pentagon crash.

And don't forget to rate story at bottom.

[tom_paine]

1. Newsweek: The Best of a Bad Lot

I guess beggars can't be choosers in Imperial Amerika.

[leftchick]

2. "inattention at best"!!!

give me a fucking break, NO ONE is that naive....

[Flying_Pig]

3. Drip, drip? I wonder why the survivors of 9/11, and the relatives

of those who perished, are not staging mass demostrations calling for the Bush regime's head on a platter? The regime's foot-dragging amounts to obstruction of justice, which is a crime. The Dems should embrace the need for justice here, and loudly call for cooperation on the part of the regime, and call for a Special Prosecutor to investigate obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges. Why aren't they doing this? Their inaction makes it seem like they are complicit too.

The 9/11 folks have a right to the truth, as we all do, and this mis-administration has been foot-dragging and obstructing enough! Time for demostrations, and a media blitz!

:grr:

[Aries]

4. All we want is our questions answered...is that too much to ask?

I take offense at the "conspiracy" tag pinned to those who have legitimate questions. Isn't this more important than what Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky did in the Oval Office?

Maybe if people in towns all over the world met once in a while to discuss these questions, and how to get the answers...maybe if there was a 9-11 Questions Meetup, for example?

[Mike Niendorff]

5. BIG story here.

Another key excerpt:

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In hearings and public statements, NORAD and the FAA have given what commission officials describe as incomplete and at times conflicting answers. At a hearing last May, Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley, commander of NORAD's Continental United States Region, said the Pentagon agency -- which is responsible for the nation's air defenses -- had gotten "official" notification from the FAA that American Airlines Flight 77 had been hijacked at 9:24 a.m., 22 minutes after the second plane hit the World Trade towers.

This led to a NORAD directive to scramble F-16 jets from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to attempt to intercept the aircraft-an order that came too late to prevent the Pentagon crash just a few minutes later.

But commission officials said they recently discovered in the course of interviews with FAA staff that agency officials knew that Flight 77 was off course earlier than that and that there may have been "informal" notice to NORAD; there were even agency tapes of conversations to that effect. Other material, including radar records and internal FAA interview reports and analyses, could also fill in gaps in the time line. What especially angered the commissioners, sources said, was that the FAA had previously indicated that such tapes and records didn't exist and that it had already turned over all relevant material that the commission needed to do its job.

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Can anyone say "bombshell"?

MDN

[DeepModem Mom]

9. "Bombshell," Mike --

Is the 9/11 Commission on its way to the "Heart of Darkness"?

[Minstrel Boy]

10. The Bush gang has been determined all along

to run out the clock on the commission they never wanted.

This should be an international outrage. That it isn't, outrages me.

[cthrumatrix]

6. Simple: Expand the deadline......next problem

We have all our lives to learn how this cabal pulled off this stunt.

[damnraddem]

7. Does the FAA claim 'executive privilege'?

Asleep at the switch, or a switch put to sleep?

[Robb]

8. I'll tell you what

Nobody looked more like they were lying their ass off than Mineta when he gave testimony. Even my wife said, "Man, that guy's not telling everything he knows."

Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, I admit I played his testimony for her on the VCR with the preface "Tell me what you think of this guy."