"Agency planned exercise on Sept. 11..."

[xultar]

"Agency planned exercise on Sept. 11 built around a plane crashing into a building"

By John J. Lumpkin, Associated Press

WASHINGTON  "In what the government describes as a bizarre coincidence, one U.S. intelligence agency was planning an exercise last Sept. 11 in which an errant aircraft would crash into one of its buildings. But the cause wasn't terrorism -- it was to be a simulated accident.

"Officials at the Chantilly, Va.-based National Reconnaissance Office had scheduled an exercise that morning in which a small corporate jet would crash into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building after experiencing a mechanical failure.

The agency is about four miles from the runways of Washington Dulles International Airport. Adding to the coincidence, American Airlines Flight 77 -- the Boeing 767 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon -- took off from Dulles at 8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 50 minutes before the exercise was to begin. It struck the Pentagon around 9:40 a.m., killing 64 aboard the plane and 125 on the ground.

The National Reconnaissance Office operates many of the nation's spy satellites. It draws its personnel from the military and the CIA. --Boston Globe Archives

http://www.boston.com/news/packages/sept11/anniversary/wire_stories/0903_plane_exercise.htm
http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs04/0514_coincidence.html

[myrna minx]

1. Do you have a link?

Thanks.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Link

http://www.boston.com/news/packages/sept11/anniversary/wire_stories/0903_plane_exercise.htm

[stickdog]

4. Link

http://www.boston.com/news/packages/sept11/anniversary/wire_stories/0903_plane_exercise.htm

[Abe Linkman]

3. NOT " a bizzare coincidence" - rather, it was part of the PLOT.

This so-called exercise was a planned cover story. It was part of the plot, right the beginning.

[Terwilliger]

5. kick

[tom_paine]

6. You'll have to explain that one...

How does it benefit the Busheviks to stage an exercise of exactly what happened the day it happened?

If anything, that smells funny as hell. What cover could it possibly provide in return?

[skypilot]

7. I think...

...it involves providing cover for Bush and Co. if they were asked why there wasn't a more prompt response on 9/11. They could then say that they were confused and thought the reports they were getting were actually referring to this exercise and not to an actual attack. At least, I think that's what I've read in other threads. I don't dismiss the possibility out of hand. In fact, I've read some of the testimony given to the 9/11 commission and there is actually an Air Force general, Gen.Larry Arnold, who claims that even after the SECOND crash at the WTC that he still wasn't sure this was an attack. He perceived it as a "pattern". Yeah, right.

[Capn Sunshine]

21. It's a plausable denial for why no jets scrambled

too bad this hasn't occured to them yet.

Hey, why WERE no jets scrambled that day?

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. Just more tinfoil hat conspiracy chemtrails evildoers who hate freedom

that's all you need to know, you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

[skypilot]

9. kick

:kick:

[gandalf]

11. you will confuse people with your sarcasm

... but you are right.

[DuctapeFatwa]

19. Since it 's been 2 yrs and no one has stormed the White House

I think "confused" is a very polite and tactful adjective to use.

[gandalf]

10. I think the original link still exists

I think you can find it (on an "official" site) in then paul thompson timeline (cooperativeresearch.org).

[Braden]

12. wow they simulated the shit out of that one!

nothing unusual folks. Just normal stuff, that it actually happened random coincidence. Really. everyday fare.

[Tansy_Gold]

13. I'm assuming you already know about the

Military District of Washington exercise involving the crash of a 747 into the Pentagon?

[Ouabache]

14. Yeah I had not heard about the one in Virginia

but I had heard about the exercise at the Pentagon for that day !

So now there were TWO exercises in progress on 911 that were a simulated 911 type of occurrence???

COuld it be the real plotters found out about the exercises both planned for the same day, and said, "well, there would be a good day to do it." "They won't be able to figure out reality from a simulation until it is too late."

Then again what are the odds that TWO exercises of a similar type were planned for the same day, AND the actual 911 plotters found out about them? So it has to be just more coincidence, right?

[Tansy_Gold]

18. No, the Military District exercise was earlier, much earlier

It took me a while to find the files; I've changed computers since then, and I don't have everything, but did find most of it.

The Military District of Washington had the details of a simulation exercise on their website up until a few days after 9/11. The pix showed table-top-size models with an intact passenger jet sitting in the courtyard of the Pentagon. An intact passenger jet could not land in the courtyard; the scenario was in marked contrast to the plane that slammed into the exterior of the Pentagon on 9/11 and disintegrated, leading to all the conspiracy/there really was no plane/etc. theories.

Several people started spreading the MDW site info around, and the website was taken down.

But this exercise took place LONG before 9/11, according to the report at http://www.mdw.army.mil/news/Contingency_Planning.html, which is the link I show on my files but which may no longer be operative. In fact, the exercise took place in late October 2000, nearly a YEAR before 9/11. (Of course, this was also before the aWol asshole was installed on the throne, so probably much of the information was jettisoned as not worthy of Condi's notice.)

The point was that it included specifically the possibility of a commercial civilian airliner, not a small private plane, crashing into the Pentagon, a complete contradiction of Rice's statement that no one could possibly have imagined terrorists flying planes into buildings.

<snip>
Washington, D.C., Nov. 3, 2000 — The fire and smoke from the downed
passenger aircraft billows from the Pentagon courtyard. Defense
Protective Services Police seal the crash sight. Army medics, nurses
and doctors scramble to organize aid. An Arlington Fire Department
chief dispatches his equipment to the affected areas.

<snip>
On Oct. 24, there was a mock terrorist incident at the Pentagon Metro stop and a construction accident to name just some of the scenarios that were practiced to better prepare local agencies for real incidents.

<snip>
"We go over scenarios that are germane to the Pentagon," Jake Burrell of the Pentagon Emergency Management Team said. 'You play the way you practice. We want people to go back to their organizations and look at their S.O.P. (standard operating procedure) and see how they responded to any of the incidents." Burrell has coordinated these exercises for four years and he remarked that his team gets better each year.
<end>

Edited to add -- The url listed above is live and it does link to photos of the simulated crash.

[Snazzy]

20. Exactly

These simulated attacks best refute Condi's oft repeated soundbite about how they never envisioned planes being used as cruise missles.

As do, in a similar vein, one (maybe two?) different counter-terrorism white papers featuring the WTCs in the cross-hairs. Add their previous '93 bombing, add the terrorist who wanted to fly one into Langely (or the 10 simultaneous hijackings chatter). Hell, throw in the Clancy book.

But, no, Condi says we never saw it coming.

[Abaques]

15. Thats nice and all....

But it doesn't even rise to the level of circumstancial evidence supporting LIHOP/MIHOP.

While I definetly want a full investigation of *everything* invovling 9-11 to be performed, it must be done by experts and it must happen after we have taken back the White House. We won't be able to get the information we need until Bushco is out.

Until then, LIHOP/MIHOP remains a red herring until someone provides real hard physical and verifiable proof or can provide verifiable testimony as to a conspiracy. Nothing less will hold any water.

[Sterling]

17. I disagree

I think the citizens watch and carious 9-11 activists have been in front of this issue from day one. If you are waiting for our pink tutu's to handle this you will be disappointed.

You are also mistaken in your view that there is not already enough circumstantial evidence to warrant an immediate impeachment of the Bush administration. We went way past the point where a special council would have been in order long ago.

Maybe this one piece in and of itself is not a “smoking gun” but combined with all the other evidence it makes a damning case against government complicity.

The problem is not that there is not evidence available it is that we have no leaders willing to acknowledge it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

16. Yep.

It remains my biggest question of that day. No tinfoil. Just wondering.

[grasswire]

22. this is old news

Just google the words NRO drill Dulles and you'll get hits on it.

However, the most comprehensive page seems to have been removed. It was at projectcensored.com. That's spooky.

What Lumpkin doesn't say is that the drill was reportedly under the management of Cheney, who was in the situation room of the WH to observe the event.

This, I believe, is the most important key to the unanswered questions. It's the key to why Bush didn't react in the school room. It's the key to why the secret service stood down. It's the key to the standdown of agencies.

[grasswire]

23. AND............

....given the fact that such a drill would provide reasonable defenses for the WH against criticism of unreadiness, WHY has the story been blacked out?

[GeronimoSkull]

24. great question

*kick*