Raw Story: Rummy deserted his post on 9/11.

[Bushwick Bill]

Big shocker. Per Andrew Cockburn's new book on Rummy.

We know Rumsfeld was in his office in the Pentagon, we know he was seen helping at least one of the wounded after the Pentagon was smashed by the third hijacked plane, and we know that he was the one who fronted the cameras hours before President Bush and "impressed viewers" with his "calm demeanour".

<snip>

Rumsfeld also chose to ignore "anxious pleas" from the military to go immediately to the operational command centre. America was clearly under attack, but where was the defence secretary?

When he finally arrived at the command centre, the United States had been under attack for than two hours and the last hijacked airliner, United 93, had already crashed into a field.

The defence secretary took no part in US military operations on the morning of the most destructive attacks ever launched against the United States.
http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fyournewreality.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F03%2Frumsfeld-deserted-his-post-on-morning.html

[tanyev]

1. Yes! It's about time this got more sunshine.

The ONLY person in the country who had the authority to relay a presidential shoot-down order was outside playing Florence Nightingale.

In an age when an enemy attack might allow only a few minutes for detection and reaction, control of American military power became vested in the National Command Authority, which consists of the president and the secretary of defense. Collectively, the NCA is the ultimate source of military orders, uniquely empowered, among other things, to order the use of nuclear weapons. In time of war, therefore, Rumsfeld was effectively the president's partner, the direct link to the fighting forces, and all orders had to go through him.

At 9:39 A.M. that morning, just over a minute after the Pentagon was hit, the navy captain in charge of the command center announced on the "air threat conference call" that had just begun that "an air attack on North America may be in progress," and asked that the secretary of defense come to the center. A few minutes later, the secretary's office reported back that he was nowhere to be found. The chain of command was broken.

In fact, Rumsfeld was at the crash site, though eventually it occurred to him that he might perhaps be in the wrong place: "... at some moment I decided I should be in here," he told Parade magazine in his office a month later, "figuring out what to do, because your brain begins to connect things."

Rumsfeld was back in the building by ten o'clock, but despite the anxious pleas from the military, he did not go to the command center. Instead, he headed for his office, where he spoke to President Bush, though afterward neither man could recall what they discussed. Next, in his words, he moved to "a room about 30 yards away here in this building ... that's sealable." That would have been the Executive Support Center, conference rooms "secure" against electronic eavesdropping right next door to the military command center.

[soulcore]

2. MIHOP. n/t

[tanyev]

14. Yeah, it's pretty sad when the best construction you can put on something is "dereliction of duty".

[SpiralHawk]

17. MIHOP Gigadittoes

eom

[MLFerrell]

25. MIHOP terradittoes.

Your move, kemosabe.

[SpiralHawk]

29. MIHOP double terradittoes

of course

[Done]

3. "neither man could recall what they discussed"

Damn...how do you forget something like that? I still remember details from that day.

[redqueen]

8. The same way poppy bush doesn't recall where he was when Kennedy was shot.

On purpose, in other words.

[WinkyDink]

12. One doesn't; one lies by claiming so.

[donkeyotay]

24. A partial transcript has been recovered

Preznit: I didn't know it was going to be this big.

Rrrumsfeld: Henny Penny the sky is falling.

Preznit: I'll never be able to pull it off.

Rrrumsfeld: Nattoring nabobs of negativity.

Preznit: I've got to go have a drink.

[Morgana LaFey]

15. Wasn't he also the only one who could

scramble planes? If not, what exactly was the change in line of authority that took place just months prior to 9-11, that made him the go-to guy?

[tanyev]

16. Found this:

The 9/11 Commission Report failed to adequately address the reasons for the belated and ineffective pursuit of the hijacked airliners by Air Force or Air National Guard fighters on 9/11. No mention was made of the standard operating procedures (SOP) of the FAA in effect prior to June 2001, which required the immediate scrambling of fighters to follow or intercept any aircraft that deviated from its flight plan and was out of communication with air traffic controllers. In June 2001, a new directive (CJCSI 3510.01A) was issued requiring the approval of the Secretary of Defense in each instance before fighters could be scrambled.

No mention was made of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction (CJCSI) 3510.01A, issued on June 1, 2001. This directive lays out a significantly longer line of communication and approvals required to intercept hijacked aircraft than before, extending all the way to the Secretary of Defense and only then to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The report did not mention that this new protocol superseded the earlier SOP's, nor did the report explore the possible reasons for issuing this new directive, just three months before the 9/11 attacks.

Without mentioning the CJCSI 3510.01A directive by name, or noting that this protocol was put into place only in June 2001, the report describes without comment (on pages 17?18) the lengthy procedure that the new protocol (CJCSI 3510.01A) specified to obtain approval for scrambling fighters to intercept hijacked airplanes, as follows:

The FAA headquarters had a hijack coordinator who was the director of the FAA Office of Civil Aviation or his/her designate. If a hijack was confirmed, he/she would contact the Pentagon's National Military Command Center (NMCC) to ask for a military escort aircraft to follow the flight. The NMCC would seek approval from the Office of the Secretary of Defense to provide military assistance. If approval was given by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the orders would be transmitted to NORAD to implement. The protocols did not contemplate an intercept, but the scrambled fighters would be vectored to a position five miles directly behind the hijacked aircraft to monitor the aircraft's path.

http://www.witnessforpeace.org/midatlantic/Articles/Critique_by_acm.html

[glitch]

20. Excellent article, thanks for posting. Kind of undercuts the incompetence defense doesn't it?

Edit: the comments under the Rawstory article are work reading too.

[Morgana LaFey]

28. THAT's IT! Rummy away from his desk, the only one who could

scramble jets.

Of course, we also know that those "jets" were otherwise occupied anyway, many of them quite confused about what the hell was going on that day since they just happened to be in parallel "practice" exercises.

Thanks for finding this!

Here's a thought. Now we can begin to draw up a list of POSSIBLE suspects in the conspiracy:

No mention was made of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction (CJCSI) 3510.01A, issued on June 1, 2001. This directive lays out a significantly longer line of communication and approvals required to intercept hijacked aircraft than before, extending all the way to the Secretary of Defense and only then to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The report did not mention that this new protocol superseded the earlier SOP's, nor did the report explore the possible reasons for issuing this new directive, just three months before the 9/11 attacks.

Yeah, I'd be REAL interested to hear the official "reasons" for this change in protocol, wouldn't you?

[paparush]

26. Maybe Kucinic will address this in his upcoming 9/11 hearings...

[The Doctor.]

4. Doesn't prove much. eom

[Bushwick Bill]

5. Maybe not, how about Mineta's testimony regarding Cheney?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDfdOwt2v3Y

[CJCRANE]

11. Yes

and from what I gather - Cheney did not have the authority to give or rescind a shootdown order. Only the SecDef and President had that authority, which makes it doubly strange that Cheney seemed to take command on 9/11.

[Flarney]

22. I'm more concerned about the apparent "stand down" order that day... n/t

[The Doctor.]

30. Interesting.

So many little coincidences.

[JackRiddler]

9. Proves dereliction of duty...

Add Bush, Myers, Eberhard, Mies and Winfield all acting in similarly derelict fashion and you have a pattern.

[Roland99]

6. So, this is now a known unknown?

[druidity33]

7. heh, heh... good one. n/t

[Rex]

10. I've read accounts that would place him at two separate events

at the same time during 911. It is in the Dungeon if anyone wants to crawl around for it. The info is about 3 years old.

[WinkyDink]

13. You're protected by the Defense Secretary you have, not the Defense Secretary you want.

[KittyWampus]

18. now that goes to the heart of the matter.

[SpiralHawk]

19. Rummy was just following the lead of repulicon Commander AWOL

If the republicon Commander can go AWOL, so can all the republicon minions.

And almost all Americans know George Bush went AWOL -- as usual -- on 9/11.

[Flarney]

21. MIHOP n/t

[helderheid]

23. k & r

[yardwork]

27. If true, this is very interesting news

"But according to a new book. 'Rumsfeld' by Andrew Cockburn, the then defence secretary was so unconcerned, and unsurprised, after learning that two jet airliners had crashed into the World Trade Centre towers that he continued with regular CIA briefing."