Gold9472
07-25-2005, 10:02 PM
DOD rehearsed plane hitting Pentagon
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040422-090447-8354r.htm
April 22, 2004
Washington, DC, Apr. 22 (UPI) -- Pentagon and Arlington, Va., emergency responders rehearsed how they would respond if a plane crashed into the Pentagon in October 2000, less than a year before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
The scenario did not necessarily involve a hijacked aircraft. It addresses only a crash and the effect on the ground response team.
But the scenario, taken as a whole with other recent revelations of intelligence warnings abut hijacking and military exercises that contemplated hijacked planes hitting landmark buildings, casts further doubt on national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's claim that no one could have anticipated a Sept. 11-like disaster.
"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile -- a hijacked airplane as a missile," Rice said at a White House briefing in May 2002.
President George W. Bush said if he had had better and more specific intelligence suggesting such an attack was planned he would have done more to prevent it.
"Make no mistake about it: If we'd have known that the enemy was going to fly airplanes into our buildings, we would have done everything in our power to stop it," Bush said April 5.
Earlier this month, the North American Aerospace Defense Command admitted it rehearsed a scenario before 2001 in which a simulated hijacked airliner originating at a foreign airport crashed into a recognizable American building. NORAD did not say whether in the scenario the plane was intentionally crashed into the building.
The White House also released the contents of an Aug. 4 "presidential daily briefing" that said al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden may have been planning to hijack a plane, and the FBI reported "suspicious activity" consistent with a hijacking or other attack, including observed surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
Moreover, in 2001 Attorney General John Ashcroft received a threat assessment by the FBI advising him to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term, CBS News reported just months before the Sept. 11 hijackings.
The Oct. 24-26, 2000 Pentagon Mass Casualty Exercise, part of an annual emergency response rehearsal, envisioned a commercial airliner crashing into the Pentagon, killing 341 victims. The Pentagon is less than a mile from Reagan National Airport and is daily in the flight path of small commuter planes. Larger airliners generally fly to the east of the massive building over the Potomac River.
Other scenarios rehearsed included a terrorist "incident" at the Pentagon subway stop and a construction accident.
"This is important so that we're better prepared," an Army nurse said at the time, according to the Army Web site. "This is to work out the bugs. Hopefully, it will never happen, but this way we're prepared."
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040422-090447-8354r.htm
April 22, 2004
Washington, DC, Apr. 22 (UPI) -- Pentagon and Arlington, Va., emergency responders rehearsed how they would respond if a plane crashed into the Pentagon in October 2000, less than a year before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
The scenario did not necessarily involve a hijacked aircraft. It addresses only a crash and the effect on the ground response team.
But the scenario, taken as a whole with other recent revelations of intelligence warnings abut hijacking and military exercises that contemplated hijacked planes hitting landmark buildings, casts further doubt on national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's claim that no one could have anticipated a Sept. 11-like disaster.
"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile -- a hijacked airplane as a missile," Rice said at a White House briefing in May 2002.
President George W. Bush said if he had had better and more specific intelligence suggesting such an attack was planned he would have done more to prevent it.
"Make no mistake about it: If we'd have known that the enemy was going to fly airplanes into our buildings, we would have done everything in our power to stop it," Bush said April 5.
Earlier this month, the North American Aerospace Defense Command admitted it rehearsed a scenario before 2001 in which a simulated hijacked airliner originating at a foreign airport crashed into a recognizable American building. NORAD did not say whether in the scenario the plane was intentionally crashed into the building.
The White House also released the contents of an Aug. 4 "presidential daily briefing" that said al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden may have been planning to hijack a plane, and the FBI reported "suspicious activity" consistent with a hijacking or other attack, including observed surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
Moreover, in 2001 Attorney General John Ashcroft received a threat assessment by the FBI advising him to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term, CBS News reported just months before the Sept. 11 hijackings.
The Oct. 24-26, 2000 Pentagon Mass Casualty Exercise, part of an annual emergency response rehearsal, envisioned a commercial airliner crashing into the Pentagon, killing 341 victims. The Pentagon is less than a mile from Reagan National Airport and is daily in the flight path of small commuter planes. Larger airliners generally fly to the east of the massive building over the Potomac River.
Other scenarios rehearsed included a terrorist "incident" at the Pentagon subway stop and a construction accident.
"This is important so that we're better prepared," an Army nurse said at the time, according to the Army Web site. "This is to work out the bugs. Hopefully, it will never happen, but this way we're prepared."